"But what about me?" he exclaimed. "Why--I gave you the idea! I said from the first that I'd find money towards the company and knew others who would. It was my idea altogether--mine entirely. I only gave you the chance of coming in--I----" "Whose land is it?" demanded Jeckie, coolly. "Did I buy it? Is it mine? If you wanted it why didn't you buy it? I bought it; it's my land. And--all that's beneath it. Do you think I was going to do that for other folks? We do nowt for nobody hereabouts, unless there's something to be made at it, my lad! But, of course, I'll pay you and your friend for your professional services--you must send your bill in." Mortimer rose from his chair and looked at the woman in whom, half-an-hour previously, he had expressed his belief. "So you've done me, too?" he said, simply. "You know well enough what my intentions were about this mine--of which you'd never have known, never have dreamed, if I hadn't told you of it. Do you call that honest--to do what you are doing?" "Send in your bill--and tell Farebrother to send in his," said Jeckie, in her hardest voice. "You'll both get your cheques as soon as I see that you've charged right." Mortimer went away, worse than chagrined, and told Farebrother of his dismissal; Farebrother forbore to remind him of what he had prophesied. "All right!" he said. "I see what it is. She learnt all she can from us--now she's going to be what such a woman only can be--sole master! All right!" And being a practical man, he sat down to make out, what Jeckie styled, his bill. CHAPTER V _The Yorkshire Way_ During the course of the next morning Jeckie received a large oblong envelope delivered to her by the stable-boy of the "Coach-and-Four." It was handed to her over the counter of the shop, and she opened it there and then, in the presence of her assistants and of several customers, all of whom were surprised to see the usually hard, unmoved face flush as its owner glared hastily at the two enclosures which she drew out. Within an instant Jeckie had hurried them into the envelope again, and had turned angrily on the stable-boy. "What're you waiting for?" she demanded sharply. "Mestur Mortimer, he said I wor to wait for an answer," replied the lad. "That's what he telled me." "Then you can tell him t'answer'll come on," retorted Jeckie. "I can't bother with it now. Off you go!" The stable-boy stared at the angry face and made a retreat; Jeckie retreated, too, into her private parlour, where she once more drew out the two sheets of excellent, unruled, professional-looking paper whereon the two mining engineers had set down their charges for services rendered. "Did ever anybody see the like o' that!" she muttered. "They might think a body was made o' money! All that brass for just standin' about while these other fellers did the work, and then tellin' me what their opinions were! It's worse nor lawyers!"