Ralph took the report and read it through, while recovering at the same time his self-possession. It was an injudicious display of eagerness which he had been betrayed into, and he felt heartily ashamed as well as sorry that his nerves should have relaxed from that critical calm which becomes a proposing buyer while the bargain is incomplete. How many thousands, he wondered, would his lack of circumspection cost him? Yet who could have associated the ass Rouget with anything to sell? It was most provoking.
He sniffed a depreciating sniff as he read through the report, raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips; and in concluding read aloud the saving clause in which the worthy scientist guarded his reputation for infallibility by reminding his readers of the impossibility of ascertaining the depth to which the outcropping lodes extended, by mere surface observations, and without sinking an experimental shaft, and the chances of faults, breaks, and interruptions in the vein at any depth below that to which his examination had extended.
"You want to sell this, then, Mr. Rouget? this parcel of, say a thousand acres, with its metalliferous indications? What value do you put upon it?"
Had Rouget come there the day before, ere he had had speech with Jordan, or had slept and dreamed upon the encouraging visions which that conversation had bred, and which had been expanding themselves ever since, as is the way with visions, there is no doubt he would have jumped at once, named a sum, and been thankful to take half of it; but he had spent the night in building castles, and storing them with the uncounted riches which other men were to dig out of his land and pay over to him, and the idea of a fixed sum even if far larger than he had yet named, was now cold and unattractive.
"I vish not to compromise my interests in zis land. I vill not sell."
"Then what do you come to me for?"
"I vish to inaugurate a company to develop ze mines."
"But the mines, if there are any, are yours, Mr. Rouget. It is for the proprietor to develop his property."
"I have hoped since three months to do so. Money is ze difficulty; I need money."
"Then sell! Those who have the money are likely to give a good price. It will be pure gain to you, for this thousand acres, I dare assert, has never yielded you one cent. Sell to wealthy men who can afford to develop the property, it will bring in population, perhaps originate a town, and in any case create a new market for your tenants, and increase the value of all your lands."