"I'll tell you a little later. Do you s'pose they would dig for coal?"
"Hardly that, either. There isn't the kind of land black diamonds grow in around here, that is, as far as I know."
"Or iron?"
"Scarcely iron," answered Professor Bailey, with a puzzled look at the boy. "But why do you ask me these questions? Are you thinking of turning miner instead of farmer?" with a smile.
"Perhaps," said Roger, and his serious air convinced the professor that the boy had some motive in his inquiries. "You see I can't tell you all about it just now, nor why I want to know this, Professor, but I will some day. I want, most of all, to find out what, if anything, of value could be in the Cardiff hills, that would make men, or a company of capitalists, want to get possession of certain land. It might be, I suppose, coal, or iron, or gold, or something else. The question is, what is it?"
"You are asking me to go ahead pretty much in the dark," objected Professor Bailey.
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid those are all the clues I can give you now," said Roger.
"Well, I'll do my best to answer your puzzle," went on the teacher. "From what I've read and know of the geological formation about here, I cannot think of any mineral or other deposit that would naturally be expected in this section. But of course it might be that, unknown to any one, except a certain person, there would be a valuable mine of something beneath the surface. Some mineral or quartz, but hardly coal, nor iron, nor gold."
"Perhaps it might be oil," suggested Roger.
"I'm afraid not," was the reply, "though, as I said, almost anything is possible, but in this instance, not very probable. If you were to show me a certain spot, I might be able to say, with more certainty than I can now, whether or not a particular mineral would be apt to be present."