The manager, after a pause, continued. The proprietor, he said, was Lord Stranleigh, and he had given orders which, for generosity, the manager in all his experience thought was unexampled. Each man was to receive a year’s pay. At this announcement the gloom suddenly lifted, and a resounding cheer went up from the men. The manager added that he himself had been given an important position in one of his lordship’s coal mines in the north, whereupon the good-natured crowd cheered the manager, who appeared to be popular with them. “And now,” concluded the manager, “as Lord Stranleigh is himself present, he will perhaps choose from the six smelters the four whom he wishes to employ.” Stranleigh had been standing apart from the group, listening to the eloquence of the manager, and now every one turned and looked at him with more than ordinary interest. His hands, as usual, were in his pockets, a cigarette between his lips, which nevertheless did not conceal the humorous smile with which his lordship regarded the six smelters, who were quite evidently panic-stricken to learn that they had been exercising their robustious wit on the man with the money; the important boss who paid the wage. Lord Stranleigh slowly removed his left hand from his pocket, and took the cigarette from between his lips. “I think, Mr. Manager,” he said, “we will retain all six,” and so the congregation was dismissed. The hoisting gang was retained until all tools and movable ore were hoisted from the bottom of the mine to the surface of the earth. Stranleigh himself went down when the cage made its last trip, and there, by torchlight, examined the workings, listening to explanations by Mackeller. When he reached daylight again he ordered the dismantling of the hoisting apparatus, which work of destruction was taken to mean the final abandonment of the copper mine. Mackeller, thrifty person, protested against this demolition. Stranleigh smiled, but did not countermand the order. He and Mackeller took up their quarters in the manager’s house, its late occupant having taken his departure for the north. The six smelters were rude, unintelligent, uneducated men, who saw no difference between one yellow bar and another, so there was little risk of discovery through their detection. “What are you going to do with the gold ingots?” asked Mackeller. “I was thinking of placing them in a safe deposit vault.” “You will need to look well to its locks, bolts, and bars,” said the cautious engineer. “There will be no bolts and bars,” said Stranleigh. “I shall leave the ingots open to the sky, without lock or latch. Nobody will interfere with them.” “Bless my soul, you’ll never be so foolish as that?” cried Mackeller. “Why, even the copper was protected by the strongest and safest locks I could secure.” Lord Stranleigh merely shrugged his shoulders, and made no further explanation of his intentions.