I can understand your scheme. I will
also not contradict your assertion that it is lawful and generous; but
it is just because it is so that it is full of holes. It is quite true
that the treasure which lies concealed in the Bonda Valley is
immense--it is possible that it represents millions; but this treasure
cannot be discovered, for the Bondavara property is not for sale."

"Really!"

"I will tell you why; because at this moment it belongs to Prince
Bondavary, who is one of the richest men in this country."

"I should imagine that no one knows better than I do how rich he is."

"In the next place, this man is one of the proudest of our
aristocrats, to whom I, for one, would not venture to make the
proposal to turn his old family property--the cradle, we might say, of
his race--into a mine to be worked by a company."

"Oh, so far as that goes, we have seen many an ancient race glad to do
a bit of commercial dirt. The King of Italy is a crowned king; and,
nevertheless, he has sold Savoy, the place from which his family took
their name and the right to have a cross on their shield."

"Well, suppose the old prince were inclined to sell this property, he
could not do so as long as his sister, the Countess Bondavary, is
alive. Her father left the castle and the property round about to his
daughter, who is now nearly fifty-eight, and may live yet another
thirty years. She has grown up in that castle; she has, to my
knowledge, never left it, not even for one day; she hates the world,
and no human power would induce her to part with her beloved
Bondavara to a coal company, not if the last remaining stratum were to
be found under the castle, and without this the world should perish
from want of fuel."

Felix laughed, then answered with an air of ineffable conceit--

"I have conquered greater difficulties than an old maid's fad, and for
the matter of that, women's hearts are not locked with a Bramah key."

"Well, let us suppose," said Ivan, good-humoredly, "that you have
overcome the prejudices of the prince and his sister, and that you
have actually started your monster company. Then begin all the
technical difficulties; for what is the first necessary to an
undertaking of the kind?"

"A sufficient supply of money."

"By no means. A sufficient supply of workmen."

"Wherever money is plentiful, human beings are pretty sure to flock."

"Between men and men there is a wonderful difference. This is an
article in w