"Or perhaps you gentlemen will decide to have it nearer the Hall.
It is immaterial to me."
Then looking at Fitz: "I can't locate the coal, my dear Fitz; but I
think it is up here on the hill at the foot of the range."
The agent lost interest immediately in the iron bridge over the Tench,
and asked a variety of questions about the deposit, all of which the
colonel answered courteously and patiently, but evidently with a desire
to change the subject as soon as possible.
The Englishman, however, was persistent, while the judge's last
sententious remark regarding the recent subdivision of the estate
awakened a new interest in Fitz.
What if this coal should not be on the colonel's land at all! He caught
his breath at the thought.
It was Fitz's only chance to restore the colonel's fortunes; and
although for obvious reasons he dared not tell him so, it was really
the only interest the Englishman had in the scheme at all.
Indeed, the agent had frankly said so to Fitz, adding that he was
anxious to locate a deposit of coal somewhere in the vicinity of the
line of the colonel's proposed road; because the extension of certain
railroads in which the syndicate was interested--not the C.
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