“What I mean is this, sir,” answered Tom, with just a shade of impatience in his tone. “This piece of coal is but a specimen of a splendid seam which has been struck by my men at the bottom of the shaft at Knockley Holt.”
The Squire stared at him, and gave a long, low whistle. “Do you mean to say that you have found a bed of coal at the bottom of the hole you have been digging at Knockley Holt?”
“That is precisely what I have found, sir, and it is precisely what I have been trying to find from the first.”
“I see it all now!” said the Squire. “What a lucky young scamp you are! But what on earth put it into your head to go looking for coal at Knockley Holt?”
“I had a friend of mine, who is a very clever mining engineer, staying with me for a little while some time ago. But my friend is not only an engineer—he is a practical geologist as well. When out for a constitutional one day, we found ourselves at Knockley Holt. My friend was struck with its appearance—so different from that of the country around. ‘Unless I am much mistaken, there is coal under here,’ he said, ‘and at no great distance from the surface either. The owner ought to think himself a lucky man—that is, if he knows the value of it.’ Well, sir, not content with what my friend said, I paid a heavy fee and had one of the most eminent geologists of the day down from London to examine and report upon it. His report coincided exactly with my friend’s opinion. You know the rest, sir. I came to you with a view of getting a lease of the ground, and found you desirous of selling it. I was only too glad to have the chance of buying it. I set a lot of men and a steam engine to work without a day’s delay, and that lump of coal, sir, is the happy result.”
The Squire rubbed his spectacles for a moment or two without speaking. “Bristow, that’s an old head of yours on those young shoulders,” he said at last. “With all my heart congratulate you on your good fortune. I know no man who deserves it more than you do. Yes, Bristow, I congratulate you, though I can’t help saying that I wish that I had had a friend to have told me what was told you before I let you have the ground. For want of such a friend I have lost a fortune.”
“That is just what I have come to see you about, sir,” said Tom, as he rose and pushed back his chair. The Squire looked up at him in surprise. “Although I bought Knockley Holt from you as a speculation, I had a pretty good idea when I bought it as to what I should find below the surface. If I had not found what I expected, my bargain would have been a dear one; but having found what I expected, it is just the opposite. In fact, sir, you have lost a fortune, and I have found one.”
“I know it—I know it,” groaned the Squire. “But you needn’t twit me with it.”
“So far the speculation was a perfectly legitimate one, as speculations go nowadays. But that is not the sort of thing I wish to exist between you and me. You have been very kind to me in many ways, and I have much to thank you for. I could not bear to treat you in this matter as I should treat a stranger. I could not bear to think that I was making a fortune out of a piece of ground that but a few short weeks ago was your property. The money so made would seem to me to bring a curse with it, rather than a blessing. I should feel as if nothing would ever prosper with me afterwards. Sir, I will not have this coal mine. There are plenty of other channels open to me for making money. Here are the title deeds of the property. I give them back to you. You shall repay me the twelve hundred pounds purchase-money, and reimburse me for the expenses I have been put to in sinking the shaft. But as for the pit itself, I will have nothing to do with it.”
Tom had produced the title deeds from his pocket and had laid them on the table while speaking. He now pushed them across to the Squire. Then he took the deed of sale tore it across, and threw the fragments into the grate.