Geissler was grown an important personage, it seemed; thought himself a man of power, of all the power in the world; considered it, perhaps, beneath his dignity to be sent for by word of mouth.  But how was it he had come to Sellanraa at all just then—­just when he was most wanted?  A great one he must be for knowing things, all manner of things.  Anyway, when the gentlemen up at the mine had Geissler’s answer, there was nothing for it but they must bestir themselves and come all the way down to Sellanraa again.  The engineer and the two mining experts came with them.

So many crooked ways and turnings were there before that meeting was brought about.  It looked ill to start with; ay, Geissler was over-lordly by far.

The gentlemen were polite enough this time; begged him to excuse their having sent a verbal message the day before, being tired out after their journey.  Geissler was polite in return, and said he too was tired out after his journey, or he would have come.  Well, and then, to get to business; Would Geissler sell the land south of the water?

“Do you wish to purchase on your own account, may I ask,” said Geissler, “or are you acting as agents?”

Now this could be nothing but sheer contrariness on Geissler’s part; he could surely see for himself that rich and portly gentlemen of their stamp would not be acting as agents.  They went on to discuss terms.  “What about the price?” said they.

“The price?—­yes,” said Geissler, and sat thinking it over.  “A couple of million,” said he.

“Indeed?” said the gentlemen, and smiled.  But Geissler did not smile.

The engineer and the two experts had made a rough investigation of the ground, made a few borings and blastings, and here was their report:  the occurrence of ore was due to eruption; it was irregular, and from their preliminary examination appeared to be deepest in the neighbourhood of the boundary between the company’s land and Geissler’s decreasing from there onwards.  For the last mile or so there was no ore to be found worth working.

Geissler listened to all this with the greatest nonchalance.  He took some papers from his pocket, and looked at them carefully; but the papers were not charts nor maps—­like as not they were things no way connected with the mine at all.

“You haven’t gone deep enough,” said he, as if it were something he had read in his papers.  The gentlemen admitted that at once, but the engineer asked:  How did he know that—­“You haven’t made borings yourself, I suppose?”

And Geissler smiled, as if he had bored hundreds of miles down through the globe, and covered up the holes again after.

They kept at it till noon, talking it over this way and that, and at last began to look at their watches.  They had brought Geissler down to half a million now, but not a hair’s breadth farther.  No; they must have put him out sorely some way or other.  They seemed to think he was anxious to sell, obliged to sell, but he was not—­ho, not a bit; there he sat, as easy and careless as themselves, and no mistaking it.