CHAPTER XVII

THE FIGHT FOR THE MINE

The early approach of winter checked the railroad construction proper, but with the snow came good roads, and contractors were quick to take advantage of the easier methods of transportation furnished by winter roads to establish supply depots along the line, and to open tie camps up in the hills.  And so the old Edmonton Trail was once more humming with life and activity far exceeding that of its palmiest days.

As for Kalman, however, it was the mine that absorbed his attention and his energies.  By day and by night he planned and dreamed and toiled for the development of his mine.  With equal enthusiasm Brown and French joined in this enterprise.  It was French that undertook to deal with all matters pertaining to the organization of a company by which the mine should be operated.  Registration of claim, the securing of capital, the obtaining of charter, all these matters were left in his hands.  A few weeks’ correspondence, however, revealed the fact that for Western enterprises money was exceedingly difficult to secure.  French was eager to raise money by mortgaging his ranch and all his possessions, but this proposal Kalman absolutely refused to consider.  Brown, too, was opposed to this scheme.  Determined that something should be done, French then entered into contracts with the Railroad Company for the supply of ties.  But though he and Mackenzie took a large force into the woods, and spent their three months in arduous toil, when the traders and the whiskey runners had taken their full toll little was left for the development of the mine.

The actual working of the mine fell to Kalman, aided by Brown.  There was an immediate market for coal among the Galicians of the colony, who much preferred it to wood as a fuel for the clay ovens with which they heated their houses.  But they had little money to spare, and hence, at the beginning of the work, Kalman hit upon the device of bartering coal for labour, two days’ work in the mine entitling a labourer to a load of coal.  Brown, too, needed coal for his mill.  At the Crossing there was large demand for coal, while correspondence with the Railroad Company discovered to Kalman a limitless market for the product of his mine.  By outside sales Kalman came to have control of a little ready money, and with this he engaged a small force of Galicians, who, following lines suggested by Brown, pushed in the tunnel, ran cross drifts, laid down a small tramway, and accomplished exploration and development work that appeared to Kalman’s uninstructed eyes wonderful indeed.  The interest of the whole colony centred in the mine and in its development, and the confidence of the people in Kalman’s integrity and efficiency became more and more firmly established.

But Brown was too fully occupied with his own mission to give much of his time to the mine.  The work along the line of construction and in the camps meant sickness and accident, and consequently his hospital accommodation had once more to be increased, and this entailed upon himself and his wife, who acted as matron, a heavy burden of responsibility and of toil.