"Smart woman," he exclaimed admiringly. "Excellent! Excellent! Didn't I tell you that you'd be able to manage it? Good! Good!" "Yes," said Jeckie, almost indifferently. "I did it. I knew how to do it, you see, when I came to to think it over. And I did it there and then, and paid the price--there's naught to do but the legal business, and that's only a matter of form. The land's mine, now." She moved across the room to her safe, unlocked it, took out an envelope, drew Mortimer's cheque from it, and quietly laid it at his elbow. "I shan't want that, of course," she added. Mortimer looked up at her in surprise. "But--I was to find the money!" he said. "I've found it," answered Jeckie. "I've bought the land--it's mine, and whatever's underneath it is mine, too. So if there's nothing, there's nothing--and you'll lose nothing." "Oh, well," said Mortimer, "as long as we've got it, it doesn't much matter who's bought it--we'll make that right later." Jeckie gave him no reply. But in Mortimer's sorry acceptance of her announcement she made a sudden discovery as to his character. Enthusiastic he no doubt was, and eager and full of ideas as to business. But--he was easygoing, apt to let things slide; ready to take matters as settled when they were all unsettled. Jeckie herself, had she been Mortimer, and bearing in mind the conversation of the previous evening, would have insisted on a proper and definite understanding as to the ownership of the forty acres. She smiled grimly as she relocked the door of her safe, and she said to herself when it came to a contest of brains she was one too many for this smart London fellow. The land was hers, and the mineral beneath it--so she said nothing; there was nothing to say. "The thing is," said Mortimer, again rubbing his hands in high glee, "the thing is, now, to get to work. We must bore!" "How's that set about?" asked Jeckie, who was now anxious to learn all she could. "What's done, like?" "Oh, you just get some men and the necessary apparatus," replied Mortimer nonchalantly. "I'll see to all that. And I'll get a friend of mine down from London--I'll take a room for him at the 'Coach-and-Four'--a friend who's one of the cleverest experts of the day; he and I, between us, will jolly soon tell you what lies under that land. Of course, I haven't the slightest doubt about it, but it's better to have the opinion of two experts than one. My friend's name is Farebrother--he's well-known. He shall come down and watch the boring operations with me. I'll get the men and the requisite machinery at once, and we'll go to work as soon as you've got the legal business through--we'd better keep it dark until then." "All that'll cost money, of course," observed Jeckie.