Page 48 of The Heart of Bennet Hollow
“You haven’t touched your coffee, Mr. Drake.” Cook filled the other cups around the table.
“I will. Thank you.” He glanced around at the engineers and electricians surrounding the rectangular table. Men who he’d taken on board in various cities, all in an effort to have this final meeting. He’d pay their return fares within a day or two.
Cook set down a tray of almond bread and the men thanked her. They would be aboard until dawn tomorrow, giving William a few more hours to cement a workable plan, so the food was appreciated.
“So far, we’re six hours into this escapade and making absolutely no progress,” one of the engineers grumbled as he served himself a slice of cake.
Another man scratched a thick crop of dark hair and turned an unlit cigar in his fingers.
“I just think it would be more economical to install a cable system and steam engine,” the man stated.
“Forget this notion of electricity. A mine is too intricate and complicated. Too vast. And in the case of New River, so far removed from any other city, that you would have to build everything from the ground up. It seems a fool’s errand. ”
The other engineers seconded that with a round of grumbles. Again.
The first continued. “Install another cable lift or two. Power it with steam. Not electricity.”
“Hear! Hear!” one of the others said, loosening a striped necktie.
He pointed to the map of the mine. “You can install the boiler here, above ground, then run steel cable down to the main haulage ways. The pit ponies would still haul their carts to the main sections and the ore would be taken out from there by steam. Let that be advancement enough.”
“I do understand the logic,” William responded. “But I want to do away with the labor of the pit ponies.” For all the reasons he’d already explained.
“You mean to run electricity the entire way? All of it?” one of them asked. “In a coal mine? It’s nonsensical. Electricity is not for the masses. It’s for those who can afford it.”
William adjusted his chair. “Maybe it shouldn’t be that way.
” But it would be until men like him—who could afford it—helped to pave the way to ordinary folk who would only ever be able to dream of such a world.
“Think of the electric engines that have rolled out of Baltimore,” William explained.
“That was over ten years ago. Maybe this isn’t as unprecedented as everyone is making it out to be. ”
“Yes, but that was in an advancing city,” the man with the cigar countered.
“Not a coal town that will soon fade off the map and be forgotten about. A place no one has ever heard of or cares to hear of. If what you’ve said is true, then these other investors see that.
They know that New River is a temporary investment.
A way to make a quick income and be done with it. ”
“And the people?”
“They’ll figure it out. Folks in towns like these always do.”
William shook his head.
“I agree.” The fourth and final engineer rose and tapped a stout finger to the center of the map of New River.
“Forget this nonsense about the pit ponies. Move the stables here, so that you free up this whole area to be updated. Treat this entire level like a slope mine instead of a shaft mine. You have a vent here—looks like an old slope tunnel that comes down from the surface. Can it be expanded?”
There was something to that. “But what of the lower levels?”
“It may be wisest to start at the top and work your way down. It would buy you time at least. How many years could this operation have left. Ten, maybe twenty? Is the investment worth it?”
“What about the boys?”
“Boys in a coal town are used to hard work.”
“But if they were educated—they could advance even further in life. Become teachers, doctors. Even businessmen.”
“I understand the fight, but is it a fight you can win?”
One would hope so. “And what about the livestock?” William asked.
The man slammed a hand to the table. “Forget the blasted ponies!”
Breathing in deep, William leaned back in his chair. The tension broke as Cook brought in a tray of sandwiches. “Nothing like a little nourishment to break up a long day.” She didn’t look too pleased about the rising tension, so William gave her a muted smile.
He could handle this. These men spoke numbers and predictions and while he valued such conversation, he couldn’t help imagining New River the way Lizbeth saw it. A place that held purpose and possibility. Real people with real needs and aspirations.
“What has caused you to think this is your burden to bear?” a man asked.
Before William could answer, the train began to slow.
He pushed away from the table. “We’re to the next stop.
Take a few minutes. Have a smoke and we’ll board again soon.
” He checked that he had a few coins in his pocket.
“I need to make a quick phone call. I’m also expecting two more guests, so we’ll have fresh ideas at supper tonight.
” As for lodging, the Pemberley had enough bunks for all.
Amid their grumbles over his bizarre ideas, William escaped to the exit, opening the door and descending the steps before the train was even to a standstill.
He crossed the wooden platform to the stationmaster’s window.
This was one of the few stations he knew had a telephone.
As he walked, he kept an eye out for Callum and one more engineer.
They were supposed to be here at the station, but he didn’t see his friend anywhere.
William slid a coin across the counter and the stationmaster placed the tall black telephone in front of him. William raised the earpiece and when the operator spoke, he placed the call.
“You’re connected now, Mr. Drake.”
“Thank you.”
All at once, Lady Light’s trainer was on the line, his Scottish brogue so thick amid the static that William ducked into his shoulder to try and block out the noise of the crowded depot.
With little time, he cut straight to it.
“Hello? This is William. I’m going to be delayed a little further in getting there. How is she faring?”
“Lady Light is good and well, sir. However, we’ve had a visit from your aunt who revised her training schedule.”
“She did?”
“Yes, sir.”
William listened as the trainer described the updated eating and training regime. William pinched the bridge of his nose. He’d already taken care that his aunt had been excluded from Lady Light’s itinerary in an effort to try and take responsibility for the thoroughbred and now this? “I see.”
“I’m sorry, sir.”
There was nothing he could do about it now. Not without being there in person. “It’s not your fault. Proceed as best you can and I’ll sort things out with my aunt.” It was hard to say when but he’d have to pay her a visit once all this other business was wrapped up if not sooner.
Steering clear of a porter laden with suitcases, William ducked further beneath the eaves of the stationmaster’s window. “Please be in touch if anything else changes.”
“I will, sir.”
Good man. The whistle blew again. After hanging up, William checked his pocket watch—3:19 in the afternoon. The train was scheduled to leave at 3:26. Only seven minutes. He scanned one end of the depot to the other. Where on earth was Callum?
Passengers climbed aboard as staff loaded luggage.
Porters pushed empty carts away. He and Callum had arranged to meet here along with one more engineer who had studied electricity, and judging by the heated crowd William had left on board, he needed someone—anyone—on his side.
He checked his pocket watch again. 3:20.
Where were they?
Steam hissed. “All aboard!” the conductor called. “Next stop Charleston!”
William turned away, stirring open his wool coat. Confounded time. Why was it stacked against him? Was there something he wasn’t seeing? Some detail he was missing? William turned again, searching.
3:22.
Closing his eyes and not caring what passersby might think of him, he breathed in deeply. It seemed trivial to ask for guidance, as though he were seeking only his own good. But this plan was for the benefit of others. If only there was a way to catch a break right now.
“All aboard!”
William sought wisdom anyway. Eyes squeezing tight.
He may have looked like a madman standing on an empty depot platform while his $30,000 Pullman car was about to churn down the tracks without him.
But so be it. He whispered a heartfelt plea.
Nigh unto surrender. At the end of the letter he wrote to Lizbeth, he’d penned, may God bless you .
He’d meant it and ached for such blessing himself.
Not in wealth or riches, but in guidance.
He pulled his hat off and tried to fill his chest with peace that everything would work out as it was meant to, even when he couldn’t see the way.
He was only human, so he wasn’t meant to see beyond this moment.
Never easy. Yet one more thing he asked about in the space between here and heaven.
Overwhelmed by the call he felt upon him, mixed with his own inability to set it into motion, William breathed in—then out.
In doing so, he released the outcome into greater hands.
Finally , letting it all go. Just like the way he’d lowered his aunt’s portrait from the wall and stored it away. It was time. The spot sat bare now, but he had something new to hang in its place.
Slowly, William opened his eyes.
Ahead, the engine belched steam as it prepared to leave Richmond with or without him.
William aimed toward the rear car and hustled up the steps, the sound of his shoes against metal final. This was it. Flushed, he pulled off his coat, entered his office, and tossed the coat on the chair beside his desk. Murmurs from the other engineers sounded from the dining room.
3:26.
The whistle blew its final farewell. Pulling out his desk chair, William sat and pocketed his watch again.
The train eased into motion.
“Wait!” The call was distant. Too distant.
Slowly William straightened.
“Over here!” The shout sounded nearer now.
Rising, William moved to the window. In the distance, he saw a man racing through the congested depot.
William ducked lower to see better. Callum.
Suitcase in hand, the man ran like the devil chased his heels.
William rushed through the doorway and onto the balcony.
Behind Callum jogged a man in a suit who had to be the engineer.
The man’s gray hat flew off. He skidded to a halt as though to retrieve it but when the train edged further forward, the man abandoned his hat.
William’s suspender dug into his shoulder as he waved an arm overhead.
The train chugged along at a crawl, but it was moving all the same and gaining momentum.
He hurried down to the bottom step. With Callum nearing, William gripped one hand around the sun-warmed railing and extended his other.
He crouched, bracing for impact. Callum’s feet pounded faster.
A chance he would make it, but the trailing engineer was slowing.
The poor man huffed as he jogged. As an engineer for General Electric and one of the men who’d helped design the Baltimore Belt Line, he probably hadn’t run since he was a boy.
With Callum nearing, William reached further out.
His friend’s hand bumped his own, finally locking on.
William pulled with all his might and Callum stumbled onto the steps beside him.
Laughing, William patted him on the back and pushed him farther up onto the balcony.
Leaning forward, he called out to the engineer. “Almost there!”
The man’s round face was flushed. His skin glistened as he sped up.
“Just a bit further!” William gauged the end of the platform. They were about to run out of wood. Only a dozen feet left, at best.
“Almost there!” he shouted again, not quite believing it, but the man needed his own dose of faith just now.
Thud, thud, thud.
The engineer’s shoes pounded against the platform in rhythm with the rolling stock cars.
His fingertips grazed William’s and William reached further out, latching onto the man’s arm.
He gripped it, braced himself, and pulled.
The engineer crashed into him and a second pair of hands reached around, bracing them both firmly.
Callum. William moved back, pulling the panting engineer higher onto the balcony.
The man gasped for air as he fell to his knees.
Callum patted the poor soul on the back and tilted an ear to whatever the man muttered.
“Is he all right?” William panted.
Callum chuckled. “He’ll be just fine. Only mentioned that he’s not getting paid enough for this.”
Laughing, William rose and patted the newcomer on the back too. “Then I’ll make sure that he is. And that he receives a new hat.”