man!  Axel Stroem from Maaneland could bear them out in this; he was the one who had last met Geissler.  Brede’s girl Barbro had had a lawsuit in the town, and come home acquitted; but Geissler, he had been there in court all the time.  And if any one suggested that Geissler was dejected, and a broken man, why, he had only to look at the costly machines that same Geissler had sent up as a present to Axel Stroem.

This man it was then, who held the fate of the district in his hand; they would have to come to some agreement with him.  What price would Geissler ultimately be disposed to accept for his mine?  They must ascertain in any case.  The Swedes had offered him twenty-five thousand—­Geissler had refused.  But suppose the village here, the commune, were to make up the remainder, simply to get things going again?  If it were not an altogether unheard-of amount, it might be worth while.  Both the trader at the shore station and Aronsen up at Storborg would be willing to contribute privately and secretly; funds devoted to such a purpose now would be repaid in the long run.

The end of it was that two men were deputed to call on Geissler and take up the matter with him.  And they were expected back shortly.

So it was, then, that Aronsen cherished a flicker of hope, and thought he could afford to stand on his dignity with any who offered to buy up Storborg.  But it was not to last.

A week later the deputation returned home with a flat refusal.  Oh, they had done the worst thing possible at the outset, in choosing Brede Olsen as one of the men they sent—­they had taken him as being one who best could spare the time.  They had found Geissler, but he had only shaken his head and laughed.  “Go back home again,” he had said.  But Geissler had paid for their journey back.

Then the district was to be left to its fate?

After Aronsen had raged for a while, and grown more and more desperate, he went up one day to Sellanraa and closed the deal.  Ay, Aronsen did.  Eleseus got it for the price he had offered; land and house and sheds, live stock and goods, for fifteen hundred Kroner.  True, on going through the inventory after, it was found that Aronsen’s wife had converted most of the cotton print to her own use; but trifles of that sort were nothing to a man like Eleseus.  It didn’t do to be mean, he said.

Nevertheless, Eleseus was not exactly delighted with things as they had turned out—­his future was settled now, he was to bury himself in the wilds.  He must give up his great plans; he was no longer a young gentleman in an office, he would never be a Lensmand, not even live in a town at all.  To his father and those at home he made it appear that he was proud at having secured Storborg at the very price he had fixed—­it would show them he knew what he was about.  But that small triumph did not go very far.  He had also the satisfaction of taking over Andresen, the chief clerk, who was thus, as it were, included in the bargain.  Aronsen had no longer any use for him, until he had a new place going.  It was a pleasant sensation to be Eleseus, when Andresen came up begging to be allowed to stay; here it was Eleseus who was master and head of the business—­for the first time in his life.