As the first day passed, Roger and Adair dug seven feet below the ground. Roger hunted deer; the venison nourished him and Adair.
The following day, Gus smelt something from nearby. He quickly trotted towards the other side of the hill, until he was out of sight. Roger was outside the mine, whilst Adair was excavating the rocks, now nearing the calcite, where the gold would be found.
“I’m going to get Gus,” Roger called down the mine. “He’s gone off to the other side of the hill. God knows what he’s found”.
Roger fetched a ration of bacon from the cabriolet and headed in the direction that Gus had set off. When turning the corner, his eyes dilated at the sight of something uncanny. Gus had found a field of ewes, which seemed to be owned by a slim man and his wife, as they were luring these ewes to the rams – it was mating season. This field was on the land that he had just bought.
Roger approached the pair.
“Roger Aurum”, he said. The man smiled uncomfortably and shook Roger’s hand.
“Ben,” he replied, “Ben Seymour. This is my wife, Cassandra.”
Ben was an unusual-looking man, his eyes were baggy, his voice croaky and high-pitched – but he was nothing short of a gentleman. He was bald, with caramel brown hair around his small ears and a bushy moustache below his stout nose. As for his wife, she had thick black hair, tied into a tight bun. She was slim around the waist like a sand timer and wore an attractive autumn-coloured frock.
“I don’t mean to interrupt your herding,” said Roger, “but I purchased this land recently. I wasn’t aware that anyone already had it.”
“We’ve had this land since July,” said Ben. “We’re using it to farm sheep to feed our family.”
“Well,” snapped Roger, “I am using this land to mine gold. Don’t you two think that gold is a little more important than your petty sheep?”
Ben inhaled. “Isn’t it fair that you use the land underground, and we use the land overground? We need this land, Roger, we’re making a barn for our sheep and family.”
Ben pointed behind him, where in the distance he saw a vast, wooden structure being built by many men; it was an unfinished barn.
“No!”
“May I ask,” said Cassandra, “what exactly do you want this gold for?”
“What do you think I want it for?” Roger asked aggressively. “I want the money! I dig several feet deep, where I find the calcite veins. In the calcite veins, I find the gold, which I smelt into fresh, shiny gold that pirates find in buried treasure. The gold is then exchanged for the money we know and love. But it’s not just the gold I’m exchanging. I’m also giving the calcite to sculptors, to make their ceramics, and to builders to make their cement. The more I mine, the more money I get.”
“I’ll tell you what,” Ben replied, “if you find four gold ingots in a month, you can have this land. Is that a deal?”
Roger paused.
“Deal.”
***
Roger told Adair how he and Ben had managed to purchase the same land at almost exactly the same time. In Roger’s eyes, it was more of a competition. Whoever worked the hardest to turn their land into a boomtown would win the land fair and square.
One evening, while hunting for deer, Roger heard the murmuring of sheep behind him. Ben was getting the rams to try and mate the ewes again. Roger turned around. He loaded his rifle and pointed its nose at Ben’s head. It must have been around two minutes that Roger sat there, the gun following Ben’s every move. However, Adair’s call for supper made him lower the gun, and leave Ben be.
As Roger and Adair continued to work on the mine, they reached the calcite veins. Just under three weeks passed, as the mine progressed – but still, no gold. One day, Roger excavated much calcite, at the level beneath the earth which gold appeared most frequently. Four days into the excavation, Roger heard a familiar clunk sound he had heard back beneath the marshes.
He flung his pickaxe at the rock vigorously. Tic. Tac. Tic. Tac. The pickaxe hit the rock harder. The calcite was being removed faster and faster. Tic. Tac. Tic. Tac. Could this be the gold that would make him richer? Could he have won against Ben? Tic. Tac. Tic. Tac –
“GOLD!” Roger bellowed with joy. A flash of bright yellow ricocheted off Roger’s delighted eyes. He gathered all the gold into a sack, climbed up the ladder and placed it outside the shaft.
Roger called for Adair. He came enthusiastically, and Roger counted three gold ingots.
It wasn’t enough. Ben said that four gold ingots would win him the land.
***
As Roger became more and more violently obsessed with his gold mine, he also became very envious of the progress Ben had made on his barn. He had one intention that would stop Ben from taking the land; before his time ran out.
Roger approached Adair.
“Do you have any oil?” he asked.
Adair gulped. “I don’t think so,” Adair replied, “but I have some petrol left over from the cabriolet.”
“That’s good, that’s good,” said Roger. “Now – I want you to take that petrol, and then take the lighter I use for my cigarettes, and I want you to watch that stupid structure burn!”
“You mean the one that Mr. Seymour made – ” “Yes, the one that Ben made!” Roger snapped.
Adair set out to the barn, where he caked the wood in petrol and set it alight. The barn roared in agony as the flames tore it down, and Ben and Cassandra’s distant cries for help were heard. Adair watched in guilt, but Roger watched in pleasure. The black night sky turned to a bright orange, and Roger put a cigarette to his mouth, stroking Gus’s head beside him.
It was a cold and misty morning. Ben and Cassandra had called the fire brigade to stop the fire from spreading, as the sheep’s wool was flammable too. Roger climbed out of his mine and lighted another cigarette, in celebration of his successful plan. He chuckled to himself, as he saw the remains of the barn in the distance. It seemed that he could now build factories on this land, and places for his fellow miners to stay, but then he saw Ben walking umbrageously towards him.
“Was that friend of yours’ attack on my barn on your command – ”
“Yes.”
“Can’t you see that it would’ve been fair for you to build underground?” asked Ben. “You didn’t have to incinerate my progress to win over this land, Roger.”
“Is it mine now?”
“No, it’s not yours now,” he shouted. “If you touch my property ever again I will my get my cleaver and rip your face to smithereens!”
“You wouldn’t do that,” said Roger. “You’re not strong enough.”
Ben clenched his fists and took a large step forward. Roger retreated, now slightly afraid.
“Don’t tell me I’m not strong enough.”
Roger laughed at him. Ben took another step forward, as did Roger. However, this time, he stood back too far, and fell into the shaft. But Roger reached out his hand and managed to grasp the ladder just in time. He breathed.
Back on the surface, Ben was stuck fast to the ground in shock. Gus came trotting along and started to sniff the gold ingots Roger had just found. But Gus knocked an ingot into the shaft.
Roger raised his head. He saw the ingot reaching for him, like he once reached for it. The two clashed like the hands of a violent applause and Roger was struck to the ground.
Ben looked down the shaft to see Roger’s mangled body. The land was now Ben’s to play with. He had won.
