"Are you willing to go down the mine as far as you can go, Mr Trethick--I mean for water--and to see what tokens you can find of tin ore?"

"Yes," said Geoffrey, "I'll go down again if you like."

"Again?"

"Yes; I've been down as far as I could go."

"You have, Mr Trethick?"

"Yes, sir," said Geoffrey, smiling, "I have."

"But right down to the water?"

"Right down into it, sir," replied Geoffrey, laughing. "I had a regular ducking, for my companion let the rope slip."

"Do you mean to tell me, Mr Trethick, that you made the descent of Wheal Carnac?"

"To be sure I do, sir. Look here, Mr Penwynn, I took rather a fancy to that place. Every thing is so thorough and well done. Then I met with a rough mining fellow, one Amos Pengelly. Know him?"

Mr Penwynn nodded.

"He is sanguine about the mine, and asked me to examine it. I did so as far as I could, and then one night we procured a rope, and I rigged up a ship's block on a stoutish cross-beam, took a lantern, and Pengelly let me down."

"By himself?"

"Oh, yes! sir; he's as strong as a horse. But he did duck me."

"Mr Trethick," said the banker, pulling out his pocket-handkerchief, "do you mean to tell me that you trusted to one man to lower you down that pit?"

"I do, Mr Penwynn, and a precious black pit it is; and, as I tell you, he let me down rather too far, but not till I had had a good look round."

"And what did you discover?" said the banker, wiping the palms of his wet hands.

"Nothing," said Geoffrey, bluntly. "No more than I could find out on the heap of _debris_. No thorough examination could be made without the mine were pumped out."

"And that would cost?--"

"Fifty or a hundred pounds, perhaps two," said Geoffrey. "Princ.i.p.ally for carriage of pumping apparatus, fixing, and taking down again."

"You have been thoroughly into the matter, then," said Mr Penwynn, who was growing more and more interested.

"Thoroughly," said Geoffrey, bluntly, "I don't play with what I take up, sir."

The banker shifted his position, got up, walked about the room, sat down again, and began tapping the table with his fingers.

"Will you have a cigar, Mr Trethick?" he said, unlocking a drawer.

"Thanks, no," said Geoffrey. "I don't smoke over business."

There was another pause, during which Geoffrey sat patiently awaiting the banker's orders, while that gentleman was evidently turning the affair well over in his mind.

At last he spoke.

"Mr Trethick," he said, "what remuneration should you ask to undertake to examine that mine?"

"Can't be done without pumping out, sir."

"Supposing I place the necessary funds at your disposal?"

Geoffrey drew his chair closer.

"Do you mean this, Mr Penwynn?"

"I never joke over business-matters, Mr Trethick," said the banker.

"Mr Penwynn," said Geoffrey, rising, and by his words chasing away from the banker's mind any lingering doubt of his energy, "I have so much faith in making that mine pay, that I'll do what you ask for nothing, but be content with a percentage on future profits."

"No, Mr Trethick, I never work in that way," said Mr Penwynn. "I ask your services on what I suppose to be a fortnight or three weeks' task.

I want your best energies, and a truthful and just report, not highly coloured, rather the reverse. If you will do this for me, I will give you a fee of five-and-twenty guineas. Will that do?"

"Do? Yes!" cried Geoffrey, flushing. "When shall I begin?"

"When you please," said the banker, smiling at his earnestness.

"And you place funds at my disposal?"

"Yes, to the amount of a hundred pounds. If that is not enough, you may spend another fifty. Then stop. But mind you are doing this under orders. I do not wish to appear in the matter yet. If it were known that I was going in for such a mad venture, as people would call it, I should lose all credit in the place. Not that it would much matter," he added, with a contemptuous smile. "Well, Mr Trethick, shall we draw up a memorandum to the effect that you will give me your best services in this commission? I trust to you, implicitly."

"If you like," said Geoffrey, grimly, as he once more rose and took an excited stride up and down the room. "Mr Penwynn," he exclaimed, stopping short before the banker, "you have given me new life in this display of confidence. There's my memorandum and bond, sir," he cried, stretching out his broad, firm hand, and gripping that of the banker.

"You sha'n't repent it, come what may."

"I hope not, Trethick," said Mr Penwynn, smiling, "but time tries all."

"Oh, no!" said Geoffrey, sharply. "That's an old saw, and I put no faith in saws. Time will try me, Mr Penwynn; there's no doubt of that.

And now I'm off."

"It's close upon one o'clock," said Mr Penwynn, glancing at his watch.

"You'll stay and have lunch?"

"No, thanks," said Geoffrey; "I'm going to work off some of this rust.

But how am I to let you know how I am getting on?"

"Don't you trouble about that," said Mr Penwynn, laughing. "You don't know Carnac yet. Why, every step you take will be known all over the place, and people will be asking what madman is finding the money."

"I see," said Geoffrey, nodding.

"Give me a written report when you have done. Mr Chynoweth shall send you a cheque-book, and your cheques will be honoured to the sum I name."