Page:Fletcher - The Mortover Grange Affair.pdf/81

 first speaker. "I've heard different accounts."

"So have I. I did hear that the very first thing was that some tourist in these parts hinted to young Mortover that in his opinion there was coal under the Mortover Estate and advised him to call in a mining expert. Then I heard another tale—that a gentleman who was staying at Buxton got the same notion, and began approaching young Mortover about it. Two or three heads were put together about it, I fancy."

"Well, there's one thing certain!" said the man who had picked up the paper. "The money for all these preliminaries wouldn't be found by Philip Mortover! Poor as starved crows in winter those Mortovers have been for a long way back—we know that, here in Netherwell. And it would cost a tidy lot all that initiatory work!"

"Oh, it's pretty well known who financed the first beginnings!" replied the other man. He pointed the end of his cigar to a name on the list of directors. "That chap—a London man. Charles Bruno Levigne, Esquire, 581 Cleveland Square, London. Company Promoter. Seen him down here many a time—used to drop in this house now and then, didn't he, Mary, my dear?"

"Mr. Levigne?" responded the barmaid.