strange things to be seen up there in the hills; Isak did
not recognize the place at all now, with its huts and sheds, a whole
town of them, and carts and waggons and great gaping holes in the
ground. The engineer himself showed them round. Maybe he was not in
the best of humour just now, that same engineer, but he had tried
all along to keep away the feeling of gloom that had fallen upon the
village folk and the settlers round--and here was his chance, with no
less persons than the Margrave of Sellanraa and the great trader from
Storborg on the spot.

He explained the nature of the ore and the rocks in which it was
found. Copper, iron, and sulphur, all were there together. Ay, they
knew exactly what there was in the rocks up there--even gold and
silver was there, though not so much of it. A mining engineer, he
knows a deal of things.

"And it's all going to shut down now?" asked Aronsen.

"Shut down?" repeated the engineer in astonishment. "A nice thing
that'd be for South America if we did!" No, they were discontinuing
their preliminary operations for a while, only for a short time; they
had seen what the place was like, what it could produce; then they
could build their aerial railway and get to work on the southern side
of the fjeld. He turned to Isak: "You don't happen to know where this
Geissler's got to?"

"No."

Well, no matter--they'd get hold of him all right. And then they'd
start to work again. Shut down? The idea!

Isak is suddenly lost in wonder and delight over a little machine
that works with a treadle--simply move your foot and it works. He
understands it at once--'tis a little smithy to carry about on a cart
and take down and set up anywhere you please.

"What's a thing like that cost, now?" he asks.

"That? Portable forge? Oh, nothing much." They had several of the same
sort, it appeared, but nothing to what they had down at the sea; all
sorts of machines and apparatus, huge big things. Isak was given to
understand that mining, the making of valleys and enormous chasms
in the rock, was not a business that could be done with your
fingernails--ha ha!

They stroll about the place, and the engineer mentions that he himself
will be going across to Sweden in a few days' time.

"But you'll be coming back again?" says Aronsen.

Why, of course. Knew of no reason why the Government or the police
should try to keep him.

Isak managed to lead round to the portable forge once more and
stopped, lo