H. De Vere Stacpoole

“ Volcanic action had, since Twisden's location of the place, swallowed again the radium deposit born of volcanic action, but I wish it had not left that geyser.
"That's what Kellerman meant when he told us to call it the Geyser Mine," said Twisden. "Look at it! You'd swear it was mocking us. A million of money gone, and a geyser in its place! Well, Olsen, do you call that bad or good luck?"
"Neither," replied the guide, whose face wore the sorrowful look peculiar to his countrymen. "Neither good nor bad luck—it's only Iceland." ”

“ Up, up we went till we reached that tremendous plateau which stretches from the confines of Reykjavik to the sheer drop where begins the great plain of Thingveller. The road is the most desolate I have ever seen. ”

“ But the fact is, he was with Kellerman after I left, and I believe he led Kellerman to the place. There are two valleys lying side by side, separated by a great cliff of basalt. Mine—the Valley of the Sword—is the most eastern of the two. Now, if that guide lied about the name, and if my valley is, let's say, the Valley of the Scabbard, and the other is the Valley of the Sword, we're done."
"Don't let's think of it," said I; "there's no use making trouble. Olsen, the man with us, is to be trusted, and he'll soon tell us the truth when he sees the place." ”

“ Confound him and his local interest!" said Twisden, as we went off to breakfast. "He'd give his left hand to have a share in the thing. I've never seen a man madder under the surface, though he kept his temper—I will say that for him."
That day, at eleven o'clock, we started with twelve ponies, a native guide named Olsen, scientific apparatus, picks, tents, and provisions for a fortnight. ”

“ Yet, strange to say, this man who could never make money for himself was always making money for other people. He was one of the foremost men on the Klondyke business, and all he got out of it was a frost-bitten finger, and he even lost that, for it had to be amputated. ”

“ It is the richest radium deposit on this earth, and I've come back to London to get the money to work it and pay the Icelandic Government for the mining rights. Now, what do you say? I do not want to get the ordinary financiers into this business. You are a man with money. Will you put up the money to work this thing, and go half shares in the profit?"
I did not reply for a moment. I had absolute confidence in Twisden's integrity, and I knew him to be an expert in his business. ”

“ We would not have got the lease so quick only that Twisden, before coming to London, had put the thing in train. The Minister for Iceland was a friend of his, and a friend at Court like this greases the bureaucratic wheels wonderfully.
As we left the Mines Office, whom should we meet but Kellerman. I never saw a man so taken aback as Kellerman was when he saw Twisden. ”