"Well done, Will!" cried Dick enthusiastically.

"Silence, sir!" cried Mr Temple sternly. "How dare you speak like
that! And so, sir, you are so unselfish as to wish to be quite
independent, and to wish to get your living yourself free of everybody?"

"Yes, sir," said Will coldly; and he felt that Mr Temple was the most
unpleasant, sneering man he had ever seen, and not a bit like Dick.

"Like to discover a copper mine with an abundance of easily got ore?"

"Yes, sir," said Will quickly. "I should, very much."

"I suppose you would," said Mr Temple. "Are you going to do it?"

"I'm afraid not, sir," said Will respectfully; but he was longing for
the interview to come to an end. "The place has been too well searched
over, sir."

"Try tin, then," said Mr Temple.

"The tin has been all well searched for, sir, I'm afraid," said Will
quietly, though he felt that he was being bantered, and that there was a
sneer in the voice that galled him almost more than he could bear.

"Why not look then for something else?" continued Mr Temple. "That is
what I'd do."

"Because," said Will, "I am not learned enough, sir, to understand such
things properly. If I had books I should read and try to learn; but I
have very little time, and no learning."

"And yet," said Mr Temple, speaking warmly now and quite changing his
tone, "you without your learning have done more than I have with all my
years of study and experience."

"I don't understand you, sir."

"I'll tell you then. I have been far and wide about Cornwall for these
last three years and done no good this year I thought I would have
another search for something fresh, and give my boys a change. I am
glad I have come."

Will did not reply, but looked at him more wonderingly than ever.

"Suppose, my lad," said Mr Temple, speaking now kindly, "I were to tell
you that I have watched you very narrowly for some time past."

"I hope I have done nothing wrong, sir?" said Will.

"Nothing, my lad. I was beginning to form a very pleasant impression of
you, and then came the day of the storm."

"If--if you would not mind, sir," said Will uneasily, "I would rather
you did not talk about that."

"I will only say, my lad, that it confirmed my agreeable impressions
about you. And now, look here, I have paid at least a hundred visits to
the vein you showed me--the decomposing felspar vein."

"The vein of white spar, sir?" cried Will.

"Yes, my lad; and I have con