"Yes," said Geoffrey, as he inspected scrap after scrap, even examining the fractures with a magnifying glass, "yes, that's paying stuff, Pengelly." "Iss, sir, isn't it?" cried the miner, eagerly. "Paying, but poor." "But it would be richer lower down, and we should hit the six-foot lode by driving." "May be," said Geoffrey. "Humph, mundic! There's copper here too," he said, examining a piece of stone that glistened with the yellowish metal. "That there be," cried Pengelly; "I'm sure Wheal Carnac would pay, sir; I always believed it; and old Prawle there at the Cove, though he's close, he knows it's a good pit." "Yes," said Geoffrey, "I believe it would pay, well worked, and on economical and scientific principles." "Pay, sir? Yes, I'm sure she would," cried Pengelly. "You look here, sir, and here, at the stuff." He plied his crowbar most energetically, and Geoffrey worked hard, too, breaking fragment after fragment, and convincing himself that, though under the old plans it would not have paid to powder, wash, and extract the tin from the quality of ore lying thrown out from the mouth of the pit; yet under the system he hoped to introduce he felt sure that he could make a modest return. "And there's such a chance, sir," cried Amos, with whom the working of Wheal Carnac was a pet project. "Look at the money laid out, and how well every thing was done." "What became of the machinery?" cried Geoffrey, abruptly. "It was sold by auction, sir; all beautiful, fine new engines, and boilers, and wheels, and chains--not old-fashioned ones, but new casts, and they bought it at Tulip Hobba." "Where they work with it?" "No, sir, it's stopped; and they do say as it could all be bought back for very little." "Your very littles all mean thousands of pounds, Master Pengelly," said Geoffrey, thoughtfully. "But they'd all come back, sir, and you'd have the machinery still. Do buy it, sir, and get her to work once more." "Why, you don't suppose I've got the money to invest?" cried Geoffrey. "Haven't you, sir?" said Pengelly, in a disappointed tone. "Not a penny, my man." "Never mind, sir; you get them as has, and we'll turn out such an output of tin to grass as'll make some of the clever ones shake their heads." "More copper," said Geoffrey, picking up a piece of stone. "Yes, sir, a bit by chance; but I don't think there's much. This pit was sunk for tin." "Copper pays better than tin," said Geoffrey, as he went on from spot to spot. "You don't think any of this stuff was brought here from anywhere else?" "Oh, dear, no, sir." "Not thrown down to make the pit seem more valuable than it is? Such tricks have been played." "Oh, no, sir. Besides, I wouldn't begin till she'd been pumped out, and some more stuff got up to try her."