The Moon Metal Read online

  III

  THE GRAND TETON MINE

  Away on the western border of Wyoming, in the all but inaccessibleheart of the Rocky Mountains, three mighty brothers, "The Big Tetons,"look perpendicularly into the blue eye of Jenny's Lake, lying at thebottom of the profound depression among the mountains called Jackson'sHole. Bracing against one another for support, these remarkable peakslift their granite spires from 12,000 to nearly 14,000 feet into theblue dome that arches the crest of the continent. Their sides, andespecially those of their chief, the Grand Teton, are streaked withglaciers, which shine like silver trappings when the morning sun comesup above the wilderness of mountains stretching away eastward from thehole.

  When the first white men penetrated this wonderful region, and one ofthem bestowed his wife's name upon Jenny's Lake, they were intimidatedby the Grand Teton. It made their flesh creep, accustomed though theywere to rough scrambling among mountain gorges and on the brows ofimmense precipices, when they glanced up the face of the peak, wherethe cliffs fall, one below another, in a series of breathlessdescents, and imagined themselves clinging for dear life to thoseskyey battlements.

  But when, in 1872, Messrs. Stevenson and Langford finally reached thetop of the Grand Teton--the only successful members of a party of ninepractised climbers who had started together from the bottom--theyfound there a little rectangular enclosure, made by piling up rocks,six or seven feet across and three feet in height, bearing evidencesof great age, and indicating that the red Indians had, for someunknown purpose, resorted to the summit of this tremendous peak longbefore the white men invaded their mountains. Yet neither the Indiansnor the whites ever really conquered the Teton, for above the highestpoint that they attained rises a granite buttress, whose smoothvertical sides seemed to them to defy everything but wings.

  Winding across the sage-covered floor of Jackson's Hole runs theShoshone, or Snake River, which takes its rise from Jackson's Lake atthe northern end of the basin, and then, as if shrinking from thethreatening brows of the Tetons, whose fall would block its progress,makes a detour of one hundred miles around the buttressed heights ofthe range before it finds a clear way across Idaho, and so on to theColumbia River and the Pacific Ocean.

  On a July morning, about a month after the visit of Dr. Max Syx to theassembled financiers in New York, a party of twenty horsemen,following a mountain-trail, arrived on the eastern margin of Jackson'sHole, and pausing upon a commanding eminence, with exclamations ofwonder, glanced across the great depression, where lay the shiningcoils of the Snake River, at the towering forms of the Tetons, whoseice-striped cliffs flashed lightnings in the sunshine. Even theimpassive broncos that the party rode lifted their heads inquiringly,and snorted as if in equine astonishment at the magnificent spectacle.

  One familiar with the place would have noticed something, which, tohis mind, would have seemed more surprising than the pageantry of themountains in their morning sun-bath. Curling above one of the wildgorges that cut the lower slopes of the Tetons was a thick blacksmoke, which, when lifted by a passing breeze, obscured the precipiceshalf-way to the summit of the peak.

  Had the Grand Teton become a volcano? Certainly no hunting orexploring party could make a smoke like that. But a word from theleader of the party of horsemen explained the mystery.

  "There is my mill, and the mine is underneath it."

  The speaker was Dr. Syx, and his companions were members of thefinancial congress. When he quitted their presence in New York, withthe promise to return within an hour for their reply, he had no doubtin his own mind what that reply would be. He knew they would accepthis proposition, and they did. No time was then lost in communicatingwith the various governments, and arrangements were quickly perfectedwhereby, in case the inspection of Dr. Syx's mine and its resourcesproved satisfactory, America and Europe should unite in adopting thenew metal as the basis of their coinage. As soon as this stage in thenegotiations was reached, it only remained to send a committee offinanciers and metallurgists, in company with Dr. Syx, to the RockyMountains. They started under the doctor's guidance, completing thelast stage of their journey on horseback.

  "An inspection of the records at Washington," Dr. Syx continued,addressing the horsemen, "will show that I have filed a claim coveringten acres of ground around the mouth of my mine. This was done as soonas I had discovered the metal. The filing of the claim and thesubsequent proceedings which perfected my ownership attracted noattention, because everybody was thinking of the south pole and itsgold-fields."

  The party gathered closer around Dr. Syx and listened to his wordswith silent attention, while their horses rubbed noses and jingledtheir gold-mounted trappings.

  "As soon as I had legally protected myself," he continued, "I employeda force of men, transported my machinery and material across themountains, erected my furnaces, and opened the mine. I was safe fromintrusion, and even from idle curiosity, for the reason I have justmentioned. In fact, so exclusive was the attraction of the newgold-fields that I had difficulty in obtaining workmen, and finally Isent to Africa and engaged negroes, whom I placed in charge oftrustworthy foremen. Accordingly, with half a dozen exceptions, youwill see only black men at the mine."

  "And with their aid you have mined enough metal to supply the mints ofthe world?" asked President Boon.

  "Exactly so," was the reply. "But I no longer employ the large forcewhich I needed at first."

  "How much metal have you on hand? I am aware that you have alreadyanswered this question during our preliminary negotiations, but I askit again for the benefit of some members of our party who were notpresent then."

  "I shall show you to-day," said Dr. Syx, with his curious smile, "2500tons of refined artemisium, stacked in rock-cut vaults under the GrandTeton."

  "And you have dared to collect such inconceivable wealth in oneplace?"

  "You forget that it is not wealth until the people have learned tovalue it, and the governments have put their stamp upon it."

  "True, but how did you arrive at the proper moment?"

  "Easily. I first ascertained that before the Antarctic discoveries theworld contained altogether about 16,000 tons of gold, valued at$450,000 per ton, or $7,200,000,000 worth all told. Now my metalweighs, bulk for bulk, one-quarter as much as gold. It might bereckoned at the same intrinsic value per ton, but I have considered itpreferable to take advantage of the smaller weight of the new metal,which permits us to make coins of the same size as the old ones, butonly one-quarter as heavy, by giving to artemisium four times thevalue per ton that gold had. Thus only 4000 tons of the new metal arerequired to supply the place of the 16,000 tons of gold. The 2500 tonswhich I already have on hand are more than enough for coinage. Therest I can supply as fast as needed."

  The party did not wait for further explanations. They were eager tosee the wonderful mine and the store of treasure. Spurs were applied,and they galloped down the steep trail, forded the Snake River, and,skirting the shore of Jenny's Lake, soon found themselves gazing upthe headlong slopes and dizzy parapets of the Grand Teton. Dr. Syx ledthem by a steep ascent to the mouth of the canyon, above one of whosewalls stood his mill, and where the "Champ! Champ!" of a powerfulengine saluted their ears.