"We half expected you would be here when we came," said one of the gentlemen.
"I had no word of your wanting to see me at all," answered Geissler, "otherwise I might have been here on the spot."
Well, and what about the business now? Was Geissler prepared to accept a reasonable offer today? It wasn't every day he had a chance of fifteen or twenty thousand—what? Unless, of course…. If the money were nothing to him, why, then….
This last suggestion was not to Geissler's taste at all; he was offended. A nice way to talk! Well, they would not have said it, perhaps, if they had not been annoyed at first; and Geissler, no doubt, would hardly have turned suddenly pale at their words if he had not been out somewhere by himself and got red. As it was, he paled, and answered coldly:
"I don't wish to make any suggestion as to what you, gentlemen, may be in a position to pay—but I know what I am willing to accept and what not. I've no use for more child's prattle about the mine. My price is the same as yesterday."
"A quarter of a million Kroner?"
"Yes."
The gentlemen mounted their horses." Look here," said one, "we'll go this far, and say twenty-five thousand."
"You're still inclined to joke, I see," said Geissler. "But I'll make you an offer in sober earnest: would you care to sell your bit of a mine up there?"
"Why," said they, somewhat taken aback—"why, we might do that, perhaps."