"Then what do you propose to do next?" said Sir William.
"We are going to form a company," said the boy, his colour rising. "We are going to have everything ready, and the moment the railway is finished we are ready to work the mine, and our fortune is made."
"You are going to form a company?" said Sir William, incredulously.
"Yes," Anderson replied. "In a week we shall have the whole thing in shape, and I hope that when the mine and its possibilities are made public, we shan't have any difficulty in getting the shares taken up."
"Well, I am sure I hope you won't," said Sir William. "I'll take some shares in it if you can show me a reasonable prospect of its coming to anything. But I should like to hear something more about it first."
"You shall, of course," said Anderson, as he took up his map again. "But it was not about taking shares I came to ask you, Sir William."
"What was it, then?" said Sir William.
"You said," the boy replied, with an embarrassed little laugh, looking him straight in the face, "that you would be the chairman of the first company I floated."
"By Jove, so I did!" said Sir William. "Upon my word, it was rather a rash promise to make."
"I don't think it was, I assure you," the boy said earnestly; "this thing really is going to turn up trumps."