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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sappers and Miners, by George Manville Fenn
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Sappers and Miners
+       The Flood beneath the Sea
+
+Author: George Manville Fenn
+
+Illustrator: Hal Hurst
+
+Release Date: May 8, 2007 [EBook #21367]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAPPERS AND MINERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+Sappers and Miners, by George Manville Fenn.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+This must be one of Manville Fenn's very best books.  The suspense is
+totally gripping, right to the very end.  Normally Fenn places his
+moments of terror at the very end of a chapter, so that this book with
+52 chapters must have quite a few of them.
+
+When preparing this book for publication on the web, the editor was
+truly sorry when the work ended, so greatly had he enjoyed every moment
+of it.
+
+The action takes place in Cornwall, in and around an old tin-mine,
+possibly dating back to Roman and Phoenician days, for these people
+obtained much of the tin they needed to make bronze, from Cornwall, and
+many of the mines are still there, with many miles of workings, often
+going out far beneath the sea.
+
+You should enjoy reading or listening to this book very much--as much, I
+hope, as the editor of it has done.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+SAPPERS AND MINERS, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+BASS FOR BREAKFAST.
+
+"Have some more bass, Gwyn?"
+
+"Please, father."
+
+"You should not speak with your mouth full, my dear," said Mrs
+Pendarve, quietly.
+
+"No, mother; but I didn't like to keep father waiting."
+
+"And between the two stools you came to the ground, eh?" said Colonel
+Pendarve, smiling.  "Never mind; hold your plate.  Lucky for us, my
+dear, that we have only one boy.  This fellow eats enough for three."
+
+"Well, but, father, we were down by the boat at daybreak, and the sea
+air makes one so hungry."
+
+"Say ravenous or wolfish, my boy.  But go on.  It certainly is a
+delicious fish, and Dolly has cooked it to a turn.  They were rising
+fairly, then?"
+
+"Yes, father; we rowed right out to the race, off the point, and for
+ever so long we didn't see a fish and sat there with our rods ready."
+
+Gwyn talked away, but with his mouth rather full of fried bass and
+freshly-baked bread all the same.
+
+"And of course it was of no use to try till a shoal began to feed."
+
+"Not a bit, father,--and Joe said we might as well come back; but when
+the sun rose they were breaking all round us, and for half-an-hour we
+kept hooking them at nearly every throw.  Come and see the rest of my
+catch; they're such beauties, as bright as salmon."
+
+"That's right, but don't let any of them be wasted.  Keep what you want,
+mamma, dear, and give the others away.  What did you use--a big fly?"
+
+"No, father, those tiny spoon-baits.  They come at them with a rush.
+Then they left off biting all at once, and--some more coffee, please,
+mother--and we rowed back home, and met Captain Hardock on the pier."
+
+"Ah, did you?"
+
+"Yes, father; and we gave him two pairs of fine ones, and he said they
+looked as bright as newly-run tin."
+
+"Humph!  Yes, that man thinks of nothing else but tin."
+
+"And he began about it again this morning, father," said Gwyn, eagerly.
+
+"Indeed!" said Colonel Pendarve; and Gwyn's mother looked up inquiringly
+from behind the silver coffee-urn.
+
+"Yes, father," said Gwyn, helping himself to more fresh, yellow Cornish
+butter and honey.  "He said what a pity it was that you did not
+adventure over the old Ydoll mine and make yourself a rich man, instead
+of letting it lie wasting on your estate."
+
+"My estate!" said the Colonel, smiling at his wife--"a few score acres
+of moorland and rock on the Cornish coast!"
+
+"But he says, father, he is sure that the old mine is very rich."
+
+"And that I am very poor, Gwyn, and that it would be nice for me to make
+a place for a mining captain out of work."
+
+"But you will not attempt anything of the kind, my dear," said Mrs
+Pendarve, anxiously.
+
+"I don't think, so, my dear.  We have no money to spare for speculating,
+and I don't think an old Indian cavalry officer on half-pay is quite the
+man to attempt such a thing."
+
+"But old Hardock said you were, father, and that you and Major Jollivet
+ought to form a little company of your own, and that he knows he could
+make the mine pay wonderfully."
+
+"Yes," said the Colonel, drily, "that's exactly what he would say, but I
+don't think much of his judgment.  I should be bad enough, but Jollivet,
+with his wound breaking out when he is not down with touches of his old
+jungle fever, would be ten times worse.  All the same, though, I have no
+doubt that the old mine is rich."
+
+"But Arthur, my dear," protested Mrs Pendarve, "think of how much money
+has been--"
+
+"Thrown down mines, my dear?" said the Colonel, smiling.  "Yes I do, and
+I don't think our peaceful retired life is going to be disturbed by
+anything a mining adventurer may say."
+
+"But it would be interesting, father," said Gwyn.
+
+"Very, my boy," said his father, smiling.  "It would give you and Joe
+Jollivet--"
+
+"Old Joe Jolly-wet," said Gwyn to himself.
+
+"A fine opportunity for trying to break your necks--"
+
+"Oh, my dear!" cried Mrs Pendarve.
+
+"Getting drowned in some unfathomable hole full of water."
+
+"Arthur!" protested Mrs Pendarve.
+
+"Losing yourself in some of the mazy recesses of the ancient workings."
+
+"Really, my dear!" began Mrs Pendarve; but the Colonel went on--
+
+"Or getting crushed to death by some fall of the mine roofing that has
+been tottering ready to fall perhaps for hundreds of years."
+
+"Pray don't talk like that, my dear," said Mrs Pendarve, piteously.
+
+"He doesn't mean it, mother," said Gwyn, laughing.  "Father's only
+saying it to frighten me.  But really, father, do you think the mine is
+so very old?"
+
+"I have no doubt of it, my boy.  It is certainly as old as the Roman
+occupation, and I should not be surprised if it proved to be as early as
+the time when the Phoenicians traded here for tin."
+
+"But I thought it was only stream tin that they got.  I read it
+somewhere."
+
+"No doubt, my boy, they searched the surface for tin; but suppose you
+had been a sturdy fellow from Tyre or Sidon, instead of a tiresome,
+idle, mischievous young nuisance of an English boy--"
+
+"Not quite so bad as that, am I, mother?" said Gwyn, laughing.
+
+"That you are not, my dear," said Mrs Pendarve, "though I must own that
+you do worry me a great deal sometimes by being so daring with your
+boating, climbing and swimming."
+
+"Oh, but I do take care--I do, really," said Gwyn, reaching out to lay
+his hand upon his mother's arm.
+
+"Yes, just as much as any other thoughtless, reckless young dog would,"
+grumbled the Colonel.  "I'm always expecting to have one of the
+fishermen or miners come here with a head or an arm or a leg, and say he
+picked it up somewhere, and does it belong to my son?"
+
+"Really, Arthur, you are too bad," began Mrs Pendarve.
+
+"He's only teasing you, ma, dear," cried Gwyn, laughing.  "But I say,
+father, what were you going to say about my being a Tyre and Sidonian?"
+
+"Eh?  Oh!  That if you found tin in some gully on the surface, wouldn't
+you dig down to find it where it was richer?"
+
+"Can't dig through granite," said Gwyn.
+
+"Well, chip out the stone, and by degrees form a deep mine."
+
+"Yes, I suppose I should, father."
+
+"Of course it's impossible to prove how old the mine is, but it is in
+all probability very ancient."
+
+"But it's only a deep hole, is it, father?"
+
+"I cannot say.  I never heard of its being explored; but there it is."
+
+"I've explored it sometimes by sending a big stone down, so as to hear
+it rumble and echo."
+
+"Yes, and I daresay hundreds of mischievous boys before you have done
+the same."
+
+"Why was it called the Ydoll mine, father?"
+
+"I cannot say, Gwyn.  Some old Celtic name, or a corruption.  It has
+always been called so, as far as I could trace when I bought the land;
+and there it is, and there let it remain in peace."
+
+"If you please, my dear," said Mrs Pendarve.  "Will you have some more
+coffee and bread and butter, Gwyn?"
+
+The boy shook his head, for there are limits even to a seaside appetite.
+
+"Wonderful!" said the Colonel.
+
+"What is, my dear?" said Mrs Pendarve.
+
+"Gwyn has had enough for once.  Oh, and, by the way, I have had quite
+enough of that dog.  If ever I find him scratching and tearing my garden
+about again, I'll pepper him with shot."
+
+The boy smiled and looked at his mother.
+
+"Oh, you may laugh, sir, at your foolish, indulgent father.  I don't
+know what I could have been about to let you keep him.  What do you want
+with a great collie?"
+
+"He's such a companion, father; and see how clever he is after rabbits!"
+
+"Matter of opinion," said the Colonel.  "I don't suppose the rabbits
+think so.  Well, mind this: I will not have him tearing about among my
+young fruit trees."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+A DEEP INVESTIGATION.
+
+Breakfast ended, Gwyn went straight off to the yard with half a fish and
+some bread; but before he came in sight, there was the rattle of a
+chain, a burst of barking, and a handsome collie dog, with long silky
+ears and a magnificent frill of thick hair about his neck, stood upon
+hind-legs at the full extent of the chain, and tried hard to strangle
+himself with his collar.
+
+Then there was a burst of frantic yelps and whines, a kind of dance was
+performed as the boy approached with the dog's breakfast, and then there
+was peace over the devouring of the bread, which was eaten in bits
+thrown at him from a couple of yards away, and caught without fail.
+
+After this performance the fish was placed in a pan; and as the dog bent
+down to eat, Gwyn pulled his ears, thumped his back, sat astride it and
+talked to the animal.
+
+"You're going to be shot at if you go into the garden again, Grip; so
+look out, old chap.  Do you hear?"
+
+The dog was too busy over the fish, but wagged his tail.
+
+"I'm to keep you chained up more, but we'll have some games over the
+moor yet--rabbits!"
+
+The fish was forgotten, and the dog threw up his head and barked.
+
+"There, go on with your breakfast, stupid!  I'm off."
+
+"How-ow!" whined the dog, dismally, and he kept it up, straining at his
+chain till the boy was out of sight, when the animal stood with an ear
+cocked up and his head on one side, listening intently till the steps
+died out, before resuming his breakfast of fish.
+
+Gwyn was off back to the house, where he fetched his basket from the
+larder and carried it into the hall.
+
+"Here, father--mother--come and have a look!" he cried; and upon their
+joining him, he began to spread out his catch, so as to have an
+exhibition of the silvery bass--the brilliant, salmon-shaped fish whose
+sharp back fins proved to a certainty that they were a kind of sea
+perch.
+
+They were duly examined and praised: and when they had been divided into
+presents for their neighbours in the little Cornish fishing port, the
+Colonel, who had, after long and arduous service in the East, hung up
+his sword to take to spade and trowel, went off to see to his
+nectarines, peaches, pears, grapes and figs in his well-walled garden
+facing the south, and running down to the rocky shores of the safe inlet
+of Ydoll Brea, his son Gwyn following to help--so it was called.
+
+The boy, a sturdy, frank-looking lad, helped his father a great deal in
+the garden, but not after the ordinary working fashion.  That fell to
+the lot of Ebenezer Gelch, a one-eyed Cornishman, who was strangely
+imbued with the belief that he was the finest gardener in the West of
+England, and held up his head very high in consequence.  Gwyn helped his
+father, as he did that morning, by following him out into the sunny
+slope, and keeping close behind.
+
+The Colonel stopped before a carefully-trained tree, where the great
+pears hung down from a trellis erected against the hot granite rock, and
+stood admiring them.
+
+"Nearly ripe, father?" asked Gwyn.
+
+"No, my boy, not nearly," said the Colonel, softly raising one in his
+hand.  "They may hang more than a month yet.  We shall beat the Jersey
+folk this year."
+
+"Yes, father," said Gwyn, and he followed to where the Colonel stopped
+before a peach tree, and stooped to pick up a downy red-cheeked fellow
+which had fallen during the night.
+
+"Not fully grown, Gwyn, but it's a very fine one," said the Colonel.
+
+"Yes father--a beauty.  Shall I take it in?"
+
+"No, not good enough.  Eat it, my boy."
+
+Gwyn did not need any further telling, and the peach disappeared, the
+stone being sent flying into the sea.
+
+A little farther on, a golden tawny Jefferson plum was taken from a
+tree, for the wasps had carved a little hole in the side, and this was
+handed to the boy and eaten.  A nectarine which had begun to shrink came
+next; and from the hottest corner of the garden a good-tempered looking
+fig, which seemed to have opened a laughing mouth as if full, and
+rejoicing in its ripeness.  After this a rosy apple or two and several
+Bon Chretien pears, richly yellow, were picked up and transferred to the
+boy's pocket, and the garden was made tidy once more, evidently to the
+owner's satisfaction.  Certainly to that of his son, who was most
+diligent in disposing of the fruit in this way.
+
+Then the Colonel sauntered into the little sloping vinery where the
+purple and amber grapes were hanging, and Gwyn thrust in his head; but
+as there were no berries to be eaten, and it was very hot, he drew back
+and went up the slope toward the wall at the top, carefully peeling one
+of the pears with a fishy pocket-knife.
+
+He was in the act of throwing a long curl of peel over the wall when a
+sun-browned face appeared as if on purpose to receive it, and started
+back.  Then there was a scrambling noise from the other side, as the
+face disappeared very suddenly, and Gwyn burst out laughing.
+
+"Hurt yourself?" he cried.
+
+There was the sound of scrambling, and the face re-appeared.
+
+"What did you do that for?" cried the owner.
+
+"To get rid of the peel, stupid."
+
+"Well, you might have chucked a pear instead."
+
+"All right--catch."
+
+A pear was thrown, dexterously caught, and the newcomer immediately took
+a magnificent bite out of it.
+
+"Oh! beauty!" he cried; and then, as he began to munch, he glanced down
+at the pit he had excavated with his keen teeth right to the core.  "Er!
+Yah!" he cried, spitting out the piece.  "Why, it's all maggoty!" and
+he threw the pear back with excellent aim; but it was deftly caught, and
+returned in a way that would have won praise at cricket.  Joe's aim was
+excellent, too; but when a boy is supporting himself by resting his
+elbows on the coping of a high stone-wall, he is in no position for
+fielding either a pear or a ball.  So the pear struck him full on the
+front of the straw hat he wore, and down he went with a rush, while Gwyn
+ran to the front of the wall, climbed up quickly, and looked over into
+the lane, laughing boisterously.
+
+"Got it that time, Joey," he cried.
+
+"All right, I'll serve you out for it.  Give us another pear."
+
+The request was attended to, the fruit being hurled down, but it was
+cleverly caught.
+
+"Why this is maggoty, too."
+
+"Well, I didn't put the maggots there; cut the bad out.  The dropped
+ones are all like that."
+
+"Go and pick me a fresh one, then."
+
+"Not ripe, and father does not like me to pick them.  That's a beauty."
+
+"Humph--'tain't bad.  But I say, come on."
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"Do?--why, didn't you say we'd go and have a good look at the old mine?"
+
+"Oh, ah; so I did.  I forgot."
+
+"Come on, then.  Old Hardock made my mouth water talking about it as he
+did this morning."
+
+"But we should want a rope, shouldn't we?"
+
+"Yes.  Let's get Jem Trevor to lend us one out of his boat."
+
+"All right.  I'll come round."
+
+"Why not jump down?"
+
+Gwyn gave a sharp look up and down the lane, but no one was in sight,
+and he lightly threw his legs over, and dropped down beside his
+companion.
+
+"Don't want any of the boys to see that there's a way over here," he
+said, "or we shall be having thieves.  I say, Joe, father's been talking
+about the old mine at breakfast."
+
+"Then you told him what Captain Hardock said.  I told my father, too."
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+Joe Jollivet laughed.
+
+"Well, what are you grinning at?  Why don't you speak?"
+
+"Because you're such a peppery chap, and I don't want a row."
+
+"Who's going to make a row?  What did the Major say?"
+
+"Sha'n't tell you."
+
+"Who wants you to?  It was something disrespectful of my father, and he
+has no business to.  My father's his superior officer."
+
+"That he isn't.  Your father was cavalry, and my father foot."
+
+"And that makes it worse," said Gwyn, hotly.  "Cavalry's higher than
+infantry, and a major isn't so high as a colonel.--What did he say?"
+
+"Oh, never mind.  Come on."
+
+"I know what he said; and it's just like the Major.  Just because his
+wounds come out bad sometimes, he thinks he has a right to say what he
+likes.  I believe he said my father was a fool."
+
+"That he didn't," cried Joe, sharply; "he said he'd be a fool, if he put
+any money in a mine."
+
+"There, I knew it, and it's regularly insulting," cried Gwyn, with his
+face flushing and eyes sparkling.  "I shall just go and tell Major
+Jollivet that my father--"
+
+"Oh, I say, what a chap you are!" cried Joe, wrinkling up his rather
+plump face.  "You're never happy without you're making a row about
+something.  Why don't you punch my head?"
+
+"I would for two pins."
+
+"There, that's more like you.  What have I done?  I didn't say it."
+
+"No, but your father did, and it's all the same."
+
+"Oh! is it?  I don't see that.  I couldn't help it."
+
+"Yes, you could.  It all came of your chattering.  See if I go fishing
+with you again!"
+
+"Go it!"
+
+"I mean to; and I shall walk straight up to Cam Maen, and tell the Major
+what I think of him.  I won't have my father called a fool by a jolly
+old foot-soldier, and so I'll tell him."
+
+"Yes, do," said Joe.  "He's got a touch of fever this morning, and can't
+help himself; so now's your chance.  But if you do go and worry him,
+you've got to have it out with me afterwards, and so I tell you."
+
+"Oh, have I?  You want me to give you another good licking?"
+
+"I don't care if you do.  I won't stand still and have my father bullied
+by old Ydoll, Gwyn."
+
+Gwyn turned upon him fiercely, but the sight of his companion's face
+calmed his anger on the instant.
+
+"It's all right, Joe," he said; "I like to hear anyone sticking up for
+his father or his mother."
+
+"I haven't got a mother to stick up for; but my father's ill and weak,
+and if you--"
+
+"Don't I keep on telling you I'm not going, you stupid old
+Jolly-wet-'un.  Come on.  Didn't we two say, after the last fight, when
+we shook hands, that we would never fight again?"
+
+"Yes; then why do you begin it?"
+
+"Who's beginning it?  Get out, and let's go and have a look at the mine.
+Let's stick to what we said: fight any of the fisher-lads, and help one
+another.  Now, then, let's go on to the old mine, and see if we can get
+down.  Pst! here's Hardock."
+
+For at the corner of the stone-walled lane, whose left side skirted the
+Colonel's property, which extended for half-a-mile along by the sea, the
+estate having been bought a bargain for the simple reason that its many
+acres grew scarcely anything but furze, heather and rag-wort, the rest
+being bare, storm-weathered granite, they came suddenly upon a
+dry-looking brown-faced man with a coil of rope worn across his chest
+like an Alpine guide.
+
+He was seated on the low wall dotted with pink stone-crop and golden and
+grey lichens, chewing something, the brown stain at the corner of his
+lips suggesting that the something was tobacco; and he turned his head
+slowly toward them, and spoke in a harsh grating voice, as they came up.
+
+"Going to the old mine?" he said.  "I thought you would, after what I
+told you this morning.  I'll go with you."
+
+"Did you bring that rope on purpose?" said Gwyn, quickly.
+
+"O' course, my son.  You couldn't look at the gashly place without."
+
+Gwyn glanced at Joe, and the latter laughed, while the mining captain
+displayed his brown teeth.
+
+"Right, aren't it?" he said.  "Didn't tell the Colonel what I said, I
+s'pose?"
+
+"Yes, I did," cried Gwyn; "and he as good as said it was all nonsense."
+
+"Maybe it be, and maybe it ban't," said the man, quietly.  "You two come
+along with me and have a look.  I've brought a hammer with me, too; and
+I say, let's chip off a bit or two of the stuff, and see what it's like.
+If it's good, your father may like to work it.  If it's poor, we
+sha'n't be no worse off than we was before, shall we?"
+
+"No, of course not," said Gwyn, "what do you say, Joe--shall we go?"
+
+"Of course," was the reply; and they trudged on together for about a
+hundred yards, and then climbed over the loose stone-wall, and then up a
+rugged slope dotted with gigantic fragments of granite.  A stone's throw
+or so on their left was the edge of the uneven cliff, which went down
+sheer to the sea; and all about them the great masses towered up, and
+their path lay anywhere in and out among tall rocks wreathed with
+bramble and made difficult with gorse.
+
+But they were used to such scrambles, and, the mining captain leading,
+they struggled on with the gulls floating overhead, starting a cormorant
+from his perch, and sending a couple of red-legged choughs dashing over
+the rough edge to seek refuge among the rocks on the face of the cliff.
+
+It was a glorious morning, the sea of a rich bright blue, and here and
+there silvery patches told where some shoal of fish was playing at the
+surface or demolishing fry.
+
+There was not a house to be seen, and the place was wild and chaotic in
+the extreme, but no one alluded to its ruggedness, all being intent upon
+the object of their quest, which they soon after came upon in the upper
+part of a deep gully, on one side of which there was a rough
+quadrangular wall of piled-up stones, looking like the foundations of a
+hut which had fallen to ruin; and here they paused.
+
+"Now, look here," said the man; "that place don't look anything; but
+your father, young Pendarve, has got a fortune in it, and I want to see
+what it's like.  So what do you say to going down with my hammer and
+bringing up a few chips?"
+
+"Why don't you go?" said Gwyn.
+
+"'Cause you two couldn't pull me up again.  It's a job for a boy."
+
+"Then let's send down Joe Jollivet.  He isn't worth much if we lose
+him."
+
+"Oh, I say," began the boy in dismay; but he read the twinkle in his
+companion's eye, and laughed.
+
+"I wouldn't mind going down.  Is the rope strong?"
+
+"Strong?" said the mining captain.  "Think I should have brought it if
+it warn't?  Hold a schooner."
+
+"Shall I go down, Gwyn?"
+
+The lad addressed did not answer for a few moments, but stood leaning
+over the rocky wall, gazing down into a square pit cut through the
+stone, the wall having been placed there for protection in case four or
+two-legged creatures passed that way.
+
+"But look here," said Joe; "would it be safe?"
+
+"Safe, lad?  Do you think I'd let you go if it warn't?  How could I face
+all your fathers and mothers after?"
+
+"But are you sure you could hold me if I went," said Joe, who began to
+look anxious.
+
+"Feel here," said the man, rolling up his sleeves.  "There's muscle!
+There's bone!  That's something like a man's arm, aren't it?  Hold you?
+Half-a-dozen on you.  Man either."
+
+Joe drew a deep sigh.
+
+"I'll go," he said.
+
+"No, you won't," cried Gwyn, fiercely.  "It's my father's place, and I
+ought to go."
+
+"But I wouldn't mind, Ydoll," said Joe, excitedly.
+
+"I know that, but I'll go first, and you help Sam Hardock."
+
+"Ay, you help me, my lad.  I know'd he'd have the pluck to go down."
+
+"You're sure of the rope, Sam?"
+
+"Sure?  There, don't you go down if you're afraid."
+
+"Who feels afraid?" cried Gwyn, hotly.  "There, how's it to be?  Throw
+the rope down and slide?"
+
+"No, no," growled the man.
+
+"Loop and sit in it?"
+
+"Nay; I'm too fearful over you, my lad.  But do you mean it?"
+
+"Mean it?  Yes, of course," said the boy, flushing.
+
+"Then, here you have it.  I just make a knot like this about your
+chesty, so as it don't grow tight and can't slip.  That's your sort.
+How's that?"
+
+As he spoke, he quickly fastened the end of the rope about the boy's
+breast, tested the knot and then lifted Gwyn by it.
+
+"Now, if you stick the hammer in your waistband, and have hold of the
+rope above your head with one hand to ease the strain, you'll go down
+like a cork, only keep yourself clear of the side."
+
+"Mind and don't turn and roast, Ydoll," cried Joe; "but you'd better let
+me go."
+
+"Next time.  Ready?" said Gwyn.
+
+"Ay."
+
+"Then over I go."
+
+As if fearing to hesitate, the boy got over the low wall and stood on
+the narrow edge of the old, crumbling, fern-hung shaft, and the next
+moment he was being lowered down, Joe turning a little faint from
+excitement as the upturned face disappeared, and he watched the rope
+glide through the man's bony hands.
+
+"How far are you going to let him down?" he said, anxiously.
+
+"Far as he likes, my lad.  Till he comes to paying ore.  You see that
+the rings o' rope run clear, and keep it right for me to run out.  He's
+tidy heavy for such a little 'un, though."
+
+Joe seized the coil, and made the rope run free, keeping spasmodically a
+tight hold of it the while, in case the man should let it slip.
+
+And so some sixty feet were allowed to run out, with Gwyn keeping on
+cheerily shouting, "All right!" from time to time.
+
+It was instantaneous.
+
+Suddenly the mining captain started back and blundered against Joe,
+completely knocking him over.  A wild shriek arose from the old shaft,
+sounding hollow, awful and strange, and the rope, which had either
+parted or come undone from the boy's chest, was swinging slackly to and
+fro in the great black pit.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+AT AGONY POINT.
+
+_Plosh_!
+
+There is no combination of letters that will more clearly express the
+horrible, echoing, hollow sound which, after what seemed to be a long
+interval, but which was almost momentary, rose out of the ancient shaft,
+followed by strange and sickening splashings and a faint, panting noise.
+
+Then all was still; and Joe and the mining captain, who had been
+absolutely paralysed for the time being, stood gazing wildly in each
+other's face.
+
+That, too, was almost momentary, and, with a despairing cry, Joe
+Jollivet dashed at the low wall and began to climb over it, dislodging
+one of the stones, which fell inward, and then plunged down into the pit
+just as Hardock seized the boy by the waist to drag him back.
+
+"What are you going to do?" roared the man, and the splash and roar of
+the fallen stone also came rushing out of the mouth.
+
+"Do?" cried Joe, hysterically; "try and save him."
+
+"But you can't do it that way, boy," panted the man, whose voice sounded
+as if he had been running till he was breathless.
+
+"I must--I must!" cried Joe, struggling to get free.  "Oh, Gwyn, Gwyn,
+Gwyn!"
+
+"Hold still, will you?" bawled Hardock.  "Chucking yourself down won't
+save him."
+
+"Then let me down by the rope."
+
+"Nay; it's parted once, and you'd be drowned too."
+
+"I don't care!  I don't care!" cried Joe, wildly.  "I must go down to
+him.  Let go, will you?" and he struggled fiercely to get free.
+
+But the man's strength was double his, and he tore the boy from the
+wall, threw him down on his back, and placed a foot on his breast to
+hold him as he rapidly ran out the rest of the rope, till only about a
+yard remained, and then he released him.
+
+"Now, you keep quiet," he growled.  "You're mad--that's what you are!"
+
+Joe rose to his feet, awed by the man's manner, and grasping now the
+fact that he was about to take the only steps that seemed available to
+save his companion.
+
+For Hardock hurried to the other side of the opening, where the wall had
+been built close to the edge, and there was no space between, so that he
+could, in leaning over the wall, gaze straight down the shaft.
+
+And then he began jerking the rope; and as he did so they could faintly
+hear indications of its touching the water far below.
+
+"D'yer hear, there?" he shouted.  "Lay holt o' the rope.  Can't you see
+it?"
+
+As he spoke, he jerked the stout line and sent a wave along it, making
+it splash in the water far below; but the faint, whispering and smacking
+sounds were all the answer, and Joe burst out with a piteous cry,--
+
+"He's drowned! he's drowned!  Or he's holding on somewhere waiting for
+me to go down and save him.  Pull up the rope, quick!  No; fasten it,
+and I'll slide down."
+
+"Nay, nay; you keep quiet," growled the man, whose face was now of a
+sickly pallor.  "How'm I to hear what he says, if you keep on making
+that row?"
+
+"What--he says?" faltered Joe.  "Then you can hear him shout?"
+
+"You be quiet.  Ahoy!  Below there!  Ketch holt o' the rope.  None o'
+your games to frighten us.  I know.  Now, then, ketch holt and make it
+fast round yer."
+
+Joe stood there with his face ghastly, and his eyes starting, as, with
+his hands behind his ears, he strained to catch the faintest sound which
+came up as through a great whispering tube; but all he could hear was
+the splashing of the rope, and a deep low musical dripping sound of
+falling water.
+
+"D'yer hear there!" roared Hardock, now savagely.  "It arn't right of
+yer, youngster.  Shout something to let's know where yer are."
+
+"He's dead--he's dead!" wailed Joe.  "Let me go down and try and get him
+out."
+
+"Will you be quiet!" roared the man, fiercely.  "D'yer want to stop me
+when I'm trying to save him?"
+
+"No, no, I want to help."
+
+"Then be quiet.  You only muddles me, and stops me from thinking what's
+best to do.  Below there!  Pendarve, ahoy!  Ketch holt o' the rope, I
+tell yer!"
+
+But he called in vain--there was no reply; and though he agitated the
+rope again and again, there was no other sound.
+
+"There, now, let me go down.  I must--I will go down, Sam."
+
+"There's a good two hundred feet on it, and it's gone right down into
+the water," growled the man thoughtfully.  "It's him playing tricks with
+us, arn't it?"
+
+"Playing tricks!  Who's mad now?" cried Joe.  "Will you pull up that
+rope?"
+
+For answer the man jerked it again and again, then pulled up a few
+fathoms, and let them drop again with a splash.
+
+"Now, then, do you hear that?" he cried.  "If yer don't ketch holt we'll
+haul it all up, and leave yer."
+
+"Oh, Sam, Sam, Sam," cried Joe, "let me go down.  Do you hear me?  If
+you don't, I'll jump."
+
+"Will you be quiet?" roared the man, fiercely.  "You just stay where you
+are, or I'll tie yer neck and heels with the rope.  Think I want to go
+back and say there's two on yer drownded.  Stop where yer are."
+
+"But we can't stand without doing something.  Oh, Gwyn, Gwyn!  How can I
+go and tell Mrs Pendarve what's happened?"
+
+"And how can I?" cried the man, angrily.  "What d'yer both mean, coming
+tempting on me to let yer down.  What's the Colonel going to say to me?"
+
+"Then you do think he's drowned?" cried Joe, piteously.
+
+"Who's to help thinking he is?" said the man, gruffly, and he wiped the
+thick perspiration from his brow.  "They all did say it was a onlucky
+mine, but I wouldn't believe 'em."
+
+"Gwyn!  Gwyn!  Gwyn!" shouted Joe, as he leaned over the wall and gazed
+down, but there were only hollow reverberations in reply.
+
+"It's no good, my lad," said Hardock, bitterly.  "Who'd ha' thought of
+that rope failing as it did?  Good sound rope as it be."
+
+"But you are not going to give up, and do nothing?" cried Joe,
+frantically.
+
+"What is us to do then?" said the man, with a groan.  "Let me down, I
+tell you."
+
+"Nay; it would be too bad, I won't do that."
+
+"Then go down yourself."
+
+"How?  Can you hold me, and haul me up?  That's madder still.  He's
+gone, my lad, he's gone; and we can't do nothing to help him."
+
+"Run, run for help.  I'll stay here and hold the rope.  He may be
+insensible and catch hold of it yet."
+
+"Ay, he may," said the man, meaningly; "but folk don't do that sort o'
+thing, my lad.  Nay; it's o' no use to struggle over it.  He's a dead
+and goner, and you and me's got to face it."
+
+"Face it!" groaned Joe, letting his head go down on the top of the wall.
+"Face it!  How can I ever face Mrs Pendarve again?"
+
+"Ah! and how can I face the Colonel, his father.  I can't do it, my lad,
+Ydoll Churchtown's been a happy enough home for me, and I've allus made
+a living in it, but it's all over now.  I must be off at once."
+
+"To get help?" cried Joe, raising his ghastly face from where it rested
+upon the weathered stone, and looking more ghastly now from the blood
+which had started from a slight cut on his brow.
+
+"Nay; I've done all I could do here for young Gwyn--all as a man can do.
+I've got to take care o' myself now, and be off somewheres, for the
+Colonel'll put it all on to me."
+
+"Go!  Run away!" cried Joe.  "Oh, you wouldn't be such a coward!  Here,
+quick! try again.--Gwyn, old chap!  The rope--the rope.  Oh, do try and
+catch hold," he shouted down the pit.
+
+But there was no reply; and wild now with frantic horror, the boy seized
+the rope and began to climb over the wall.  "Ah! none o' that!" roared
+Hardock, grasping his arms; and now there was a desperate struggle which
+could only have the one result--the mastery of the boy.  For at last
+Hardock lifted him from the ground and threw him on his back amongst the
+heath, and held him down.
+
+"It's no good to fight, young 'un," he said breathlessly.  "You're
+strong, but my muscles is hardest.  I don't say nought again' you,
+though yer did hit me right in the mouth with your fist.  I like it, for
+it shows your pluck, and that you'd do anything to try and save your
+mate.  Lie still.  It's of no use, yer know.  I could hold down a couple
+of yer.  There, steady.  Can't yer see I should be letting yer go to
+your death, too, my lad, and have to hear what the Major said as well as
+the Colonel.  Not as I should, for I should be off; and then it would
+mean prison, and they'd say I murdered you both, for there wouldn't be
+no witness on my trial, but the rope, and mebbe they'd give me that for
+my share, and hang me.  There, will yer be quiet if I let yer sit up?"
+
+"Yes, yes," said the boy, with a groan of despair.
+
+"And yer see as I can't do nothing more, and you can't neither."
+
+"I--I don't know, Sam," groaned the boy, as he lay weak and panting on
+his back in the purple-blossomed heath.  "No, no, I can't see it.  I
+must do something to try and save him."
+
+"But yer can't, lad," said the man, bitterly.  "There arn't nothing to
+be done.  It's a gashly business; but it wouldn't make no better of it
+if I let you chuck yourself away, too.  There, now you're getting
+sensible."
+
+Joe lay with his eyes closed in the hot sunshine, glad of the darkness
+to shut out the horror of the scene around him; for the bright blue sky,
+with the soft-winged grey gulls floating round and round above their
+heads, and the far-spreading silver and sapphire sea, were dominated by
+the mouth of the horrible pit, from which with strained senses he kept
+on expecting to hear the faint cries of his companion for help.
+
+But all was very still, save the soft, low hum of the bees busily
+probing the heath bells for honey in the beautiful, wild stretch of
+granite moorland, and the black darkness was for the unhappy boy alone.
+
+For the knowledge was forced upon him that he could do no more.  He felt
+that after the first minute Gwyn's position must have been hopeless, and
+he lay there perfectly still now in his despair, when Hardock rose
+slowly, and began to haul in the line, hand over hand, coiling it in
+rings the while, which rings lay there in the hot sunshine, dry enough
+till quite a hundred-and-fifty feet had been drawn on, and then it came
+up dripping wet fully fifty feet more, the mining captain drawing it
+tightly through his hands to get rid of the moisture.
+
+"Bad job--bad job!" he groaned, "parted close to the end--close to the
+end--close to the end--well, I'll be hanged!"
+
+He began in a low, muttering way, quite to himself, and ended with a
+loud ejaculation which made Joe sit up suddenly and stare.
+
+"What is it?" he cried wildly.  "Hear him?"
+
+"Hear him?  No, my lad, nor we aren't likely to.  But look at that."
+
+He held out the wet end of the rope, showing how it was neatly bound
+with copper-wire to keep it from fraying out and unlaying.
+
+"Well," said Joe, "what is it?"
+
+"Can't yer see, boy?"
+
+"The rope's end?  Yes."
+
+"Can't yer see it aren't broke?"
+
+"Yes, of course.  Why, it did not part, Sam!" cried Joe, excitedly.
+
+"Nay; it did not part."
+
+"Then it came untied," cried Joe, frantically.  "Oh, Sam!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+JOE HEARS A CRY.
+
+"Here, what's the good o' your shouting at me like that, my lad?  Think
+things aren't bad enough for me without that?" cried the man, in an
+ill-used tone.
+
+"You did not tie it properly."
+
+"Yes, I did, lad, so don't go saying such a word as that.  I made that
+rope fast round him quite proper."
+
+"No, or it wouldn't have come untied.  And you boasted as you did!  Why,
+you've murdered him.  Oh, Sam, Sam, Sam!"
+
+"Will you be quiet?" cried the man, who was trembling visibly.  "Don't
+you turn again' me.  You were in the business, too.  You helped, my lad;
+and if I murdered him, you were as bad as me."
+
+"It's too cruel--too cruel!" groaned Joe.
+
+"And you turning again' me like that!" cried Hardock.  "You shouldn't
+run back from your mate in a job, my lad," said the man, excitedly.  "I
+tied him up in the reg'lar, proper knot, and you calls me a murderer.
+Just what his father would say to me if I give him a chance.  It's a
+shame!"
+
+"We trusted you, both of us, because you were a man, and we thought you
+knew what was right!"
+
+"And so I did know what was right, and did what was right; that there
+rope wouldn't have never come undone if he hadn't touched it.  He must
+have got fiddling it about and undone it hissen.  It warn't no doing o'
+mine!"
+
+"Shame!  Oh, you miserable coward!" cried Joe, starting to his feet now
+in his indignant anger.
+
+"Mizzable coward!  Oh, come, I like that!" cried Hardock.  "Who's a
+coward?"
+
+"Why, you are; and you feel your guilt.  Look at you shivering, and
+white as you are."
+
+"Well, aren't it enough to make any man shiver and look white, knowing
+as that poor lad's lying dead at the bottom of that big hole?"
+
+Joe groaned, and took hold of the rope's end.
+
+"How could he have undone the knot, swinging as he was in the air?  You
+know well enough it was not properly tied."
+
+"But it was!" cried Hardock, indignantly.  "I tied it carefully mysen,
+just as I should have done if I'd been going down."
+
+"Don't use that knot again, then," said Joe, bitterly.  "I wish--oh! how
+I wish you had let me go down instead."
+
+"What?" cried the man.  "Why, you'd ha' been drowned i'stead o' he."
+
+"I wish I had been.  It would have been better than having to go to the
+Colonel to tell him--I can't do it!" cried the boy, passionately.  "I
+can't do it!"
+
+"Then come along o' me, my lad."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"I d'know.  Somewheres where they don't know about it.  We can't stay
+here and face it.  It's too horrid.  You can't face the Colonel and his
+lady.  Ah! they're quite right; the mine is an unlucky one, and I wish
+I'd never spoke about it; but it seemed a pity for such a good working
+to go to waste.  But they all say it's unlucky, and full o' all kinds o'
+wicked, strange critters, ghosts and goblins, and gashly things that
+live underground to keep people from getting the treasure.  I used to
+laugh to myself and say it was all tomfoolery, and old women's tales;
+but it's true enough, as I know now, to my sorrow."
+
+"How do you know?" cried Joe, angrily.
+
+"By him going.  It warn't he as undid the rope--it was one o' they
+critters, as a lesson to us not to 'tempt to go down.  I see it all
+clear enough now."
+
+"Bah!" cried Joe, fiercely, "such idiotic nonsense!  Let me tie the rope
+round myself, and I'll go down and try and find him.  I don't believe in
+all that talk about the mine being haunted.  I've heard it before."
+
+"Course you have, my lad.  But let you go down?  Nay, that I won't.
+Poor young Gwyn Pendarve's drownded, same as lots of poor fellows as
+went out healthy and strong in their fishing-boats have been drownded,
+and never come back no more.  It's very horrid, but it's very true.  He
+aren't the first by a long chalk, and he won't be the last by a many.
+It's done, and it can't be undone.  But it's a sad job."
+
+"Let me go down, Sam," pleaded Joe, humbly now.
+
+"Nay, I'm too much of a mizzable coward, my lad.  I don't want to leave
+you and lose you."
+
+"But you wouldn't," cried the boy.  "I should tie the knot too tight."
+
+"I don't know as yer could tie a better knot than I could, Master Joe
+Jollivet.  And even if yer could, yer wouldn't be able to make my hands
+feel strong enough to hold yer."
+
+"I'm not afraid of that; and he must be brought out."
+
+"I don't know, my lad, I don't know.  If he is to be, it'll want a lot
+o' men with long ropes, and lanterns to courage 'em up; but it strikes
+me that when they know what's happened, yer won't find a man in Ydoll
+Cove as will risk going down.  They all know about the horrors in the
+mine, and they won't venter.  I didn't believe it, but I do now.  There,
+the rope's coiled up, and I may as well go."
+
+"To get help?  Yes, go at once," cried Joe, excitedly; "I'll stay."
+
+"Nay, yer won't, my lad.  I'm not going to leave yer.  I don't want to
+know afterward as yer chucked yerself down that hole, despairing like.
+You're going away with me."
+
+"I'm going to stay till help comes to get poor Gwyn out."
+
+Hardock shook his head.
+
+"Go and tell them what's happened."
+
+"I dursent," said the man, with a shiver.
+
+"You go at once."
+
+"What! and tell the Colonel his boy's dead?  That I won't, my lad.  He'd
+be ready to kill me."
+
+"Go to my father, and tell him.  He'll break the news to Colonel
+Pendarve; and you go on then to the village, to collect men and ropes."
+
+"They wouldn't come."
+
+"Oh, have you no feeling in you, at such a time?" cried Joe.  "You are
+only thinking about yourself.  You must--you shall go on.  What's that?"
+
+The boy started and stood staring wildly at his companion, for a
+faintly-heard cry reached their ears, and Hardock's face grew mottled,
+sallow, white, red and brown.
+
+"Sea-bird," he said at last hoarsely, after they had waited for a few
+moments, listening for a repetition of the cry.
+
+"I never heard a sea-bird call like that," said Joe, in a husky whisper.
+"It wasn't a gull, nor a shag, nor a curlew."
+
+"Nay, it warn't none o' they," said Hardock, in a whisper.  "I know all
+the sea-fowl cries.  I thought it was one o' they big black-backed
+gulls, but it warn't that."
+
+"Can you make out what it was, then?"
+
+"Yes; it was something we don't understand, making joy because some one
+as it don't like has been drownded."
+
+The boy felt too much startled and excited to pause and ridicule his
+companion's superstitious notions, and he took a few steps quickly to
+the rough, square wall, from a faint hope that the sound might have come
+from there; but as he touched the wall, a strong grip was on his
+shoulder.
+
+"No, yer don't," growled Hardock.  "You keep back."
+
+"But that cry!" panted Joe.
+
+"It didn't come from there.  It was sea way."
+
+"Yes; there it is again!"
+
+Sounding more faint and distant, the strange cry floated from away to
+their left, and a strange thrill ran through Joe Jollivet, as he yielded
+to the man's hand, and suffered himself to be drawn right away from the
+mouth of the hole.
+
+"Yes, I heard it," said Hardock, in a low tremulous voice, and with a
+look of awe, which accorded ill with the man's muscular figure.  "Don't
+you know what it was?"
+
+"No; do you?  Could it be Gwyn calling for help?"  The man nodded his
+head and spoke in a low mysterious whisper, as if afraid of being
+overheard.
+
+"I dunno about calling for help, my lad; but it was him."
+
+"But where--where?" cried Joe, wildly.
+
+"Out yonder.  We couldn't see 'em, but they must ha' come sweeping out
+of the pit there, and gone right off with him, like a flock of birds,
+right away out to sea."
+
+"Oh, you fool!" cried Joe.  "It's horrible to listen to you great big
+fishermen and miners with your old women's tales.  If it's Gwyn calling,
+he must be somewhere near, I know.  There's another shaft somewhere, and
+he's calling up that.  Come and see."
+
+"There aren't no other shaft, my lad," said the man, mysteriously.
+"It's what I say.  You'll know better some day, and begin to believe
+when you've seen and heard as much as me.  There's things and critters
+about these cliffs sometimes of a night, and in a storm, as makes your
+hair stand on end to hear 'em calling to one another.  Why, I've knowed
+the times when--"
+
+"There it is again," cried Joe, excitedly.  "Ahoy!" he yelled.  "Where
+are you?"
+
+There was no answer, and the boy stood staring about him with every
+sense strained, listening intently; but no further sound was heard, and
+the man laid his hand upon the boy's arm.
+
+"Come away, lad," he whispered, "afore ill comes to us.  Didn't you
+hear?"
+
+"I heard the cry."
+
+"Nay, I meant that there whispering noise as seemed to come up out o'
+the pit.  Let's go while we're safe."
+
+"Nonsense!  What is there to be afraid of?" cried Joe, impatiently.
+"Listen!"
+
+"I don't know what there is to be afraid of, my lad; but there's
+something unked about, and the gashly thing's given me the creeps.  Come
+away."
+
+"Ah, there!  Why, it's towards the cliffs.  A cry!"  Joe shouted, for,
+very softly, but perfectly distinct, there was a peculiar distant
+wailing cry.  "It's all right, Sam.  He's alive somewhere, and he's
+calling to us for help."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+FISHING FOR A BOY.
+
+Sam Hardock looked at the boy with a mingling of horror and pity on his
+countenance.
+
+"What yer talking about?" he cried.  "Can't yer understand as it means
+trouble?  Someone's deloodering of yer away so as you may be drownded,
+too."
+
+But Joe Jollivet hardly heard him in his excitement.  He was convinced
+that he had heard Gwyn calling for aid, and he dashed off in search of
+his comrade.
+
+He felt that it was useless, but he stepped back to the mouth of the
+ancient mine, and shouted down it once, but without response, and then
+started to climb out of the gully in which he stood, mounting
+laboriously over the rugged granite masses which lay about, tangling and
+scratching himself among the brambles, and at last standing high up on
+the slope to gaze round and shout.
+
+"What's the good o' that?" cried Hardock, who was following him.  "Come
+back."
+
+For answer Joe gazed round about him, wondering whether by any
+possibility there was another opening into the mine hidden by bramble
+and heath.  He had been all over the place with Gwyn scores of times,
+and the walled-in mouth was familiar enough; and from the cliff edge to
+the mighty blocks piled up here and there he and Gwyn had climbed and
+crawled, hunting adders and lizards among the heath, chased rabbits to
+their holes in the few sandy patches, and foraged for sea-birds' eggs on
+the granite ledges and, by the help of a rope, over on the face of the
+cliffs.  But never once had they come upon any opening save the one down
+into the old mine.
+
+"But there must be--there must be," muttered Joe, with a feeling of
+relief, "and I've got to find it.  It's blocked up with stones, and the
+blackberries have grown all over it.  There!--All right.  Ahoy!
+Coming."
+
+For the faint halloa came now very distinctly.
+
+"Are you comin' back?" shouted Hardock.  "Don't stand hollering there in
+that mad way."
+
+"He's here--he's here--somewhere," shouted back Joe, excitedly, and he
+waved to his companion to come on.
+
+"Yah! stuff!" growled Hardock; but he followed up the side of the gully,
+while Joe went on away from the sea to where a wall of rock rose up some
+twenty feet and ran onward for seventy or eighty.
+
+Joe came back hurriedly after a few moments and met Hardock.
+
+"Well, where is he?" said the latter.
+
+"I don't know," panted the boy; "somewhere underneath.  I keep hearing
+him."
+
+"You keep hearing o' them," said the man, with a look full of the
+superstition to which he was a victim.
+
+"Ahoy!" came faintly from behind them.
+
+"Now, then," cried Joe, excitedly; "he's up there."
+
+He turned and ran up toward the wall of rock once more, followed more
+deliberately by Hardock, who hung the coil of rope on his shoulder.
+
+"Well, where is he?" said the man, as he reached the spot where Joe was
+hunting about among the great pieces of stone.
+
+"I don't know, but there must be another opening here."  Hardock shook
+his head mysteriously.
+
+"But you heard him shout."
+
+"I heerd a voice," said the man; and as he spoke there came a querulous
+chorus from the gulls that were floating in the air close to the edge of
+the cliff.
+
+"No, no, it was not a gull," cried Joe.
+
+"I did not say it weer," replied Hardock.  "You can think what you like,
+but I only says, `Wheer is he?'"
+
+"He must be somewhere here," cried Joe; and he climbed about in all
+directions for some time, and only gave up when he felt how impossible
+it was that his comrade could be anywhere near.
+
+"Theer, come on down, my lad," said Hardock at last.
+
+"It's impossible for anyone to be here.  There aren't a hole big enough
+to hide a rabbit, let alone a boy."
+
+They descended slowly toward the lower part of the slope, near the cliff
+edge.  Here Joe stopped short, for faintly, but perfectly distinct, came
+the words, "Joe, ahoy!" and certainly from behind him.
+
+"There, I knew he was up there!" cried the lad, excitedly; "come back.
+I was sure of it."
+
+He scrambled back as fast as he could, and Hardock followed him,
+frowning, and stood looking on, while his companion searched once more
+in every possible direction without avail.
+
+"Ahoy, Gwyn.  Y-doll!" he shouted through his hands.  "Where are you?"
+
+There was no reply, and after more searching and shouting, and with the
+man's superstitious notions beginning to affect him, Joe stopped and
+gazed blankly in his face.
+
+"Well, d'yer begin to believe me now, my lad?" whispered Hardock.
+
+"I can't help--" began the lad; and then he burst out with an emphatic.
+"No, it's all nonsense!  Gwyn must be here.  Ahoy, Ydoll!  Where are
+you?"
+
+His voice died away, and in obedience to an order from the man, Joe
+began to descend the rugged slope again towards the green strip, which
+ran along near the cliff edge.
+
+"It's of no use fighting again' it, my lad," said Hardock, solemnly;
+"they're a-mocking of you, and you might go on hunting all day long and
+couldn't find nought.  Let's go; we aren't safe here."
+
+"I won't go," cried the boy, "and I won't believe what you think is
+possible.  Gwyn's somewhere about here.  Now, think.  Where is there
+that we haven't searched?"
+
+"Nowheres," whispered Hardock, and in spite of the bright sunshine
+around them he kept on nervously glancing here and there.
+
+"Why, if you go on like that in the middle of the day, Sam," cried the
+boy, angrily, "what would you do if it was dark?"
+
+"Dark!  You don't know a man in Ydoll Cove as would come up here after
+dark, my lad.  It would be more than his life was worth, he'd tell you.
+Why, there's not only them in the old mine, but the cliffs swarm with
+them things as goes raging about whenever there's a storm.  I never used
+to believe in them, but I do now."
+
+"And I don't," said Joe, "and you won't frighten me.  It's poor old Gwyn
+we heard shouting, and there must be an opening somewhere down into the
+mine."
+
+"Wheer is it, then?" whispered the man.  "You've been all over here
+times enough, and so have I, but I never found no hole 'cept the one big
+one down."
+
+"No, I never saw one, but there must be.  There!"  For a faint hail came
+again from the wall of rock behind them.
+
+"Gwyn, ahoy!" cried Joe as loudly as he could.
+
+"Ahoy!" came back steadily.
+
+"Why, it's an echo," cried Joe, excitedly.  "Ahoy!  Ahoy!"
+
+"Oy--oy!" came back from the wall, and directly after, much more
+faintly--"Oy--help!"
+
+"Oh, what fools--what idiots!" cried Joe, excitedly; and certain now of
+where his comrade was, he went quickly down the slope to the cliff edge
+and looked over down towards where the sea eddied among the fallen rocks
+three hundred feet below, and shouted,--"Gwyn!--Gwyn!"
+
+His voice seemed lost there; but as he listened there came faintly a
+reply in the one appealing cry--"help!"
+
+But it was away to his right, where the rocks rose up rugged and broken.
+Where he stood the grass ran right to the edge, but there the granite
+looked as if it had been built up with large blocks into a mighty
+overhanging bastion, which rose up fully fifty feet higher; and it was
+evident that Gwyn had worked his way somewhere out to the cliff face far
+below this mass.
+
+"Why there must be an adit," cried Hardock, in a tone full of wonder.
+"I never knowed of that."
+
+[Note; an adit is a horizontal shaft driven in from the cliff.]
+
+"Yes, and he's safe--he's safe?" cried Joe; and his manliness all
+departed in his wild excitement, for he burst into a fit of hysterical
+sobbing.  He mastered his emotion though, directly, and shouted,--
+
+"Hold on!  Coming," in the hope of being heard.
+
+He was heard, for, faintly heard from below to their right, came the
+former appealing word--
+
+"Help!"
+
+"All right," he yelled.  "Now, Sam, can I get down there?"
+
+"You'll get to the bottom afore you know it," replied the man.  "No."
+
+"Then you must lower me with the rope."
+
+"What, and one o' my knots!" said the man, maliciously.
+
+"Oh, don't talk," cried Joe, "but come on.  We must get along to where
+it's right over him, and then I'll go down.  But did you ever see a hole
+along here?"
+
+"Nay--never!"
+
+"Come on."
+
+Joe led the way inland, and then had to clamber over block after block
+of tumbled together granite for some fifty yards, when he turned to
+begin mounting to the hog-back-like ridge which ran out to the great
+bastion which overhung the sea.
+
+It was an awkward climb--not dangerous, but difficult.  Joe's heart was
+in his work though; and, free now from superstitious dread, Hardock
+toiled after him, keeping up so that he was at his shoulder when the boy
+lay down on his chest and looked over the edge.
+
+For a few moments he could see nothing but ledge and jutting block,
+whitened by the sea-birds which here brought up their young in peace,
+for even the reckless boys had looked upon it as too hazardous to
+descend.  The sea far below was just creaming among the rocks which
+peered above the water, and ran out in a reef causing a dangerous race;
+but though Joe searched the whole cliff face below him for nearly a
+minute he could see nothing, and at last he shouted with all his might
+and had a lesson in the feebleness of the human voice in that vast
+expanse.
+
+"Ahoy!"
+
+"Ahoy!" came up from below as faintly as the cry which evoked it.
+
+"I can't see him," said Hardock, shading his eyes as he peered down.
+
+"No; he must be under one of the blocks that jut out."
+
+"Ay and all hings over, or he'd ha' climbed up.  Now, my lad, what's to
+be done?  Will you go down?"
+
+"Yes, of course; but knot me fast this time, Sam."
+
+"Ay, my lad, I will.  You trust me."
+
+"I will, Sam," said the boy, calmly.  Then he strained outwards, put
+both hands, trumpet fashion, to his lips, and shouted,--
+
+"Ahoy!  Coming down.--Hardock, look!  I can see him."
+
+"Eh?  Where?  I can't see nought."
+
+"There, nearly straight under us, about half-way down--look!"
+
+"No; I can't see him.  Can you?"
+
+"Yes; only his hand.  It's like a speck.  He's waving it to us.  There,
+I can just see a bit of his arm, too."
+
+"I got it now.  Yes, I can see it.  He must be at the mouth of an adit
+where they threw out their waste stuff to be washed away by the sea."
+
+"Ahoy!  Rope!"
+
+Those two words came up plainly now, and Joe answered through his closed
+hands.
+
+"All--right--coming down!--Now, Sam, quick.  Make me fast, and lower
+away."
+
+"No!  Rope!" came up from below.
+
+"Says you aren't to go down," cried Hardock, excitedly.  "And why should
+yer?  I'll drop the rope, and you can help me haul him up.  He'll make
+it fast enough, I know."
+
+As he spoke the man rose up, threw the ring of rope on the rock by his
+side, set the end free, made a knot in it, and gave it to Joe to hold
+while, after a little examination to make sure that it would uncoil
+easily, he raised the ring, stood back a couple of yards, swung the coil
+to and fro horizontally on a level with his left shoulder and then
+launched it seaward with a vigorous throw, making a snatch directly
+after at the end close to where Joe held on with both hands.
+
+Away went the rope with the rings gracefully uncoiling and straightening
+out as the stout hemp writhed like some long thin serpent, opening out
+more and more, till, far away below them, they saw it hang down, swaying
+to and fro like a pendulum.
+
+"Not long enough," cried Joe, sadly.
+
+"Good two hundred foot, my lad; nigh upon five-and-thirty fathom; p'raps
+he'll climb to it.  Can you see the end?"
+
+"No--no," said Joe; "it hangs over beyond that block that sticks out?"
+
+"And it's below that he's a-lying, aren't it?"
+
+"I don't know--I think so.  It's of no use.  I must slide down to him.
+Ah, stop a minute, let's give it a swing to and fro.  Perhaps he can't
+see it.  Hurrah!  I've got a bite."
+
+"Nay!" cried Hardock, excitedly.
+
+"Yes, it's all right.  Feel."
+
+But there was no need, for at that moment there was a most unmistakable
+tug.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+AT AN AWKWARD CORNER.
+
+"Hurrah!" yelled Joe, half mad with excitement.  "It is long enough, and
+he has got it.  He was trying if it was safe."
+
+"Hooroar!" shouted Hardock, hoarsely, for he was as excited as the boy.
+"Hold tight, my lad; don't let him pull it out of your hands.  But he
+won't, for I've got it, too.  Why, it's all right, young Jollivet, and
+the old mine goblins had nothing to do with it, after all.  We'll soon
+have him up."
+
+"Yes, we'll soon have him up," cried Joe, hysterically, and he burst
+into a strange laugh.  "I say, how he frightened us, though!"
+
+And in those moments of relief from the tension they had felt, it seemed
+like nothing that the lad was two hundred feet down the terrible
+precipice, about to swing at the end of the rope which had played him so
+false but a short time before.
+
+"He's making the line fast round him, Sam.  I can feel it quiver and
+jerk.  Shout down to him to be sure and tie the knots tight."
+
+"Nay, nay, you let him be.  He don't want no flurrying.  Trust him for
+that.  He knows how to make himself fast."
+
+"Think so?" said Joe, hoarsely; and he felt the hands which held the
+rope grow wet.
+
+"Nay, don't want no thinking, my lad.  He'll manage all right."
+
+"He has," cried Joe, excitedly.  "Do you feel?  He's signalling for us
+to haul him up."
+
+For three sharp tugs were given at the rope.
+
+"Ay, that means all right," said Hardock.  "Now you hold on tight."
+
+"I can't haul him all alone."
+
+"Nay, not you.  Nobody wants you to try; I only want you to hold while I
+get ready.  It wouldn't do to let one end go loose, would it?"
+
+As he spoke Hardock relinquished his hold of the rope, and began to
+strip off his jacket.
+
+"What are you going to do?  You're not going down, Sam?"
+
+"You wait a bit: you'll see," said the man; and he folded his coat into
+a large pad, which he laid over the edge of the rock.  "Now you lay the
+rope on that, my lad, and give me the end.  That's the way; now it won't
+be cut."
+
+"When we haul it over the rock?  No; I see."
+
+"But we aren't going to haul it over the rock," said Hardock, nodding
+his head.  "I'll show you a way worth two of that."
+
+He took the end and pulled it over, and made a loop, leaving just enough
+free line for the purpose; and slipping it over one shoulder and across
+his breast diagonally, he stood ready.
+
+Meanwhile jerk after jerk was given to the rope, each signal which
+reached Joe's hands making him thrill with eagerness.
+
+"There, he must be ready now," growled Hardock.
+
+"Ready?  Yes," cried the boy, impatiently.  "Then you are going to walk
+away with the rope?"
+
+"Ay, that's it; draw steadily as I go right along the Hog's Back.  All
+right.  Look out," he shouted as the word "Haul!" reached their ears.
+"There, you stand fast, my lad, ready to help him when he comes up to
+the edge.  Now then--off!"
+
+Hardock, who stood with his back now to the cliff edge, started off at a
+slow steady walk inland, and Joe dropped upon his breast and craned his
+neck over the edge of the precipice to watch the block below which hid
+his comrade from his sight.
+
+But not for many moments now.  All at once Gwyn's head appeared, then
+his chest, and his arms were busy as he seemed to be helping himself
+over the rock; and the next minute, as Hardock steadily walked away, the
+boy was hanging clear of the rock face, swinging to and fro and slowly
+turning round, suggesting that the layers of the rope were beginning to
+untwist.
+
+To use a familiar expression, Joe's heart felt as if it were in his
+mouth, and he trembled with apprehension, dreading lest the rope should
+come untwisted or the hemp give way, the result of either of these
+accidents being that Gwyn must fall headlong on to the sea-washed rocks
+below.  Consequently, Joe's eyes were constantly turning from the
+ascending figure to the rough pad over which the rope glided, and back
+again, while his heart kept on beating with a slow, heavy throb which
+was almost suffocating.
+
+The distance to ascend was very short under the circumstances, but to
+both boys, as they found when they afterwards compared notes, it seemed
+to be interminable, and it is doubtful which of the two suffered the
+more--Joe, as he gazed down with strained eyes and his vacant hands
+longing to seize the rope, or Gwyn, as he hung with elbows squared,
+fists clenched on the knot of the rope to ensure its remaining fast, and
+his head thrown back and face gazing up at his comrade when he slowly
+turned breast inward, at the sky when he turned back to the rocky wall.
+
+So short a distance for Hardock to continue--his tramp less than two
+hundred feet--and yet it seemed so great, for every nerve was on the
+strain, and no one spoke a word.
+
+It was in Joe's heart to keep on saying encouraging words to Gwyn, and
+to utter warnings to Hardock, and advice as to going slow or fast, but
+not a word would come.  He could only stare down at the upturned face or
+at the bare head to which the wet hair clung close.
+
+But all the time Gwyn was steadily rising, and in a few seconds more Joe
+felt that he would have to act--catching hold of his comrade by the rope
+about his chest and helping him over the edge into safety.
+
+"Will he never come?" groaned Joe, softly.  "Oh, make haste, Hardock,
+make haste."
+
+He turned to look round once to see the strained rope and Hardock
+bending forward like some animal drawing a load, and the rope looked so
+thin that he shivered.  Then, as it did not part, he felt a pang of
+dread, for he felt that the risk for his comrade was doubled by the feet
+that he was dependent upon two knots now instead of one, the slipping of
+either meaning certain death.
+
+The moisture in Joe's hands grew more dense, and the great drops
+gathered upon his forehead, ran together and glided down his nose with a
+horrible tickling sensation; and as he now gazed down once more at
+Gwyn's hard, fixed, upturned face and straining eyes, his own grew dim
+so that he could only see through a mist, while a strange, paralysing
+feeling began to creep through him, so that he knew that he would not be
+able to help.
+
+And all the time Gwyn rose higher and higher, till he was not ten feet
+below the edge, and now the horrible, numbing chill which pervaded Joe's
+being was chased away, for he found that he was suddenly called upon to
+act--to do something to help.
+
+For the action of the rope had told upon the jacket laid there to soften
+the friction, and it began to travel slowly from the edge, keeping time
+with the rope, which now ground over the edge, and, to Joe's horror,
+looked as if it were fraying.
+
+Bending down, he seized the pad and tried to thrust it back in its
+place, but soon found that this was impossible, and, before he could
+devise some plan, the knot in front of Gwyn's breast reached the edge,
+and a greater call was made upon him for help.
+
+The inaction had passed away, and he shouted to Hardock to stop.
+
+"Keep it tight!" he roared; and he went down on his knees, leaned over,
+caught hold of the loop on either side close beneath Gwyn's arms, and
+essayed to lift him over the edge on to the rocky platform.
+
+It was a bitter lesson in his want of power, for, partly from his
+position there on the extreme edge of the terrible precipice, partly
+from its being a task for a muscular man, he found out he could not stir
+Gwyn in the least, only hold him tighter against the rock, pressing the
+great knot of the rope into the boy's chest.
+
+"Up with him, lad!" shouted Hardock from where he stood straining the
+rope tight.  "Up with him--right over on to the rock!"
+
+Joe's eyes dilated and he gazed horror-stricken into the eyes of his
+comrade, who hung there perfectly inert, while just overhead three great
+grey gulls wheeled round and round, uttering their screams, and looking
+as if they expected that the next minute the boy would have fallen
+headlong on to the stones beneath.
+
+"Come, look sharp!" shouted Hardock; "this rope cuts.  Up with him
+quick!"
+
+"Can--can you get hold of anything and--and help?" panted Joe at last,
+hoarsely.
+
+Gwyn stared at him as if he had heard him speak, but did not quite
+comprehend what he said.
+
+"Quick, Ydoll!  Do you hear!  Do something to help.  Get hold."
+
+This seemed to rouse the boy, who slowly loosened his hold of the rope,
+and then, with a quick spasmodic action, caught hold of the collar of
+Joe's jacket on either side.
+
+"Now--your feet," said Joe, in a harsh whisper.  "Try and find
+foothold."
+
+"Can you--hold?" said Gwyn, faintly.
+
+"Yes, I'll try," was the reply, and Gwyn's toes were heard scraping over
+the rock again and again, but without result, and Joe uttered a piteous
+groan.
+
+"Can't you do it?" cried Hardock from the other end.  "Why, it's as easy
+as easy.  Up with him."
+
+"No--no!  Can't move!" cried Joe, frantically.
+
+"Hold tight of him then till I come," cried the man, and Joe uttered a
+piercing shriek, for the rope went down with a jerk which drew him
+forward upon his chest as his hands were torn from their hold, and he
+clutched wildly at the rock on either side to save himself from going
+down.
+
+Just then one of the gulls swooped close to his head and uttered its
+strange querulous cry.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+SAM HARDOCK LAUGHS.
+
+Joe Jollivet must have gone over the cliff in another instant headlong
+down to destruction, for only one thing could have saved him, and in all
+probability the sudden jerk of his snatching at his comrade would have
+taken him, too.
+
+But as it happened Samuel Hardock--"the Captain," as he was generally
+called in Ydoll Cove--saw the mistake he had made, and did that one
+special thing.
+
+Turning suddenly, he stepped quickly back, tightening the line again,
+drawing Gwyn close up to the sharp edge of the cliff once more; and as
+in his agony Joe clutched at the moving cord, and clung to it with all
+his might, he too was drawn back from the edge.
+
+"That was near," muttered Hardock.  "What's best to be done?"
+
+Fortunately the man could be cool and matter-of-fact in the face of real
+danger, though, as he had shown, he was a superstitious coward when it
+was something purely imaginary; and he did at once the very best thing
+under the circumstances.
+
+"Put heart into 'em by making 'em wild," he muttered, and he burst into
+a hearty fit of laughter.
+
+"Yah!" he cried.  "Nice pair o' soft-roed 'uns you two are!  Why, you
+aren't got no more muscle than a pair o' jelly-fishes.  There, get, your
+breath, Master Joe, and have another try; and you see if you can't make
+another out of it, Colonel.  You're all right if you've made that knot
+good.  I could hold you for a week standing up, and when I get tired I
+can lie down.  Now--hard, hard!  I thought you meant to dive off the
+cliff, you, Master Joe."
+
+The latter had risen to his knees with his wet hair clinging to his
+brow; and for a moment he felt disposed to rage out something furiously
+at the grinning speaker.
+
+But he refrained, and turned to get a fresh grip of Gwyn, who seemed to
+have recovered somewhat, too.
+
+"He's a beast!" cried Joe, angrily, for the anger was working in the
+right direction.
+
+Hardock began again,--
+
+"Rope cut, Master Gwyn?" he cried.  "S'pose it does, though.  Well, when
+you two are ready, just say.  I've got him tight enough.  But, hark ye,
+here; can you tell what I say?"
+
+"Yes," cried Joe, in a choking voice.
+
+"That's right.  Well, first thing you do, my lad, you try and ease the
+rope over the edge.  It checks you like, don't you see?  Stretch your
+arms well over, Colonel, and get your fingers in a crack and find a
+place for your toes, while young Joe Jollivet eases the knot over.  Take
+it coolly.  There's nothing to mind.  I've got yer, yer know.  Ready?"
+
+"Yes.  Now, Ydoll, old chap," whispered Joe, "can you do what he says
+and find foothold?"
+
+There was a peculiar staring look in the boy's eyes, but he began to
+search about with his toes; and almost at once found a crack that he had
+passed over before, forced in the end of one boot, and, reaching over,
+he gripped the rope with both hands.
+
+"Get tight hold of my collar," he whispered rather faintly.  "Can you do
+it kneeling?"
+
+"No power," said Joe, huskily, "I must stand."
+
+He rose to his feet, gripping the collar as he was told, gazing there
+into Gwyn's eyes, for he dared not look down beyond him into the dizzy
+depth.
+
+"Now," said Gwyn, "when you're ready, I'll try and raise myself a bit,
+and you throw yourself back."
+
+"Wait a moment," panted Joe.  Then he shouted, "Now I am--all together!"
+
+"Right!  Hauley hoi!" came back, and with one effort Gwyn curved his
+body, forcing his breast clear of the edge, joined his strength to that
+of his comrade in the effort to rise, and the next moment Joe was on his
+back with Gwyn being dragged over him.
+
+Then came an interval of inaction, for the three actors in the perilous
+scene lay prone upon the rough surface of the cliff, Hardock having
+thrown himself upon his face.
+
+"Oh, Gwyn, old chap!--oh, Gwyn," groaned Joe.
+
+"Hah!  Yes; it was near," sighed the rescued boy, as he slowly rose to a
+sitting posture, and began to unfasten the rope.  "I thought I was
+gone."
+
+"It was horrid--horrid--horrid!" groaned Joe.  "And I couldn't do
+anything."
+
+He rose slowly, wiping his brow, which was dripping with perspiration,
+and the two boys sat there in the sunshine gazing at one another for a
+few minutes as if quite unconscious of the presence of Hardock at the
+end of the rope, where he lay spread-eagled among the heath.
+
+Then Gwyn slowly held out his hand, which was gripped excitedly by Joe,
+who seized it with a loud sob.
+
+"Thank ye, Jolly-wet," said Gwyn, quietly.  "I felt so queer seeing you
+try so hard."
+
+"You felt--about me?  Ah, you don't know what I felt about you.  Ugh!  I
+could kick you!  Frightening me twice over like that!  I don't know
+which was worst--when you went down or when you came up."
+
+"Going down was worst," said Gwyn, quietly.  "But have a kick if you
+like; I don't feel as if I could hit back."
+
+"Then I'll wait till you can," said Joe, with a faint smile.  "Oh, dear,
+how my heart does keep on beating!"
+
+He turned with hand pressing his side and looked toward Hardock, for the
+man had moved, and he, too, sat up and began searching in his pockets.
+And then, to the great disgust of the two boys, they saw him slowly
+bring out a short pipe and a brass tobacco-box, and then deliberately
+fill the former, take out his matches, strike a light, and begin to
+smoke.
+
+"Look at that," cried Joe, viciously.
+
+"Yes; I'm looking," said Gwyn, slowly, and speaking as if he were
+utterly exhausted.  "I feel as if I wish I were strong enough to go and
+knock him over."
+
+"For laughing at us when we were in such a horrible fix?  Yes; so do I.
+He's an old beast; and when you feel better we'll go and tell him so."
+
+"Let's go now," said Gwyn, rising stiffly.  "I say, I feel wet and cold,
+and sore all over."
+
+Joe rose with more alacrity and clenched his fists, his teeth showing a
+little between his tightened lips.
+
+"Why, Jolly," said Gwyn, gravely, "you look as if you'd knocked the skin
+off your temper."
+
+"That's just how I do feel," cried the boy--"regularly raw.  I want to
+have a row with old Sammy Hardock.  It's all his fault, our getting into
+such trouble; and first he stands there laughing at us when we were
+nearly gone, and now he sits there as if it hadn't mattered a bit, and
+begins to smoke.  I never hated anyone that I know of, but I do hate him
+now.  He's a beast."
+
+"Well, you said that before," said Gwyn, slowly; and he shivered.  "I
+say, Jolly, isn't it rum that when you're wet, if you stand in the sun,
+you feel cold?"
+
+"Then let's go and give it to old Hardock; that'll warm you up.  I feel
+red hot now."
+
+Gwyn began to rub his chest softly, where the rope had cut into him, and
+the boys walked together to where Hardock sat with his back to them,
+smoking.
+
+The man did not hear them coming till they were close to him, when he
+started round suddenly, and faced them, letting the pipe drop from
+between his lips.
+
+The resentment bubbling up in both of the boys died out on the instant,
+as they saw the drawn, ghastly face before them.
+
+"Ah, my lads!  Ah, my dear lads!" groaned the man; "that's about the
+nighest thing I ever see; but, thank goodness, you're all safe and
+sound.  Would you two mind shaking hands?"
+
+The boys stared at him, then at each other and back.
+
+"Why, Sam!" said Gwyn, huskily.
+
+"Yes; it's me, my lad," he replied, with a groan, "what there is left on
+me.  I've been trying a pipe, but it aren't done me no good, not a bit.
+I seem to see young Jollivet there going head first over the cliff; and
+the mortal shiver it did send through me was something as I never felt
+afore."
+
+"Why, you laughed at us!" said Joe, with his resentment flashing up
+again.
+
+"Laughed at yer?  Course I did.  What was I to do?  If I'd ha' told yer
+both you was in danger, wouldn't it ha' frightened you so as you'd ha'
+been too froze up to help yourselves?"
+
+"No; I don't think so," cried Joe.
+
+"Don't yer?  Well, I'm sure on it.  I couldn't do anything but hold on
+to the rope, and no one could ha' saved you but yourselves."
+
+"But you shouldn't have laughed," said Gwyn, gravely.
+
+"What was I to do then, Colonel?  It was the only thing likely to spur
+you up.  I thought it would make you both wild like, and think you
+warn't in such a queer strait, and it did."
+
+The boys exchanged glances.
+
+"Yes," continued Hardock, as he shook hands solemnly with both, "there
+was nobody to help you, my lads, but yourselves, and I made you do that;
+but talk about giving a man a turn--Oh, dear! oh, dear!  And now my
+pipe's gone right out."
+
+"Light it again, then, Sam," said Gwyn, quietly, as he stooped stiffly
+to pick up the fallen pipe, and hand it to its owner.
+
+"Thank ye, my lad, thank ye; but I don't feel in the humour for no pipes
+to-day, I'm just as if I've had a very gashly turn."
+
+"But you might have tied the rope round me better, Sam," said Gwyn.
+
+"Ay, I might, my lad, but somehow I didn't.  Are you hurt much?"
+
+"Only sore, with the rope cutting me."
+
+"Nay, but I mean when you fell down the shaft.  Did you hit yourself
+again' the sides?"
+
+"No.  It was very horrible, though.  One moment I was turning slowly
+round and round and the next I was losing all the light; the rope
+slipped from round me and I was going down, down into the darkness.  It
+was as if it lasted ever so long.  Then there was a splash, the water
+was roaring in my ears, and I felt as if I were being dragged down lower
+and lower, till all at once my head shot up again.  I never once felt as
+if I was coming up."
+
+"How queer!" exclaimed Joe, who stood listening with his face all
+wrinkled over.  "Didn't you feel, when you'd got as low as you went,
+that you were going up again?"
+
+"No, not in the least.  It was all confused like and strange, and I
+hardly knew anything till I was at the surface, and then I began to
+strike out, and swam along the sides of the slimy stones, trying to get
+a grip of them, but my hands kept slipping off."
+
+"But you didn't halloa!" said Joe.
+
+"No," continued Gwyn, still speaking in the same grave, subdued way, as
+if still suffering from the shock of all he had gone through.  "I didn't
+shout; I felt stunned like, as if I'd been hit on the head."
+
+"You must have been," cried Joe.  "You hit yourself against the side."
+
+"No, if I had it would have killed me.  I can't explain it.  Perhaps it
+was striking on the water."
+
+"Nonsense; water's too soft to hurt you.  But go on; what did you do
+then?"
+
+"I hardly know, only that I kept on striking out, thinking how horribly
+dark it must be and wondering whether there were any live things to come
+at me; and then I hit my knee against the stones at the bottom."
+
+"But you said it was deep."
+
+"So it was in the shaft, but I must have swum into a passage where it
+was quite shallow; and almost directly after I'd hit my knee my hands
+touched the stones and I crawled out into the dark, and went on and on,
+feeling afraid to go back because of the water."
+
+"But why didn't you shout to us?" cried Joe, excitedly.
+
+"I don't know.  I suppose I couldn't.  It was like being in a dream, and
+I felt obliged to go crawling on.  Then all of a sudden I began to feel
+better, for I could see a faint light, and this made me try to stand up,
+but I couldn't without hitting my head.  But I could walk stooping like,
+and I went on toward the pale light, which was almost like a star.
+Directly after, I was there looking out of a square place like a window,
+trying to find a way up or a way down, but the rocks stood out overhead,
+and they were quite straight down below me, so I could do nothing but
+shout, and I began to think no one would come.  Every now and then I
+could hear voices, but when I called my voice seemed to float out to
+sea.  There, you know the rest.  But that's an adit, isn't it, Sam
+Hardock?"
+
+"Ay, my lad, and lucky for you it was there.  You see, the water must
+run off by it out to sea when the top rises so high.  But I never knew
+there was an opening from seaward into the mine.  Being right up there,
+nobody could see it.  Why it must be 'underd and fifty feet above the
+shore."
+
+"It looked more," said Gwyn, with a shudder.
+
+"There, I say, hadn't you better get home and change your things, my
+lad?  You're pretty wet still.  If you take my advice, you'll go off as
+fast as you can."
+
+"Yes," said Joe, "you'd better.  But we haven't done much to examine the
+mine."
+
+"Eh?" cried Hardock, "I think we have.  Found out that there's an adit
+for getting rid of the water and the spoil.  Not bad for one day's
+work."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+THE MINE FEVER.
+
+"You'll have to tell them at home, Ydoll," said Joe as they reached the
+rough stone-wall which enclosed the Colonel's estate.  "What shall you
+say?"
+
+"Oh, just what happened," replied Gwyn; "but the job is how to begin.
+It's making the start."
+
+"Pst!  Look out!" whispered Joe.  "Here is your father."
+
+"Good-morning, Hardock," said the Colonel, coming upon the group
+suddenly.
+
+"I hope you haven't been filling my boy's head with more stuff about
+mining.  Why, halloa, Gwyn; how did you get in that state?  Where's your
+cap?"
+
+"Down the mine-shaft, father," replied the lad; and he found no
+difficulty about beginning.  In a few minutes the Colonel knew all.
+
+"Most reckless--most imprudent," he cried.  "You ought to have known
+better, sir, than to lead these boys into such a terrible position; and
+how dare you, sir--how dare you begin examining my property without my
+permission!"
+
+"Well you see, Colonel," began Hardock, "I thought--be doing you good,
+like, and as a neighbour--"
+
+"A neighbour, indeed!  Confounded insolence!  Be off, sir!  How dare
+you!  Never you show yourself upon my land again.  There, you, Gwyn,
+come home at once and change your clothes; and as for you, Jollivet, you
+give my compliments to your father and tell him I say he ought to give
+you a good thrashing, and if he feels too ill to do it, let him send you
+down to me, and I will.  Now, Gwyn; right face.  March!"
+
+The Colonel led off his son, and Hardock and Joe stood looking at each
+other.
+
+"Made him a bit waxy," said the miner; "but he'll come round to my way
+of thinking yet; and it strikes me that he'll be ordering me on to his
+land again, when he knows all.  I say, young Jollivet, mean to go down
+to him to be thrashed with the young Colonel?"
+
+"Oh, he wouldn't thrash me," said Joe, quietly.  "I know the Colonel
+better than that.  I feel all stretched and aching like.  I wish he
+hadn't taken Gwyn home, though."
+
+"I don't feel quite square myself, lad," said the mining captain; "but
+you see if the Colonel don't go looking at the mine."
+
+Hardock's prophecy was soon fulfilled, for that evening the Colonel was
+rowing in his boat with his son, who had a mackerel line trailing
+astern, and when they came opposite to the great buttress the Colonel
+lay on his oars, and let his boat rise and fall on the clear swell.
+
+"Now, then; whereabouts is the mouth of the adit?"
+
+"I can't quite make it out from down here, father," replied Gwyn.  "Yes
+I can; there it is, only it doesn't look like an opening, only a dark
+shadowy part of the cliff.  No one could tell it was a passage in,
+without being up there."
+
+"Quite right; they could not," said the Colonel, thoughtfully.  "And you
+were drawn up from there, and right over the top of the cliff?"
+
+"Yes, father."
+
+"Horribly dangerous, boy--hideous.  There, your mother knows something
+about it, but she must never be shown how frightful a risk you ran.
+Come, let's get back."
+
+Gwyn only caught one fish that evening, and his father was very
+thoughtful and quiet when they returned.
+
+"Here, Gwyn," he said next morning; "come along with me, I want to have
+a look at the old pit-shaft, and the bit of cliff over which you were
+drawn."
+
+"Yes, father," said Gwyn, and he led the way over their own ground; but
+before they reached the dwarf mine wall, he was conscious of the fact
+that they were observed; for, at the turn of the lane, Hardock's oilskin
+cap could be seen as if the man were watching there, and the next moment
+Joe Jollivet's straw hat was visible by his side.
+
+Gwyn felt disposed to point out that they were not alone; but the next
+moment his father began talking about the slow progress made by the belt
+of pines he had planted between there and the house, so as to take off
+something of the barrenness of the place.
+
+"Want of shelter, Gwyn," he said; "the great winds from the west catch
+them too much.  I'm afraid they will always be stunted.  Still, they
+would hide the mine buildings."
+
+"The mine buildings, father?" said the boy, looking at his father
+inquiringly.
+
+"Yes; I mean if I were to be tempted into doing anything of the kind--
+opening the mine again.  Seems a pity, if it does contain wealth, to let
+it lie there useless.  Money's money, my boy."
+
+"But you don't want money, father, do you?" said Gwyn.  The Colonel
+stopped short, and faced round to gaze in his son's face before bursting
+into a merry fit of laughter.  "Have I said something very stupid,
+father?"
+
+"No, not stupid--only shown me how inexperienced you are in the matters
+of everyday life, Gwyn.  My dear boy, I never knew an officer on
+half-pay who did not want money."
+
+"But I thought you had enough."
+
+"Enough, boy?  Someone among our clever writers once said that enough
+was always a little more than a man possessed."
+
+"But you will not begin mining, father?"
+
+"I don't know, my boy.  Let's have a look at the place.  Here have we
+been these ten years, and I know no more about this hole than I did when
+I came.  I know it is an old mine-shaft half full of water, just like a
+dozen more about the district, and I should have gone on knowing no more
+about it if that man had not begun talking, and shown me, by the great
+interest he takes in the place, that he thinks it must be rich.  Be
+rather a nice thing to grow rich, my boy, and have plenty to start you
+well in the world."
+
+"But I don't want starting well in the world, father; it's nice enough
+as it is."
+
+"What, you idle, young dog!  Do you expect to pass all your life
+fishing, bathing, and bird's-nesting here?"
+
+"No, father; but--"
+
+"`No, father; but--' Humph! here's the place, then.  Dear me, how very
+unsafe that stone-wall is.  A strong man could push it down the shaft in
+half-an-hour."
+
+As he spoke the Colonel strode up to the piled-up stones, and looked
+over into the fern-fringed pit.
+
+"Ugh! horrible!  Pitch one of those stones down, boy."
+
+Gwyn took a piece of the loose granite, raised it over his head with
+both hands, and threw it from him with force enough to make it strike
+the opposite side of the shaft, from which it rebounded, and then went
+on down, down, into the darkness for some moments before there was a
+dull splash, which came echoing out of the mouth, followed by a strange
+swishing as the water rose and fell against the sides.
+
+"Horrible, indeed!" muttered the Colonel.  Then aloud: "And you let them
+lower you down by a rope, it came undone, and you fell headlong into
+that water down below, rose, swam to the side and then crept along a
+horizontal passage to where it opened out on the sea yonder?"
+
+"Yes, father," said the boy, recalling his sensations as his father
+spoke.
+
+"Bless my heart!" exclaimed the Colonel.  "Well, Gwyn, you're a queer
+sort of boy.  Not very clever, and you give me a good deal of anxiety as
+to how you are going to turn out.  But one thing is very evident--with
+all your faults, you are not a coward."
+
+"Oh, yes, I am, father," said Gwyn, shaking his head.  "You don't know
+what a fright I was in."
+
+"Fright!  Enough to frighten anybody.  I've faced fire times enough, my
+boy, and had to gallop helter-skelter with a handful of brave fellows
+against a thousand or more enemies who were thirsting for our blood!
+But I dared not have gone down that pit hanging at the end of a rope.
+No, Gwyn, my boy, you are no coward.  There, show me now where you were
+drawn up."
+
+Gwyn led the way to the foot of the granite ridge, fully expecting to
+hear his father say that he could not climb up there; but, to his
+surprise, the Colonel mounted actively enough, and walked along the
+rugged top to where it ended in the great buttress, and there he stood
+at the very edge gazing down.
+
+"Where were you, Gwyn?" he said at last; and the boy pointed out the
+projection beneath which the adit opened out.
+
+"To be sure.  Yes, I couldn't quite make it out," said the Colonel,
+coolly, as he turned away; but Gwyn noticed that he took out his
+handkerchief to pass it over his forehead, and then wiped the insides of
+his hands as if they were damp.
+
+"Let's go back by the road," said the Colonel, after shading his eyes
+and taking a look round; "but I want to pass the mouth of the mine."
+
+Upon reaching the latter, the Colonel drew a hammer from his pocket, and
+after routing out a few grey pieces of stone from where they lay beneath
+the furze bushes, he cracked and chipped several, till one which looked
+red in the new cleavage, and was studded with little blackish-purple,
+glistening grains, took his fancy.
+
+"Carry this home for me, Gwyn," he said.  "I wonder whether that piece
+ever came out of the mine?"
+
+"I think all that large sloping bank covered with bushes and brambles
+came out of the mine some time, father," said the boy.  "It seems to
+have been all raised up round about the mouth there."
+
+"Eh?  You think so?"
+
+"Yes, father; and as the pieces thrown out grew higher, they seem to
+have built up the mouth of the mine with big blocks to keep the stones
+from rolling in.  I noticed that when I was being let down.  The ferns
+have taken root in the joints.  Lower down, fifteen or twenty feet, the
+hole seems to have been cut through the solid rock."
+
+"Humph! you kept your eyes open, then?"
+
+Crossing the wall where the lane ran along by the side of the Colonel's
+property, they turned homeward, and in a few minutes Gwyn caught sight
+of Joe Jollivet's cap gliding in and out among the furze bushes, as he
+made his way in the direction of his own house, apparently not intending
+to be seen.  But a few hundred yards farther along the lane there was
+some one who evidently did intend to be seen, in the shape of Sam
+Hardock, who rose from where he was sitting on a grey-lichened block,
+and touched his hat.
+
+"That's a nice specimen you've got there, Master Pendarve," he said,
+eyeing the block the boy carried.
+
+"It's a very heavy one, Sam," replied Gwyn; and his father strode on,
+but stopped short and turned back frowning, unable, in spite of his
+annoyance, to restrain his curiosity.
+
+"Here, you Hardock," he cried, tapping the block his son carried, with
+his cane.  "What is it?  What stone do you call that?"
+
+"Quartz, sir," said the man, examining the piece, "and a very fine
+specimen."
+
+"Eh?  Good for breaking up to repair the roads with, eh?"
+
+"No, sir; bad for that; soon go to powder.  But it would be fine to
+crush and smelt."
+
+"Eh?  What for?"
+
+"What for, sir?" said the man with a laugh; "why, that bit o' stone's
+half tin.  I dunno where you got it, o' course; but if it came from the
+spoil bank of that old mine, it just proves what I thought."
+
+"Tin?  Are you sure?"
+
+"Sure, sir?  Yes," said the man, laughing.  "I ought to know tin when I
+see it.  If it comes out of the old Ydoll mine, you've only got to set
+men at work to go down and blast it out, sir, and in a very short time
+you'll be a rich man."
+
+"Come along, Gwyn," said the Colonel, hastily; "it's time we got back.
+Hang the fellow!" he muttered, "he has given me the mining fever, and
+badly, too, I fear."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+DOCTOR JOE.
+
+"Oh, dear!  Oh, dear!  What a life! what a state of misery to be in!"
+
+"Shall I turn the pillow over, father?" said Joe to Major Jollivet, who
+was lying on the couch drawn before the window, so that he could have a
+good view of the sea.
+
+"No," shouted the Major, whose face was contracted by pain; and he
+shivered as he spoke although his forehead was covered with
+perspiration.  "Why do you want to worry me by turning the pillow?"
+
+"Because it will be nice and cool on the other side."
+
+"Get out.  Be off with you directly, sir.  Can't you see I'm shivering
+with cold?  Oh, dear: who would have jungle fever?"
+
+"I wouldn't father," said the boy; and in spite of the words just
+spoken, he softly thrust his arm under his father's neck, raised his
+head, and then turned and punched the pillow, smoothed it, and let the
+Major's head down again.
+
+"How dah you, sir!" cried the sufferer, fiercely.  "Did I not tell you,
+sir, that I did not want it done?  Did I not order you to quit the room,
+sir?  Am I not your superior officer, sir?  And you dared to disobey me,
+sir, because I am on the sick list.  How dah you, sir!  How dah you,
+sir!  If you were in a regiment, sir, it would mean court-martial, sir,
+and--Oh, dear me!"
+
+"That's cooler and more comfortable, father, isn't it?" said Joe, calmly
+enough, and without seeming to pay the slightest attention to the fierce
+tirade of angry words directed against him.
+
+"Yes," sighed the Major, "that's cooler and more comfortable; but," he
+cried, turning angry again and beginning to draw out and point his great
+fierce moustache with his long thin fingers, "I will not have you
+disobey my orders, sir.  You're as bad as your poor mother used to be--
+taking command of the regiment, and dictating and disobeying me as if I
+were not fit to manage my own affairs.  How dah you, sir, I say--how dah
+you!"
+
+Joe leaned over his father in the most imperturbable way, screwed up his
+mouth as if he were whistling, and drew out the Major's clean
+handkerchief from his breast-pocket, shook it, and then gently dabbed
+the moist forehead.
+
+"Don't!  Leave off, sir!" roared the Major.  "How dah you, sir!  I will
+not be treated in this way as if I were a helpless infant.  Joseph, you
+scoundrel, you shall leave home at once, and go to an army tutor.  I
+will not have these mutinous ways in the house."
+
+Joe smiled faintly, screwed up his lips a little more, turned the
+handkerchief, gave the forehead a light wipe over by way of a polish,
+and then lowered it.
+
+"Want to blow your nose, dad?" he said.
+
+"No, sir, I do not want to blow my nose; and if I did I could blow it
+myself.  Oh, dear!  Oh, dear.  This pain--this pain!"
+
+Joe thrust the handkerchief back, and laid his palm on his father's
+forehead.
+
+"Not quite so hot, dad," he said.
+
+"How dah you, sir!  It's your rank mutinous obstinacy that makes you say
+so.  Take away that nasty hot paw."
+
+Joe went to the mantelpiece, took a large square bottle of
+eau-de-Cologne, removed the stopper, and once more drew out his father's
+pocket-handkerchief, moistened it with the scent, and softly applied it
+to the sufferer's forehead.
+
+"Confound you!" cried the Major.  "Will you leave me alone, sir, or am I
+to get up and fetch my cane to you?"
+
+"What do they make eau-de-Cologne of, father?" said Joe, coolly.  "Does
+it come from a spring like all those nasty mineral waters you take?"
+
+"It's insufferable!" panted the Major.
+
+"Time you had a drink, father," said Joe, quietly.
+
+"It is not, sir.  I take that medicine at eleven o'clock, military time.
+It wants quite half-an-hour to that yet.  You want to be off to play
+with that idle young scoundrel of Pendarve's, I suppose; but I wish you
+to stay here till it is eleven.  Do you hear that, sir?  You disobey me
+if you dare."
+
+"Five minutes past eleven now, dad," said Joe, after a glance at the
+clock over the chimney-piece.
+
+"It's not, sir," cried the Major, turning his head quickly to look for
+himself, and then wincing from pain.  "That clock's wrong.  It's a
+wretched cheap fraud, and never did keep time.  Fast!  Nearly an hour
+fast!"
+
+"Said it was the best timekeeper in Cornwall only yesterday," said Joe
+to himself, as he went to a side table on which stood a couple of
+bottles, a glass, and water-jug.
+
+Here the boy busied himself for a few moments, with his father frowning
+and watching him angrily, and looking, in spite of his pain-distorted
+countenance, pallid look and sunken cheeks, a fine, handsome,
+middle-aged man.
+
+The next minute Joe was coming back with a tumbler in his hand, and
+stirring it with a little glass rod.
+
+"Here you are, dad.  Shall I hoist you up while you tip it off?"
+
+"No, sir; I can sit up.  How much quinine did you put in?"
+
+"Usual dose, father."
+
+"Ho!  How much lemon juice?"
+
+"Wineglass full, and filled up with spring water."
+
+Major Jollivet made an effort to sit up, but sank back again with a
+groan.
+
+Joe might have smiled, but he did not.  He could justly have said
+triumphantly: "There, I knew you could not manage it!" but he calmly
+drew a chair to the side of the couch, stood the glass within reach of
+his father's hand, and then went behind his head, forced his arm under
+the pillow, lowered his brow so that he could butt like a ram, and
+slowly and steadily raised the invalid's shoulders, keeping him upright
+till the draught had been taken and the glass set down.
+
+"Bah!  Horrible!  Bitter as gall."
+
+"Lower away!" said Joe; and he drew softly back till the pillow was in
+its old place, and the Major uttered a sigh of relief.
+
+"I say, dad, you're getting better," said Joe, as he took away chair and
+glass after brushing his disordered hair from his forehead.
+
+"How dah you, sir!" cried the Major, "when I'm in such a state of
+prostration!"
+
+Joe laid his hand on the patient's forehead again, and nodded.
+
+"Head's getting wet and cool, dad.  You'll be right as a trivet again
+soon."
+
+"Worse than your poor mother--worse than your poor mother.  You haven't
+a bit of feeling, boy.  It's abominable."
+
+Joe took a sprayer, thrust it into the neck of the scent bottle, and
+blew an odorous vapour about the sufferer's head.
+
+"Will you put that tomfool thing away, sir!  You're never happy unless
+you're playing with it."
+
+"I say," cried Joe, still without seeming to pay the slightest heed to
+his father's words--"what do you think, dad?"
+
+"Think, sir?  How can I think of anything but this wretched jungle
+fever.  Oh, my bones, my bones!"
+
+"Colonel Pendarve's going to open the old Ydoll mine."
+
+"Eh?  What?" cried the Major, turning his head sharply.  "Say that
+again."
+
+"Captain Hardock got talking to me and Gwyn about it, and Gwyn told his
+father."
+
+"Told him what?"
+
+"Sam Hardock said he was sure that there was plenty of tin in it, and
+that it was a pity for it to be there, and when the Colonel might make a
+fortune out of it."
+
+"And--and what did Pendarve say?" cried the Major, excitedly.
+
+"Said it was all nonsense, I believe.  Then Sam Hardock took me--me and
+Gwyn--to have a look, and Ydoll went down."
+
+"Look here, sir, I will not have you call Gwyn Pendarve by that idiotic
+nickname."
+
+"No, father.  When he was half down the rope came undone, and he went
+down plash."
+
+"Killed?" cried the Major, excitedly.
+
+"Oh, no, father, there was plenty of water, and he got out through a
+passage on to the cliffs, and Sam and I had to pull him up again."
+
+"What mad recklessness!"
+
+"He wasn't hurt, father, only got very wet; and since then the Colonel
+has been to have a look at the place and had a talk or two with Sam
+Hardock, and Ydoll--"
+
+"What!" cried the Major, fiercely.
+
+"Gwyn thinks his father is going to have machinery down, and the mine
+pumped out."
+
+"Madness!  Going to throw all his money away.  He sha'n't do it.  I
+won't have it.  What does Mrs Pendarve say?"
+
+"Gwyn says she doesn't like it at all."
+
+"I should think not, sir.  It means ruin spelt with a big letter.  Why
+can't he be contented with his half-pay?"
+
+"I dunno, father.  I suppose he feels as if he'd like more."
+
+"Yes, and get less.  You never knew me tempted by these wretched mining
+schemes, did you, sir?"
+
+"No, father."
+
+"The man's mad.  Got a bee in his bonnet.  Going to ruin his son's
+prospects in life.  He sha'n't do it.  How can he be so absurd!  I'll go
+to him as soon as I can move."
+
+"Feel a little easier, father?" said Joe, going to the head of the
+couch, and pressing his hand upon his father's brow again.
+
+"Yes, much easier, my boy," said the invalid, placing his hand upon his
+son's, and holding it down for a few moments.  "Feels cooler, doesn't
+it?"
+
+"Ever so much, dad, and not so damp."
+
+"Yes, I feel like a new man again.  Thank you, Joe--thank you, my boy.
+Haven't been fretful, have I?"
+
+"Oh, just a little, father, of course.  Who could help it?"
+
+"I was afraid I had been, Joe.  But, as you say, who could help it?
+Didn't say anything very cross to you, did I?"
+
+"Oh, no, nothing to signify, dad.  But, I say, I am glad you're better."
+
+"Thank you, my boy, thank you," said the Major, drawing his boy's hand
+down to his lips and kissing it.  "Just like your poor, dear mother, so
+calm and patient with me when I am suffering.  Joe, my boy, you will
+have to be a doctor."
+
+"I?  Oh, no, father.  I must be a soldier, same as you've been, and Gwyn
+is going to be."
+
+"But I meant a military surgeon," said the Major.
+
+"Wouldn't do, father.  Why, if I were to tell Ydoll--I mean Gwyn--that I
+was going to be a doctor, he would crow over me horribly, and I should
+never hear the end of it.  He'd christen me jalap or rhubarb, or
+something of that sort."
+
+"Ah, well, we shall see, and--who's that coming up to the door?"
+
+Joe looked out from the window, and came back directly.
+
+"The Colonel, dad.  Shall I go and let him in?"
+
+"Yes, fetch him in, and stop here and give me a hint now and then if I
+get a little irritable.  What you have told me makes me feel rather
+cross, and I shall have to give him a bit of my mind.  I can't let him
+go and waste his money like that."
+
+Joe hurried out to the front hall, and found that Gwyn had accompanied
+his father, the former having been hidden by the shrubs as they came up
+to the door.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+FINDING AN INTRUDER.
+
+"Well, old man; on the sick list?" began the Colonel, shaking hands
+warmly with his friend.  "What's the last bulletin?"
+
+"Bad, bad," said the Major, sharply.  "Just heard that a man I respected
+is going to make a fool of himself."
+
+"Eh?  What?" said the Colonel, flushing.  "Who's been chattering about--
+ahem!  Are you alluding to the mine on my property, Major Jollivet?"
+
+"No, sir," said the Major, sitting up, "I was speaking about the hole by
+the cliff that was dug by a pack of greedy noodles who were not
+satisfied with their incomes, and I felt that I should not like to see
+an old friend of mine go shovelling his money down into it, and breaking
+his wife's heart."
+
+"Then it was like your--ahem, ahem!" coughed the Colonel, checking
+himself.  "No, no; don't go away, boys," for Gwyn was stealing out,
+followed by Joe.
+
+"No, don't you boys go," cried the Major; "it will be a lesson for you
+both."
+
+"Father been very bad, Joe?" said the Colonel.
+
+"Very bad, indeed, sir," said the boy.
+
+"Silence, sir!" cried the Major.  "Nothing of the sort.  Don't
+exaggerate, Joe."
+
+"No, father."
+
+"He doesn't, Dick.  You've had a nasty touch this morning, or you
+wouldn't have spoken to me like that."
+
+"I couldn't help it, old man," said the Major, warmly.  "But surely you
+will never be so mad as to go pumping out that old place."
+
+"H'm!  I don't know about mad.  Be useful to make a little money for the
+sake of the boy."
+
+"Very bad to lose a great deal for the sake of the boy."
+
+"Nothing venture, nothing win, Dick.  I'm beginning to think that it
+would be worth while to put some money in the venture, and I came up
+this morning to make you the first offer of joining in."
+
+"And throwing away my bit of money, too.  No, sir, not if I know it.
+I'm not quite such an idiot as that."
+
+"You mean as I am," said the Colonel, quietly.
+
+"I did not say so," retorted the Major.  "I should not dream of
+insulting an old friend by using such language."
+
+"No, but you would think it all the same," cried the Colonel.  "Now,
+look here, Jollivet; you and I have enough to live upon comfortably."
+
+"Quite."
+
+"But there's nothing left to start these two young dogs well in life;
+now is there?"
+
+"Well--er--rum--er--no; there is not much, Pendarve, certainly."
+
+"That's what I have been thinking, and though the idle, reckless young
+dogs do not deserve it--do you hear, you two?  I say you don't deserve
+it."
+
+"Joe doesn't," said Gwyn, with a mischievous grin at his companion.
+
+"No, not at all," said Joe.  "I'm nearly as bad as Gwyn."
+
+"Ah, you're a nice pair," said the Colonel.  "But we, as fathers, must,
+I suppose, give you both a good preparation for the army--eh, Jollivet?"
+
+"Yes, of course that must be done," said the Major.
+
+"Exactly!  Well, I've been thinking a great deal about it this last day
+or two, and I have quite come to the conclusion that I must do
+something."
+
+"Well, do something," said the Major, testily; "don't go and fling your
+money down a mine."
+
+"But there are mines and mines, Jollivet, old fellow.  If I were asked
+to join in some company to buy a mine or open a new one, I should of
+course hesitate; but in this case I have one of my own, one that is
+undoubtedly very ancient, and must have had a great deal of tin or
+copper or both in it."
+
+"No doubt, and it was all dug out and sold long enough ago.  The old
+people had the oyster, and you've got the shell."
+
+"I don't know so much about that, sir," said the Colonel, earnestly.  "I
+brought home a piece of old ore that was dug out, and it's very rich in
+tin.  There's plenty of room down below for there to be an enormous
+amount, and as the only outlay will be for machinery for pumping and
+raising the ore, I have made up my mind to start a company of the owners
+to work that mine."
+
+"And lose all your money."
+
+"I hope not.  The mine is already sunk, and I believe when it is pumped
+dry we shall find that there are drifts with plenty of ore in them,
+waiting to be worked--plenty to pay well for the getting."
+
+"And if there turns out to be none at all?"
+
+"Well, that's the very worst way of looking at it.  If it turns out as
+bad as that, I shall have spent so many hundred pounds in new pumping
+machinery, and have it to sell for what it will fetch to some fresh
+company."
+
+"But you would only get half the value."
+
+"If I got half the value, I should be satisfied.  Then the loss would
+not be so very severe."
+
+"Severe enough to make you repent it to the last day of your life," said
+the Major, shortly.
+
+"I hope not.  Money is not worth so much repentance."
+
+"But you talk as if you really meant to do this, Pendarve," said the
+Major, warmly.
+
+"I do.  I have quite made up my mind."
+
+Gwyn looked at his father, with his eyes flashing with excitement.
+
+"My dear Pendarve, I implore you not to do so for that boy's sake,"
+cried the Major.
+
+"It is for his sake I am going to venture upon what seems to me a very
+safe piece of business."
+
+"No, no; a wild-goose chase, sir."
+
+"Mining is not so reckless as that, if carried out on business
+principles, my dear Jollivet."
+
+"There, we shall never agree.  But in the name of all that is sensible,
+why did you come to me?"
+
+"Partly because you are my oldest friend, and one in whom I should
+confide any important business."
+
+"And partly," cried the Major, warmly, "because you thought I should be
+weak enough to join you."
+
+"Quite right, all but the question of weakness," said the Colonel.
+
+"Absurd!  There, I am obliged to speak plainly; I could never dream of
+such a thing."
+
+"I don't want you to dream," said the Colonel, smiling; "I want you to
+act--to join me; and upon this basis: I will find the mine, and half the
+money for the machinery, if you will find the other half."
+
+"It would be folly.  Look at the money we know to have been lost on
+mines."
+
+"Yes, in companies, and over very doubtful affairs.  In this case we
+have the proof of mining having been carried on.  We have the mine, and
+we should not have to share profits with a number of shareholders."
+
+"Nor losses neither," said the Major, testily.
+
+"Nor the losses neither," assented the Colonel.  "Then we live on the
+spot and could oversee matters."
+
+"Bah!  What do we know about mines?  I could manage a regiment, not a
+hole underground."
+
+"We could soon learn, my dear boy," said the Colonel; "and it would be
+very interesting to have such an occupation.  I have felt for years past
+that you and I have been wasting time.  No occupation whatever, nothing
+to do but think about our ailments.  It's rusting, Jollivet--it's
+rusting out; and I'm sure that if we both worked hard, we should be
+healthier and better men."
+
+"Humph!  Well, there is something in that.  But, no, no, no, I'm not
+going to be tempted to spend money that ought some day to come to Joe."
+
+"Oh, I don't mind, father, if it's going to do you good," cried the boy,
+eagerly.  "I should like for you to have a mine."
+
+"Shall I have any money some day, father?" said Gwyn.
+
+"I suppose so, my boy, what I leave when I die," said the Colonel,
+frowning.
+
+"Oh, then, I'll give it to go into the mine, father," cried Gwyn; and
+the stern look passed off the Colonel's face.  He nodded, and looked
+pleased.
+
+"Think of the anxiety that such a venture would bring," said the Major.
+
+"I have thought of it, and also of the anxieties and worries which come
+to a man who has nothing to do.  Look here, Jollivet, I firmly believe
+in this adventure, and I should very much like it if you would join me,
+for I feel that it would do you good, and that we should get on well
+together."
+
+"Oh, yes, I've no doubt about that," said the Major, "and if you really
+do make up your mind to venture, I don't say that I will not lend you
+some money if you need it."
+
+"Thank you, I know that you would, Jollivet; but I don't want to take it
+in that way.  Think it over for a few days, and see how you feel about
+it."
+
+"No, I can give you my answer now without any hesitation.  It is quite
+out of the question, Pendarve.  Even if it were a gold mine, I should
+say--"
+
+"Don't decide rashly, old fellow," said the Colonel.  "A few days ago I
+should have answered you in the same way, if you had come and proposed
+the thing; but since I have thought it over, I have quite changed my
+mind.  Do the same, and let me hear how you have concluded to act at the
+end of a week."
+
+"But I tell you, my dear sir--"
+
+"Yes; tell me at the end of a week," said the Colonel, smiling.  "What
+do you think of these fellows beginning to investigate the mine for
+themselves?  There, Gwyn, you need not stay for me if you want a run
+with Joe: I'll walk home alone."
+
+"Father is not well enough to be left," said Joe.
+
+"Yes, yes, my boy," cried the Major; "I don't want to make a prisoner of
+you.  Go and have a run with Gwyn, by all means."
+
+The boys required no second permission, but were off at once, their
+fathers hearing the beat of their feet on the road directly after.
+
+"Where have they gone?" said the Major, turning on his couch.
+
+"Over to the mouth of the mine, for certain," said the Colonel.
+
+He was quite right.  There was no proposal made by either of the boys,
+but as soon as they were outside the gate, they started off together at
+a rapid trot, making straight for the Colonel's land, springing over the
+stone-wall, and threading their way amongst stones and bushes, till they
+were compelled by the rough ground to go more slowly.
+
+"Makes one want to see more of what it's like," said Joe.
+
+"Yes; I didn't know father was thinking about it so seriously.  Why,
+it'll be splendid, Joe.  I say; you'll have to go down the mine first
+this time."
+
+"Yes, I suppose so, but not your way."
+
+"Hist!" whispered Gwyn, as they drew near.  "What does that mean?"
+
+"What?  I don't see anything."
+
+Gwyn ducked down behind one of the great, grey weathered lumps of
+granite, and signed to his companion to follow his example.
+
+This was done on the instant, and then Joe looked inquiringly in his
+face.
+
+"Something wrong," whispered Gwyn.  "Trespassers.  Got to know that
+father means to work the mine."
+
+Gwyn raised his head slowly, so as to peer over the block of granite,
+and plainly made out a hand and arm working about at the side of the low
+protection wall of the old mine.
+
+"Sam Hardock," whispered Joe, who had followed his example.  "What's he
+doing?  Measuring the depth?"
+
+"'Tisn't Sam," whispered Gwyn, "it's someone else--stranger, I think.
+Then the mine must be valuable or he wouldn't be there.  What shall we
+do?"
+
+"He has no business there.  It's on your father's property, perhaps
+it'll be ours, too," whispered Joe.  "I say, Ydoll, we're not going to
+stand that; let's go and collar him."
+
+"Agreed!" said Gwyn, excitedly.  "We've right on our side.  Come on."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+FIGHTING THE ENEMY.
+
+Gwyn Pendarve's "Come on!" was loyally responded to by Joe Jollivet, and
+the two lads made a hurried charge down the slope at the interloper so
+busy about the old mine-shaft.
+
+Now, if you take two dogs out for a walk in the country, unless they are
+particularly well-behaved, spiritless animals, as soon as they see
+sheep, cow, or bullock grazing, they will make a furious dash, and if
+the grazing creature runs, they will have a most enjoyable hunt.  But if
+the quarry stands fast and makes a show of attacking in turn, the
+probabilities are that the dogs will slacken speed, stop short a few
+yards away, give vent to their opinions upon the unnatural behaviour of
+the animal in barks, lower their triumphantly waving tails, and come
+back at a gentle trot, stopping at times, though, to turn their heads
+and make a few more remarks in dog language.
+
+Truth to tell, when Gwyn and Joe made their charge, they fully expected
+to see the man leaning over the old wall start off and run; but, as it
+happened, he did not, but stood up, turned, and faced them, looking a
+big, sour-faced, truculent fellow, who scowled at them and stood his
+ground.
+
+Whatever their inclinations might have been for the moment, not being
+dogs, and each having his prestige to keep up in his companion's eyes,
+Gwyn and Joe certainly stopped; but they did not turn, but stood firm,
+noting that the man had a large reel of sea-fishing line evidently of
+goodly length.
+
+"Hullo!" he said, hoarsely.  "What's for you?"
+
+"What are you doing here?" cried Gwyn.
+
+"What's that to you?"
+
+"Everything.  Do you know you are trespassing?"
+
+"No.  Am I?"
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"Thank ye for telling me.  Good-morning."
+
+Gwyn stared, and then looked at Joe.
+
+For, instead of going at once, the man turned his back and drew upon his
+line, whose end--evidently weighted--was hanging down the shaft; but
+instead of continuing to draw it out, he let it run down again rapidly
+from a reel.
+
+"Here, stop that," cried Gwyn.  "What are you doing?"
+
+The man turned upon them, scowling.
+
+"Hullo!" he said; "aren't you gone?  What are you waiting for?"
+
+"To know what you're doing on our property."
+
+"Your property!" said the man, scornfully.  "Can't you see what I'm
+doing?  Fishing."
+
+"Fishing?" cried Joe, who felt staggered, and began wondering whether
+there might be any underground communication with the sea, through which
+some of the huge eels of the rocky cove might have made their way.
+
+"Yes, fishing," growled the man.  "Don't make that row, because I've got
+one at me.  Be off!"
+
+"Nonsense!" cried Gwyn, sharply.  "There are no fish there."
+
+"How do you know, youngster?" said the man.  "Ever tried?"
+
+"No," replied Gwyn; "but I do know that there are no fish in a hole like
+that."
+
+"Ho!  You're precious cunning.  But never you mind, my young
+sharpshooter.  You be off while your shoes are good."
+
+"How dare you order me to go!" cried Gwyn, flushing.  "I told you this
+was my father's property."
+
+"No, you didn't," said the man, after giving a glance round.  "You said
+it was yours.  Consequently you must be a liar, for you tells two tales.
+Now be off, and don't bother me."
+
+Joe looked inquiringly at Gwyn, and the silent question meant, "Hadn't
+we better go and fetch your father?"  But Gwyn felt upon his mettle, and
+he cried angrily,--
+
+"No, it's you who'll have to be off.  You're on private grounds, and
+it's all nonsense about fishing.  I know what you are about."
+
+"Oh, do you?" said the man, sneeringly, as he looked sidewise at the
+lad, but went on busily all the same with his long line.  "Well, what am
+I about, young clever shaver, if I'm not fishing?"
+
+"You're trespassing, as I told you; and whoever you are, you've no right
+to be doing that."
+
+"Anybody's got a right to fish."
+
+"Yes, in the sea, but not on private grounds; so now be off at once."
+
+"And suppose I say I won't," said the man, menacingly.
+
+"But you won't now you're told.  Be off, please, at once; we can't have
+you doing that."
+
+"Why, you're never going to interfere with a stranger who's trying to
+ketch a few podnoddles," said the man, grinning.
+
+"No, but I will with a stranger who has come spying and measuring that
+mine; so be off at once, and no more nonsense."
+
+"Let's fetch the Colonel," whispered Joe.
+
+"Yah! go and fetch your grandmother," snarled the man.  "Look here, both
+of you, I didn't interfere with you; don't you come interfering with me,
+my lads, because I'm one of the sort who turns ugly when he's meddled
+with."
+
+Gwyn hesitated for a few moments, and then stepped close up, clapped his
+hand on the man's shoulder, and pointed toward the wall.
+
+"Come!" he cried; "that's the way, and don't you come here again."
+
+The man turned upon him with a wild-beast-like snarl.
+
+"Do you want me to pitch you down that hole?" he cried.
+
+"No, and you daren't do it," cried Gwyn, whose temper rose at this.
+"Now, then, will you go?"
+
+For answer the man swung round fiercely, bringing his right arm across
+Gwyn's chest and sending him staggering back for a yard or two.
+
+"Come on, Gwyn, let's fetch the Colonel."
+
+Gwyn's blood was up.  He felt not the slightest inclination to run for
+help, but, big as the man was, he sprang forward with such energy that,
+in his surprise, the fellow gave way for the moment, and Gwyn seized the
+opportunity to make a snatch at the great reel he held, wrenched it from
+his hand, and threw it to Joe, who caught it as cleverly as if it had
+been a cricket ball.
+
+"Run round the other side, Joe, and drag it out.  Run off with it.
+Never mind me."
+
+Joe obeyed on the instant, and, making for the other side, he dashed off
+up the side of the gully, dragging the line after him, and was some
+yards away before the man recovered from his surprise.
+
+"Oh, that's your game, is it?" he cried savagely.  "I'll 'tend to you
+directly, my lad," and he made to pass Gwyn, who tried to stop him, but
+received a thrust which sent him backward on the heath, while the man
+started to follow Joe.
+
+But Gwyn's life on the rocky coast had made him as active as a cat, and
+as the fellow was passing he thrust out one leg, tripped him, and his
+adversary went down with a crash, while, before he could rise, Gwyn was
+upon him trying to hold him down.
+
+The boy was strong for his years, and, gripping his adversary by the
+collar with both hands, he drove his knees into the man's ribs, and held
+on.  For some moments the advantage of position was on his side, but it
+was like trying to ride a mad bull.  For the man heaved and twisted, and
+Gwyn had hard work to maintain his place as long as he did.  This was
+till the man gave a tremendous writhe, sending his rider over sidewise,
+and then dashing after Joe, who was running as hard as he could go,
+trailing the line after him.
+
+Joe had a good start, and the advantage of being light and accustomed to
+make his way among the heath and stones; but he soon found that the
+weight at the end of the line kept on catching in the rough growth; and
+as he tore on, he saw that the fierce-looking fellow was in full
+pursuit.  If he had dropped the line, he could easily have got away, but
+Gwyn had thrown that reel to him, and told him to run with it; and
+setting his teeth he ran on, jerking the weight free again and again,
+till all at once in one of the bounds it made after a heavy drag, it
+struck against a small post-like piece of granite which stuck up out of
+the ground, swung round and clasped it, as the bolas of a South-American
+Indian twine round the legs of a running animal, and the sudden jerk
+threw the boy down.
+
+He was up again directly, and turned to run and untwist the line, but it
+was only to rush into the man's arms, and be thrown, when with a foot
+upon his chest the fellow began to try and tear the line from his hands.
+
+But Joe's blood was up now, and he held on with all his might, turning
+himself over so as to get the reel beneath his chest.
+
+"Gwyn!  Gwyn!  Help!" he shouted.
+
+"All right!" came from behind him, and his comrade, who had been in
+pursuit, pitched heavily on to the man's back, when a trio in struggling
+commenced, the boys holding on with stubborn determination, and their
+enemy beginning to strike out savagely with fist and elbow.
+
+It was only a question of minutes, and then the boys would have been
+completely mastered.  In fact, it had reached the pitch when the man had
+them both at his mercy and was kneeling between them, holding each by
+the throat, and forcing them back on the heather, when there was a loud
+whistle, the sound of a heavy blow, and the fellow uttered a savage yell
+as he sprang up and turned upon a fresh adversary.  But _whish! crash_!
+the sounds were repeated, followed by a savage shout, and the man beat a
+retreat.
+
+For Colonel Pendarve had come panting up at the sight of the struggle,
+and, bringing to bear his old cavalry officer's skill, delivered three
+slashing sabre cuts with his heavy cane, the first from the right, the
+second from the left shoulder, putting the enemy thoroughly to rout.
+For the man left the trophies of the fight in the boys' hands, made for
+the road, and disappeared over the wall.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+THE MAJOR HAS STRANGE SYMPTOMS.
+
+"Whatever is the meaning of all this?" panted the Colonel, as Major
+Jollivet came up more slowly, looking weak and pale, but urged on by his
+excitement, to their side.
+
+Gwyn blurted out something incoherent, for he was too much exhausted to
+speak plainly, and stared confusedly at his father.
+
+"What?" cried the latter; "I can't understand you.  Here, Joe Jollivet,
+what have you to say?"
+
+"Blurr--blurr--bline!" babbled Joe.
+
+"Splendid cuts, Pendarve.  The grand old form," panted Major Jollivet.
+"You--you--you--sent--sent--the blood--der--der--dancing through--in--my
+veins."
+
+"Yes, I flatter myself, he had them home," said the Colonel, smiling
+with satisfaction.  "Regular old pursuing practice.  Lucky for him it
+was not the steel.  But what is it all about?  Who is the fellow?  Was
+he trying to rob you?"
+
+"No--you, father," stuttered Gwyn.  "C-caught him--mum--measuring the
+mine.  Took away--his line."
+
+"What?  You boys did?"
+
+Joe nodded, still too breathless to speak, and not feeling disposed to
+utter incoherent sounds again.
+
+"Yes--father--Joe's got it."
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the Colonel.  "It seems to me that you've both got
+it.  Do you know that your nose is bleeding, sir?"
+
+Gwyn gave that organ the aboriginal wipe, drawing the back of his hand
+across his face, looked at it and saw that it was covered with blood.
+
+"No--didn't know, father," he said, taking out his handkerchief now.
+"Yes, it does bleed."
+
+"Bleed, yes!  Why, you have had a regular fight, then?"
+
+"Running fight, seemingly," said the Major, grimly.  "Tut--tut--tut!
+What a disreputable pair of young blackguards they look."
+
+"Never mind," said the Colonel, suavely.  "They did quite right to
+attack the enemy, even if he was in greater force.  But I don't quite
+understand it, Gwyn.  Did he say he was measuring the mine?"
+
+"No, father; but we saw him doing it."
+
+"But how could he know anything about it?  The man was a stranger to
+me."
+
+"I never saw him before, father?"
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated the Colonel, turning to the Major, "I'm glad I
+brought you out to have a look.  Pretty good proof that someone believes
+the old mine to be valuable, eh?"
+
+"Yes, or a trick to make it seem so."
+
+"Pooh!  Impossible!  It might be if someone wanted to sell the mine; but
+it is not for sale, and not likely to be.  So you found him measuring--
+sounding, I suppose you mean?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Joe.  "Here's the line, and it seems to have knots in
+it to show the depth."
+
+For the boy was busily reeling up the loose cord, and walking back
+toward where the leaden weight had twined it round the piece of granite.
+
+Joe set this free, and it proved to be a regular fishing sinker.
+
+"But what did the fellow say to give you an excuse for attacking him as
+you did?"
+
+"Said he was fishing, father," replied Gwyn; "but that was only his
+insolence."
+
+"Might have been stupid enough to think he could fish there," said the
+Major.
+
+"No; he meant to find out something about the place.  It is being talked
+about the--"
+
+"Yes, a good deal," said the Major, significantly.  "Well, as you have
+brought me here to see it, you may as well show me the hole."
+
+By this time the line was all wound up, and the Colonel led the way back
+to the mine, where, just as they reached the rough stone-wall, Gwyn ran
+forward and picked up a common memorandum book, which had fallen, to lie
+half-hidden amongst the heath.
+
+A roughly pointed lead pencil was between the leaves, which opened to
+show that the owner had been making notes; but that he was not
+accustomed to the work was evident from the spelling, the first entry
+reading as follows:--
+
+"_Dounter warter 30 fathom_."
+
+The second,--
+
+"_Dounter botm 49 fathom an narf_."
+
+The third entry was,--
+
+"_Lot warter in thole as mus be pumpt out_."
+
+Then came a series of hieroglyphics which puzzled Gwyn; and, after a
+long trial, he handed the book to his father, who looked at it for some
+time, and then shook his head, as he passed it to the Major.
+
+"I'm not scholar enough for this, Jollivet," he said.  "Will you have a
+try?"
+
+"No; I haven't brought my glasses.  Here, Joe, what does this say?"
+
+Joe, who had been all eagerness to begin, caught at the book, and tried
+to decipher the roughly-written words, but got on no better than the
+rest.
+
+"Let me try again," cried Gwyn.
+
+"No, no; I haven't done yet," said Joe; "but it looks all rubbish.  No
+one can make this out."
+
+"Spell it over," said his father, and the boy began.
+
+"H-o-r-s-i-m-s-p-o-o-t-e-t-y-de-b-i-t-h-e-t-o-p-e."
+
+"What does that spell?  It's all one word."
+
+"Read it again," said Gwyn, excitedly; and Joe repeated the letters.
+
+"I know.  Can't you see?" cried Gwyn, laughing.
+
+Joe shook his head, and the two old officers looked nonplussed.
+
+"What is it, Gwyn?" said his father.  "Speak out, if you know."
+
+"Ore seems pretty tidy by the top."
+
+"No; nonsense!" cried the Colonel.
+
+"It is, father," said Gwyn.  "You read it over again, Joe."
+
+The letters were once more repeated, and the Major exclaimed,--
+
+"That's it, sure enough."
+
+"Then there must be something in it," cried Colonel Pendarve.  "The
+place is being talked about, and this fellow, who is evidently
+experienced in such matters, has been sent on to act as a spy.  But how
+does he know about the depth?"
+
+"Line's all knotted in six-feet lengths, sir," said Joe.
+
+"Then I'm much obliged to him for taking the measures; but let's try for
+ourselves.  You would like to see the depth tried, Jollivet."
+
+"I?  No, certainly not.  Why should I?" cried the Major, testily.
+
+"Because I presume you will take some interest in seeing me succeed if I
+go on with the venture."
+
+"Oh!  Well, yes, of course.  Going to try now?"
+
+"I am," replied the Colonel.  "Will you boys let down the leaden sinker?
+Be careful, mind.  Will you hold the reel, Joe? and then Gwyn can count
+the knots as the line runs down."
+
+"All right, sir," cried Joe; and the Major took his place by the wall to
+look on while, after stationing themselves, Gwyn counted three knots, so
+as to get a little loose line, then took tight hold and pitched the lead
+from him, letting the stout cord run between his finger and thumb, and
+counting aloud as it went down, stopping at thirty by tightening his
+grasp on the line.
+
+"He's wrong, father; thirty fathoms, and there's no water yet."
+
+"Try a little lower, boy."
+
+The line began to run again, and there was a faint plash before half of
+another fathom had been reeled off.
+
+"Not so very far out," said the Major, as Gwyn went on counting and the
+reel turned steadily on, Joe turning one finger into a brake, and
+checking the spool so that it would not give out the line too fast.
+
+On went the counting, the words coming mechanically from Gwyn's lips as
+he thought all the while about his terrible fall, and wondered how deep
+down he had gone beneath the black water.
+
+"Forty-seven--forty-eight--forty-nine--fifty," counted Gwyn.
+
+"Bottom?" cried the Colonel.
+
+"No, father; he must have let it catch on some ledge or piece that stuck
+out.  Look, the lead's going steadily on.  He said forty-nine: I've
+counted fifty, and there it goes--fifty-one--fifty-two," and to the
+surprise of all, the line ran out till another twenty fathoms had passed
+off the reel.
+
+"Seventy fathoms, father.  That's bottom," said Gwyn, hauling up and
+letting the line run again with the same result.
+
+"Hah, yes," said the Colonel; "and that means so many thousand gallons
+more water to be pumped out.  But try again.  Jerk the lead, and let it
+shoot down.  Perhaps you have not quite sounded the bottom yet."
+
+Gwyn obeyed, and the result was again the same.
+
+"Seventy fathoms.  Well, that is not deep compared to some of the mines;
+but it proves that there must have been profitable work going on for the
+people, whoever they were, to have gone on cutting through the hard
+stone.  A tremendous task, Jollivet."
+
+"Hang it, yes, I suppose so.  Well, there is nothing more to be done or
+seen, is there?"
+
+"Not at present.  Only to reel up the line our visitor has been so
+obliging as to lend us."
+
+"Wind away, Joe," cried Gwyn; "and I'll let the string pass through my
+fingers, so as to wring off some of the water."
+
+The boys began to gather in the sounding-cord, and the Major stood
+peering down over the wall into the black depths and poking at a loose
+stone on the top of the wall with his cane.
+
+"Seems rather childish," he said suddenly; "but should you mind,
+Pendarve, if I dislodged this stone and let it fall down the shaft?"
+
+"Mind?  Certainly not.  Go on.  Here, shall I do it?"
+
+"No.  I should prefer doing it myself," said the Major; and standing his
+cane against the wall, he took hold of the stone and stood it upon the
+edge.
+
+"Stop!" cried the Colonel as he noted that the under part of the stone
+glistened, as granite will.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"That piece of stone," said the Colonel, excitedly.  "Why, man, look; it
+is rich in tin ore."
+
+"That blackish-purple glittering stuff?"
+
+"Yes; those are tin grains.  But there, it does not matter.  Throw it
+in.  We can have it sent up again when the mine is pumped out.  In with
+it."
+
+The Major raised the stone with both hands face high and threw it from
+him, while all watched him, and then stood waiting for the heavy
+hollow-sounding splash which followed, with the lapping of the water
+against the sides.
+
+"It is strange," said the Major, "what a peculiar fascination a place
+like this exercises over me, Pendarve.  I feel just as if I could leap
+down into--"
+
+As he spoke, he leaned over the low wall as if drawn toward the place,
+and his son turned ghastly white and uttered a faint cry.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+THE COMPACT SEALED.
+
+"No, no, my boy, don't be alarmed," said the Major, turning to smile at
+his son.  "It is only that I am a little nervous and impressionable from
+my illness.  But it is strange how a depth attracts, and how necessary
+it is for boys to be careful and master themselves when tempted to do
+things that are risky.  Upon my word, I marvel at the daring of you
+fellows in running such a risk as you did the other day."
+
+"It was not Joe, sir," interposed Gwyn.  "I went down."
+
+"But I'll be bound to say my boy was ready to offer."
+
+The pair of actors in the trouble glanced at each other, and Joe's
+cheeks grew red again.
+
+"Take my advice," said the Major, "as boy or man never do anything risky
+unless it is for some good reason.  One has no right to go into danger
+unless it is as an act of duty."
+
+"Quite right," said the Colonel; "that's what I tell Gwyn; but boys have
+such terribly short memories.  There, we may as well go back; but you
+had better wash your face at the first pool, Gwyn.  You look horrible.
+I can't have you go home in that condition."
+
+"No; he would frighten Mrs Pendarve out of her senses," said the Major.
+"Well, I've seen the wonderful mine, and it looks just like what it is:
+a big square hole, with plenty of room to throw down money enough to
+ruin the Queen.  But you were right, Pendarve: the fresh air and the
+exertion have done me good.  I must go back, though, now; the fever
+makes me weak."
+
+That evening the Colonel had a long talk with his son, for he had come
+to the conclusion that they had not heard the end of the man's visit to
+the mine.
+
+"It seems to me, Gwyn," he said, "that something must have been known
+about the place and caused this amateurish kind of inspection."
+
+"I've been thinking so, too, father," said Gwyn.  "Sam Hardock must have
+been talking about it to different people, and praised it so that
+someone wants to begin mining."
+
+They had come to the right conclusion, for the very next day a dog-cart
+was driven to the Cove, stopped at the Colonel's gate, and a little
+fussy-looking gentleman, with sharp eyes, a snub nose, and grey hair,
+which seemed to have a habit of standing out in pointed tufts, came up
+to the door, knocked, and sent in his card.
+
+"Mr Lester Dix, solicitor, Plymouth," said the Colonel, reading the
+card, as he and Gwyn were busy over a work on military manoeuvres.  "I
+don't know any Mr Dix.  Show him in."
+
+"Shall I go, father?"
+
+"No, I think not, my boy.  I don't suppose it is anything important,
+unless it is someone come to claim damages for the assault you committed
+on the man at the mine, and for confiscating the reel and line."
+
+"Oh, it would not be that, would it, father?" cried Gwyn, anxiously.
+"And besides--"
+
+"He began it, eh?  Well, we shall see.  You had better stay."
+
+The visitor was shown it, and entered with so smiling a countenance that
+at first Gwyn felt better; but a suspicion came over him directly after
+that the smile might mean a masking of the real attack.
+
+For Gwyn's education was growing decidedly military, his father devoting
+a great deal of time to reading works on fortification and army matters.
+
+But he was soon set at rest, for, after a few preliminary words of
+apology for the call, with some remarks on the fineness of the morning,
+and the pleasant drive over from the station, the visitor plunged at
+once into the object of his visit.
+
+"The fact is, Colonel Pendarve, my professional business lies a great
+deal with mining companies, and one of those for whom I act have been
+for some time looking out for a spot here on the west coast, where they
+could exploit, so to speak, the land, and try with the newer machinery
+some of the old neglected workings.  Now, I am instructed that you have
+on your estate one of these disused mines, and my company, for whom I
+act, are willing to run the risk of trying if anything can be made of it
+with the modern appliances.  You see I am quite frank with you, sir.  In
+other words, they are desirous of becoming the purchasers of your little
+estate here at a good advance upon the sum for which you purchased it."
+
+"Indeed?" said the Colonel, smiling.
+
+"Yes, sir; and I will not conceal from you the fact that they will be
+quite willing to agree to what would really be a most advantageous thing
+for you."
+
+"Then the old mine must be very valuable," said Gwyn, excitedly.
+
+"Eh?" ejaculated the visitor, turning his eyes sharply upon the boy.
+"Oh dear me, no, my dear young friend.  That does not follow.  It might
+turn out to be, of course; but mining is a terribly speculative, risky
+business, and the probabilities are that this mine--let me see, Ydoll, I
+think, is the old name, and eh, young gentleman, not badly named?  Been
+lying idle for a very long time, I suppose?  Eh?  You'll excuse the
+joke.  We may lose very heavily in this one, while we gain on others.
+But, of course, Colonel Pendarve, that is not my affair.  My
+instructions, to be brief, are to ascertain whether you will sell, and,
+if you will take a reasonable price, to close with you at once."
+
+"I wish father would ask him how he knows about the mine," thought Gwyn.
+
+"May I ask how you became aware of the existence of this place, sir?"
+asked the Colonel.
+
+"Maps and plans, sir.  I have pretty well every property marked out all
+through the country; picturesque and geological features all set down.
+Quite a study, young gentleman.  You have a nice place here Colonel
+Pendarve, but you must find it bleak, and I think I may venture to say
+this is an opportunity for parting with it most profitably."
+
+"I suppose so, sir," said the Colonel, "for your clients would not be, I
+presume, particular about a few hundreds to obtain possession?"
+
+"Well," replied the lawyer, smiling, "without committing myself, I think
+I may say that your wishes within reason would be met, sir, upon
+pecuniary points."
+
+"Well that sounds satisfactory," said the Colonel, "but I have grown
+attached to the place, and so has my son."
+
+"Oh, yes, father," said Gwyn, eagerly.  "I don't want to go."
+
+"Plenty of more beautiful places to be had, my dear sir," said the
+lawyer, "by the man who has money."
+
+"I have improved the house, too, a great deal lately."
+
+"So I should suppose, sir," said the lawyer; "but we should consider all
+that in the purchase money."
+
+"And I have made my little garden one of the most productive in the
+county."
+
+"All of which we will take into consideration, my dear sir.  Now, not to
+take up your time, what do you say?  I have a plan in my pocket of the
+estate, and I am quite prepared to come to terms at once."
+
+"But is not this very sudden?" said the Colonel, smiling.
+
+"Well, perhaps so, my dear sir; but I always advise the companies who
+intrust me with their affairs to be business-like and prompt.  Let us
+have none of the law's delays, my dear sir, I say.  It means waste of
+time; and as time is money, it is a waste of hard cash.  Now, sir, you,
+as a military man, know the value of decision."
+
+"I hope so," said the Colonel, who looked amused.
+
+"Well, in plain English, sir, will you sell?"
+
+"In plain English, Mr Dix," said the Colonel, promptly, "`No.'"
+
+"Take time, my dear sir, take time," said the lawyer.  "Don't, let me
+implore you, throw away a good chance.  Name your terms."
+
+"I have no terms to propose, sir.  I like my house here, and I shall not
+part with it at any price.--Yes, Dolly?  What is it?"
+
+For the maid had tapped and entered, looking very round-eyed and
+surprised.
+
+"Another gentleman to see you, sir."
+
+"Indeed?  You will not mind, Mr Dix?"
+
+"Oh, by no means, my dear sir.  But one moment, please.  Why not close
+with my proposal?  Come, my dear sir, to be plain, I will take the place
+at your own terms."
+
+"You will not take the place at any terms, sir," said the Colonel,
+decisively.  "Dolly, show the other gentleman in.  But did he give you
+his card?"
+
+"No, sir; said he'd like to speak to you himself."
+
+"Show him in, then."
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated the lawyer; "but you will alter your mind, Colonel
+Pendarve?"
+
+"I hope not."
+
+"But if you do, you will give me the first offer?"
+
+"I will make no promises, sir," replied the Colonel.
+
+At that moment a reddish-haired, sour-looking man was shown in, and he
+nodded shortly to the lawyer.
+
+"You here?" he said.
+
+"Yes, my dear Brownson, I am here.  Business, my dear sir, business.
+You really do not mean to say that you have come on the same mission as
+I."
+
+"I beg pardon, Colonel Pendarve," said the fresh visitor.  "I was not
+aware that Mr Dix here proposed visiting you.  Can I have the pleasure
+of a few words on business of great importance?"
+
+"Certainly," said the Colonel, who now looked very much amused; "but may
+I ask if it is concerning the purchase of the mine?"
+
+"To be frank, sir, yes, it is.  On the behalf of a client, but--but you
+don't mean that I am too late?"
+
+There was a look of misery in the newcomer's face that was comical, and
+before the Colonel could speak, he went on:--
+
+"Don't be rash, sir, pray don't be rash.  You cannot have closed yet,
+and I am here prepared, not merely to negotiate, but to come to the most
+advantageous terms for you."
+
+Mr Dix chuckled, rubbed his hands, and gave the newcomer a look which
+seemed to sting him to the core.
+
+"I need hardly say, gentlemen," said the Colonel, "that this visit has
+taken me quite by surprise.  I did not expect these sudden offers from
+what seem to me to be rival companies."
+
+"Hardly rival companies, sir; but I must say that Mr Dix has taken a
+very unfair advantage of me, after we had agreed to a truce."
+
+"Yes, one which I knew you would break, Brownson," said Dix; "and so I
+came on first.  Now, Colonel Pendarve you will come to terms with me."
+
+"No, sir," said the Colonel, fiercely, "nor with your friend here.  My
+mind is quite made up.  I do not know to which party the visit of a spy
+is due, but you may take these words as final; I shall certainly not
+sell this little estate to either of you, nor," he added, after a pause,
+"to anyone else.  What, another?" he cried, as Dolly re-appeared at the
+door.
+
+"No, sir, it's only Major Jollivet, sir.  But he says, if you're
+engaged, he'll call again."
+
+"Show him in," cried the Colonel.  "Ah, there he goes.  Call him back,
+Gwyn."
+
+The boy flew to the window, and, in answer to his call, the Major came
+back, and entered.
+
+"Oh, I didn't wish to interrupt you, Pendarve, but I wanted to have a
+few words with you on business.  Eh?  Yes.  Very much better.  I shall
+be all right for a few months now."
+
+"Let me introduce you," said the Colonel.  "This is Mr Dix, solicitor,
+of Plymouth, and Mr Brownson, also a solicitor, I presume, of the same
+town.  My old friend and brother officer, Major Jollivet."
+
+Bows were exchanged, and the visitors scowled at each other.
+
+"Jollivet, these two gentlemen, who represent different companies as
+clients, have come over to make me a very advantageous offer for this
+little estate."
+
+"Indeed!" said the Major, starting.  "What for?"
+
+"They wish to reopen the mine, and are ready to give me my own price."
+
+"Certainly," said Mr Dix.
+
+"Yes, certainly," said Mr Brownson, "with, gentlemen, the addition of a
+royalty on our part on all the metal smelted.  Come, Dix, that's
+trumps."
+
+"Yes, sir, but this is the ace.  Colonel Pendarve, I will guarantee you
+double the royalty Mr Brownson offers," said Dix.
+
+"Come, that's business, gentlemen," said the Colonel, smiling, while
+Gwyn's face was scarlet with excitement.  "Now, Jollivet, as the man
+whom I always consult on business matters, and irrespective of anything
+I may have said to these gentlemen, what would you advise me to do?"
+
+"Ah," exclaimed Mr Dix, rubbing his hands, "what would you advise him
+to do, General?"
+
+"Major, sir, Major," said the old officer, shortly.
+
+"Yes, Major Jollivet," said Mr Brownson, "what would you advise him to
+do?  Surely to take our fair and liberal offer.  We are very old
+established, and shall carry that old mine to a triumphant success.
+What would you advise?"
+
+"Oh, Major Jollivet, don't advise him to sell," whispered Gwyn.
+
+"Silence, sir!  How dah you interfere!" cried the Major.  "Pendarve, if
+this boy speaks again, send him away."
+
+"Oh, he will not hurt," said the Colonel.  "Now, what do you say?"
+
+"Ahem!" coughed the Major, and then he took out an India bandanna silk
+handkerchief, and blew his nose with a blast like that of a trumpet
+heralding a charge.  "I say, gentlemen, that my old friend, Colonel
+Pendarve, and I, are very much obliged to you for your offer, which is
+one that we refuse without the smallest hesitation."
+
+"I will increase my offer, gentlemen; I did not know that Colonel
+Pendarve had a partner," said Mr Dix.
+
+"I will double mine, gentlemen," cried Brownson.
+
+"Gwyn," said the Colonel.  "Never mind the licence; you had better jump
+on the table and play auctioneer."
+
+"By all means," cried Dix, "and knock it down to the highest bidder."
+
+"No!" roared the Major.  "Keep your place, boy.  Out of the question.
+The mine is not for sale.  Colonel Pendarve and I are going to carry it
+on ourselves."
+
+"What!" cried the two lawyers in a breath.
+
+"Jollivet and Pendarve of the Ydoll Mine," cried the Colonel, excitedly.
+
+"That's it, the other way on," said the Major.  "Your own proposal; do
+you hold to it?  I came to ask you if you would, before I knew these
+people were here.  Now, then, what do you say?"
+
+"Jollivet and Pendarve."
+
+"Pendarve and Jollivet, or I won't play," cried the Major.
+
+"As you wish," said the Colonel, "There's my hand and seal."
+
+"And mine," cried the Major, seizing the hand extended to him.
+
+"Don't, don't say that, gentlemen," cried Dix, wildly, "It may mean ruin
+to you both."
+
+"And destruction," cried Brownson.
+
+"Very well," said the Major.  "We're old soldiers, we'll face all as
+we've often faced death.  Pen, old man, for the sake of the boys."
+
+"For the sake of the boys," cried the Colonel.
+
+And the next minute the two mining companies' agents were bowed out,
+while Gwyn leaped on a chair to shout "hurrah!" just as the French
+window was darkened, and a voice cried,--
+
+"Is father here?"
+
+Joe was not long before he heard the news.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+A SUSPICION OF EVIL.
+
+The result of the morning's work was that Sam Hardock received a message
+from the Colonel, delivered by Gwyn, and the man rubbed his hands
+gleefully.
+
+"I thought he couldn't refuse such a chance," cried Hardock.  "It's a
+big fortune for him."
+
+"I hope so," said Gwyn.  "But how came those people at Plymouth to hear
+about it?"
+
+"I dunno, sir.  But they got hold of the gashly news somehow."
+
+"You did not send them word, of course?"
+
+"Me?  Not I, sir."
+
+"But how could that man have heard of it, and come over to sound the
+mine and examine the place?"
+
+"What man?" cried Hardock, anxiously.
+
+Gwyn explained, and, in answer to questions, the lad gave a pretty good
+description of his awkward adversary.
+
+Hardock struck his fist upon the table.
+
+"That's the chap!  I often wondered who he was.  Been hanging about here
+these two months past."
+
+"Then you did tell him."
+
+"Me, Master Gwyn?  Not a bit of it.  I'm too close."
+
+"Then you must have talked about it to other people, and he picked up
+what you said.  But there, come along.  He will not get it now."
+
+"He must have been sent by someone out Plymouth way, that's for certain,
+sir.  But come along.  I want to hear what the Colonel has to say."
+
+"And the Major, too."
+
+"Why, he's not in it, sir, is he?"
+
+"Of course.  He will be my father's partner."
+
+Hardock whistled, and was very silent all the way up to the house by
+Ydoll Cove.
+
+He was talkative enough, though, when he came away, but in a very
+mysterious fashion.
+
+"It's all right, Mr Gwyn," he whispered.  "Going to be a very big
+thing.  I mustn't talk about it; but you're like one of us, and I may
+tell you.  I'm off to Truro this afternoon to talk to an old friend of
+mine--engineer, and a very big man on working mines.  He'll advise on
+the best kind of pump to have."
+
+The engineer came, examined the shaft, gave his opinions, and in a
+week's time masons were at work setting up an engine-house, ready for
+the steam machinery that was to come round by ship from Liverpool; and
+in a short time the wild slope at the top of the great cliffs was
+invaded by quite a colony of workmen.  The masons' hammers were
+constantly chipping as they laboriously went on building and raising a
+platform above the mouth of the shaft, while, whenever a few rich pieces
+of ore, after possibly lying there many hundred years, were turned up,
+they were solemnly conveyed to the two old officers for examination.
+
+Here the two boys were soon in their element, and began working away
+with a great deal of enthusiasm in a small, corrugated iron shed which
+had been erected in the garden, and dignified by the name of laboratory.
+For, to the boys' great delight, a model furnace had been made, with
+bellows, and a supply of charcoal was always ready.  There was a great
+cast-iron mortar fitted on a concrete stand, crucibles of various sizes,
+and the place looked quite ship-shape.
+
+Both the old officers worked hard at assaying the ore brought from about
+the mouth of the pit, dug no one knew when, and though they spent a good
+deal of time, they were very soon superseded by Gwyn and Joe.  Hardock
+gave them a little instruction; everything about the work was
+interesting and fresh; and in a few weeks they were able to roughly
+declare how much pure metal could be obtained from a ton of the quartz
+which they broke up in the great mortar, powdering, and washing and
+drying, and then smelting in one of the plumbago crucibles of the
+laboratory.
+
+"There's no telling yet what we may find in that mine, Joe," said Gwyn;
+"only we don't know enough chemistry to find out."
+
+"It's metallurgy, father says," said Joe, correcting him.
+
+"Never mind; it's chemistry all the same; and we must read more about
+it, and try experiments.  Why, we might get gold and silver."
+
+"What, out of a tin mine?" said Joe, derisively.
+
+"Well, why not?  I don't know about the gold, but we may, perhaps.  Sam
+Hardock said there were some specks in one bit of quartz he brought up."
+
+"But we shouldn't want specks; we should want lumps."
+
+"There's sure to be silver."
+
+"Why?" said Joe.
+
+"Because there's lead, and I was reading with father about how much
+silver you can get by purifying the lead.  It's going to be a wonderful
+business."
+
+"Hope so," said Joe; "but they're a precious long while getting the
+machinery together, and my father says the cost is awful."
+
+"Can't get a great pump in a mine ready to work like you can one in a
+back kitchen," said Gwyn.  "See what an awkward job it is fitting the
+platforms for the tubing.  I think they're doing wonders, seeing what a
+lot there is to get ready.  Sam says, though, that he believes they'll
+begin pumping next month."
+
+But next month came round, and they did not begin pumping, for the
+simple reason that the machinery was not ready.  Still it was in fair
+progress, and an arrangement was fixed so that, when the beam began to
+rise and fall, the water would be sent gushing into the adit by which
+Gwyn had made his escape on that adventurous day; and as this little
+gully had a gentle slope towards the sea, the water would be easily got
+rid of by its own natural flow.
+
+The boys were at the mouth of the shaft on one particular day, and as
+the news had been spread that the first steps for drying the mine were
+to be taken, half the people from the little village had sauntered up,
+many of them being fisherfolk, and plenty of solemn conversation went
+on, more than one weather-beaten old sage giving it as his opinion that
+no good would come of it, for there was something wicked and queer about
+this old mine, and they all opined that it ought not to have been
+touched.
+
+Gwyn noticed the head-shakings, and nudged Joe.
+
+"Talking about the goblins in the mine," he answered.  "I say, if there
+are any, they'll come rushing up the big tube like the tadpoles did in
+the garden pump when it was first made."
+
+Just then Joe caught hold of his companion's arm, and pinched it.
+
+"Hullo!" cried Gwyn.
+
+"Hush! don't talk--don't look till I tell you which way.  I've just seen
+him."
+
+"Seen whom?" said Gwyn, wonderingly.
+
+"That big chap who was measuring the pit.  He's over yonder with about a
+dozen more men.  What does it mean?"
+
+"Mischief," said Gwyn, huskily.  "Quick!  Let's go and warn my father."
+
+"What about?  He may only have come up to see."
+
+"I don't know," said Gwyn, excitedly.  "Someone who wanted to get the
+mine must have sent them up first of all, and, as they couldn't get it,
+I'm afraid they've turned spiteful, and may try to do us harm.  What
+would they do, do you think?"
+
+"Try and damage the machinery, perhaps," said Joe.
+
+"Yes, that's it.  We must warn father, and keep an eye on those fellows,
+or there's no knowing what they may do.  Where are they now?"
+
+"Can't see them," said Joe, after a glance round.  "They must have
+gone."
+
+"Yes, but where?  Not to the engine-house, surely.  Why, they might
+upset the whole thing, and do no end of mischief if they liked.  Come
+on, and let's make sure that they are not there, and then tell Sam
+Hardock to keep watch."
+
+Joe had another look round the now thoroughly transformed place, with
+its engine-house, sheds, and scaffold and wheel over the built-up shaft,
+but he saw nothing, and said so.  Still Gwyn was not satisfied, for a
+peculiar feeling of dread oppressed him.
+
+"It isn't easy to see for the people and the buildings--Ah, there's
+father; let's go and tell him what we think."
+
+It was quite time: for the hero of the measuring and another
+sour-looking fellow were making their way round to where the two boilers
+were beginning to be charged with steam, and what was worse for all
+concerned, no one paid any heed to their movements, which were furtive
+and strange, suggesting that they had not come for the purpose of doing
+good, while their opportunities for doing a serious ill were ample; but
+Gwyn had just grasped that fact.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+IN THE ENGINE-HOUSE.
+
+The boys hardly spoke as they made their way towards the engine-house,
+from whence came a loud hissing noise, and on hearing this, Joe
+exclaimed excitedly,--
+
+"He's there."
+
+For answer Gwyn ran to the door, and entered, hardly knowing what he was
+about to do, but with the feeling that this man was a natural enemy,
+whom it was his duty to attack; and, like a true comrade, Joe followed
+closely at his heels.
+
+The hissing noise increased as they approached the door; and, fully
+alive as he was to the danger of meddling with steam, Gwyn's heart began
+to beat a little faster, for he felt that they were too late; that the
+mischief had been done, the steam was escaping, and that if they entered
+the house, it might be at the expense of a terrible scalding.
+
+All else was silent, and as they reached the doorway of the place, the
+shrill, shrieking noise was piercing, and made their words difficult to
+hear.
+
+"He has broken something, or turned on the steam, so that it may escape,
+Joe," said Gwyn.  "Shall we go in and try to put it right?"
+
+"If we must.  But where's the engine-driver?--where's the stoker?"
+
+Gwyn looked round, to see that the people were crowding about the shaft
+where the great pump was to be set in motion and where work-people were
+busy still trying to get it ready.  Hammers were clinking, spanners and
+screw wrenches rattling on nuts, and the work in progress was being
+patiently watched, the engine-house and boilers being for the time
+unnoticed.
+
+"Perhaps he's here, after all," said Gwyn at last, with a gasp.  "Shall
+we go in?"
+
+Joe hesitated while you might have counted ten, and he looked
+despairingly round, as if in the hope of seeing something that would
+check him and render the venture unnecessary, for there was the sound as
+of a thousand snakes hissing wildly, and to one unused to the behaviour
+of engine boilers all this seemed preliminary to a terrible explosion,
+with possible death for those who went inside.
+
+"Yes, we must go in," said the boy at last; and as Gwyn made one effort
+to summon his courage, and dashed through the door, he followed.
+
+The noise was now almost deafening, and at a glance they saw that the
+steam was escaping furiously from the two long boilers at the end
+farthest from where they stood, but the new bright engine, with its
+cylinders, pistons, rods, cranks, driving-wheel, governor, and
+eccentric, seemed to be perfectly safe.
+
+"He has been in and driven a pickaxe into each of the boilers," cried
+Joe.  "They'll blow up together.  Shall we run?"
+
+The boy's words were almost drowned by the fierce hissing, which was now
+mingled with a deep bass formed by a loud humming, throbbing sound such
+as might be made by a Brobdingnagian tea-kettle, just upon ready for
+use.  Then came loud cracking and spitting sounds, and the dull roar of
+big fires.
+
+But the man of whom they were in search was invisible, and Gwyn walked
+quickly round to the other side of the engine and looked sharply down
+that side of the long building.
+
+Joe followed.
+
+It was darker here, and the steam which filled the open roof, and was
+passing out of a louvre, hung lower, so that the far end was seen
+through a mist.  "Not here," said Gwyn.  "Think we could stop the steam
+escaping?"
+
+"Don't know," shouted back Joe.  "Sha'n't we be scalded to death?"
+
+"Let's go and try."
+
+That was enough for Joe, who felt as if he would have given anything for
+the power to rush out, but seemed held there by his companion's example.
+
+"Go on, then," he panted out; and Gwyn had taken a couple of steps into
+the hot vapour, his heart throbbing violently with the great dread of
+ignorance, when, beyond the mist which was looking light in front of the
+door at the far end, there was a heavy, quick step.  They could see a
+dark, shadowy figure, which looked of gigantic proportions through the
+hanging steam, and heard the crackling and crushing of coal under its
+feet, as it descended the stone steps into the stoke hole.  This was
+followed by the rattling of an iron bar, quickly used, the rattle and
+clang of an iron door being thrown open, when a sudden glare of
+brilliant light turned the cloud of steam from grey to ruddy gold.
+
+"Hullo! there," shouted a voice, evidently from the door by which the
+boys had entered; and in an instant there was a rush of feet, the
+crackling of the coal on the granite steps, and they saw the dark shadow
+once more, as it darted out through the far door.
+
+At the same instant there were heavy steps going along on the other side
+of the boilers to the stoke hole, a loud exclamation heard above the
+hissing and shrieking of the steam.  Then came the crackling of the coal
+dust, the rattle of an iron implement, the furnace was closed with a
+clang, and the steam between the boys and the far door changed back to
+grey once more.
+
+The next instant, as they went on, they were face to face with the big
+bluff engine-driver, who shouted at them.
+
+"Oh! it's you two young gents is it?  Well, all I've got to say is that
+if you're to come here meddling and playing your larks, someone else may
+tend the bylers, for I won't."
+
+"We haven't done anything," cried Gwyn, hotly.
+
+"What!" roared the man, "when I come and ketched you fooling about with
+that furnace door!  Do you know that you might have made the fire rage
+away if you got stoking hard, and perhaps blow up the whole place.
+There's too much pressure on now."
+
+"Will you let me speak!" cried Gwyn angrily.  "We came in because
+something was wrong, and no one near to see to the steam."
+
+"Yes, there now; I only just went to that clumsy lot at the pump, to see
+if they meant to start it to-day, because, if they didn't soon, I should
+have to damp down.  Twelve o'clock, they said, and as I told Sam
+Hardock, there was I ready for them, but I s'pose he means twelve
+o'clock to-morrow.  And when I comes back, I find you young gents
+playing the fool.  D'yer want a big burst?"
+
+"No," cried Gwyn, who had striven twice to stop the indignant flow of
+words.  "I tell you we came in because something was wrong--to try and
+stop--"
+
+"Wrong?  Yes, you meddling with the furnace."
+
+"We did not, I tell you."
+
+"What?  Well, if you young gents can't tell a good slumper, I'm a
+Dutchman.  Why, I heard you at the furnace door, and as soon as I
+shouted, I hears you both roosh up the steps.  Then I came round, and
+here you are.  Better say you didn't leave the door open."
+
+"I do say so," shouted Gwyn, who had hard work to make himself heard
+above the steam.
+
+"Oh, all right, then.  You're the governors' sons.  Burst the bylers if
+you like; they aren't mine."
+
+"Will you listen?" cried Gwyn.
+
+"Why, I am a-listening, aren't I?" cried the man.  "All right, it warn't
+you, then, and it must ha' been one o' they big Cornish tom-cats."
+
+"Don't talk like a donkey," cried Gwyn, who had lost his temper now.  "I
+tell you we came in because something was wrong."
+
+"Very," said the man.
+
+"The steam was hissing horribly, as you hear it now.  Aren't you going
+to try and stop it?"
+
+"Stop it?" said the man.  "What for?  Want me to blow the place up?"
+
+"Of course not; but I want you to stop up those holes."
+
+"You don't know what you're talking about, squire, or else it's to throw
+me off the scent."
+
+"I know the steam's escaping horribly."
+
+"Yes; all waste, through them not finishing that pump."
+
+"Then try and stop it."
+
+"Stop it?  Don't I tell you there's too much pressure on as it is?"
+
+"It's the safety valves open, Ydoll," said Joe, with his lips to his
+companion's ear.
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Gwyn, as he grasped the truth.  "I thought something
+was wrong."
+
+"I know something was wrong, and without thinking, young squire," said
+the man.  "But you take my advice, and don't you meddle with anything
+here again."
+
+"I have told you we did not touch anything; but I suppose it's no use to
+talk to you," said Gwyn, warmly.
+
+"No, sir, not a bit," replied the man, gruffly; "and I shall speak to
+the governors about you two coming meddling."
+
+"And I shall speak to my father about your not being here taking care of
+the engines," said Gwyn, as a parting shot.  "If you had been at your
+duty, no one would have had a chance to meddle.  So we will see what he
+says."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+AN ATTACK OF HEROES.
+
+"That was a topper for him, Ydoll," said Joe, as they stood outside.
+"Phew! what a hot, stuffy place it is!"
+
+"We were the first there, Joe," said Gwyn, who had not heard his
+companion's words.  "But what was he going to do?"
+
+"Who going to do--that chap?"
+
+"Yes.  I'm sure he meant mischief of some kind.  I'll speak to father.
+He won't interfere with the people coming to-day, because it's like a
+sight, this beginning: but afterwards he'll have to give orders for no
+one but the work-people to be about."
+
+"Hullo, what's this?" cried Joe.
+
+For a shout arose, and a man stood forward from the crowd, making
+signals.
+
+"I know: they want the steam turned on."
+
+Gwyn stepped back to the mouth of the temporary engine-house, told the
+driver, and he connected a band with the shaft; this started another
+long band, and the power was communicated to the pump, with the result
+that a huge wheel began to turn, a massive rod was set in motion, and a
+burst of cheers arose; for, with a steady, heavy, clanking sound, the
+first gallons of water were raised, to fall gushing into the
+cistern-like box, and then begin to flow steadily along the adit; the
+boys, after a glance or two down the deep shaft, now one intricacy of
+upright ladder and platform, hurrying off to where a series of ladders
+had been affixed to the face of the cliff, down which they went, to
+reach a strongly-built platform at the mouth of the adit.
+
+It was rather different from the spot on which Gwyn had knelt a few
+months before, waiting for help to come and rescue him from his perilous
+position, and he thought of it, as he descended the carefully-secured
+ladders, connected with the rock face by means of strong iron
+stanchions.
+
+"I say, Joe," he cried, as they descended, "better than hanging at the
+end of a rope.  Why, it's safe as safe."
+
+"So long as you don't let go," was the reply from above him.
+
+"Well, don't you let go, or you'll be knocking me off.  I say, I wonder
+what the birds think of it all."
+
+"Don't seem to mind it much," replied Joe.  "But I suppose we sha'n't
+leave these ladders here when the mine-shaft is all right."
+
+"No, because we shall go along the adit, that way.  Father says Sam
+Hardock wants the gallery widened a little, so that a tramway can be
+laid down, and then he'll run trucks along it, and tilt all the rubbish
+into the sea."
+
+"Yes, young gentlemen, that's the way," said a voice below them.  "So
+you're coming down to have a look?"
+
+"I say, Sam, you startled me," cried Gwyn.  "Well, how does the pump
+work?"
+
+"Splendidly, sir; here's a regular stream of water coming along, and
+running into the sea like a cascade, as they call it.  Only ten more
+steps, sir.  That's it!  Mind how you come there.  None too much room.
+We must have a strong rail all round here, or there'll be some accident.
+Two more steps, Mr Joe.  That's the way!  Now then, sir, don't this
+look business-like?"
+
+The boys were standing now on the platform, whose struts were sloping to
+the rock below, and through an opening between them and the mouth of the
+adit the water came running out, bright and clear, to plunge down the
+face of the cliff in a volume, which promised well for draining the
+mine.
+
+"Why, it won't take long to empty the place at this rate," cried Joe, as
+he knelt upon the platform and gazed down at the falling water, which
+dropped sheer for about twenty feet, then struck the rock, glanced off,
+and fell the rest of the way in a broken sheet of foam, which rapidly
+changed into a heavy rain.
+
+"No, sir, it won't take very long," said Hardock.  "A few weeks, I
+suppose; because, as it lowers, we shall have to put down fresh
+machinery to reach it, and so on, right to the sumph at the bottom."
+
+"Oh, not a few weeks," said Gwyn, in a tone of doubt.  "Well, say
+months, then, sir.  Nobody can tell.  If you gave me a plan of the mine
+on paper, with the number and size of the galleries, I could tell you
+pretty exactly; but, of course, we don't know.  There may be miles of
+workings at different levels; and, on the other hand, there may be not--
+only the shaft, and that we can soon master."
+
+"But suppose that there's a hole into it from the sea," said Joe,
+looking up from where he knelt, with a droll look of inquiry in his
+eyes.
+
+"Why, then we shall want more pumps, and a fresh place to put the water
+in," cried Gwyn, laughing.  "Rather too big a job for you, that, Sam
+Hardock."
+
+"Oh, I don't know, sir.  We might p'r'aps find out where the gashly hole
+was, and put a big cork in it.  But let's try first and see.  What do
+you say to coming through to the shaft, and having a look whether the
+water's beginning to lower?"
+
+"But we shall get out feet so wet."
+
+"Bah! what's a drop o' water, my lad, when there's a big bit o' business
+on?  Have off your shoes and stockings, then.  I've got a light."
+
+"Will you come, Joe?"
+
+"Of course, if you're going," said the boy, sturdily, as if it were a
+matter beyond question.  "But you haven't told Sam about the
+engine-house."
+
+"What about it?" said the man, anxiously.  "What!" he continued, on
+hearing what they had noticed.  "That's bad, my lads, that's bad, and
+they mean mischief.  But I don't see what harm he could have done to the
+fire, only burnt himself--and sarve him right.  Wanted to see, perhaps,
+how our bylers was set.  I know that chap, though--met him more than
+once, when I've been here and there in different towns, talking to folk
+of a night over a pipe--when I was looking for work, you know.  One of
+those chaps, he seemed to be, as is always hanging about with both ears
+wide open to see what they can ketch.  I fancy he had something to do
+with the two gents as came over to buy the mine.  I aren't sure, but I
+think that's it."
+
+"I feel quite sure," said Gwyn, emphatically.  "Very well, then, sir;
+what we've got to do is to keep him off our premises, so that he don't
+get picking up our notions of working the old mine.  He's after
+something, or he wouldn't be here to-day.  Regular old mining hand, he
+is; and I daresay he was squinting over our machinery, and he wants to
+see the pumping come to naught.  Just please him.  But look at this;
+isn't it fine?"
+
+He pointed to the steady stream of clear water rushing toward them, and
+falling downward, glittering in the sunshine.  "Ready to go in with me?"
+
+For answer the two boys took off their boots and socks, and stood them
+in a niche in the rock, while Hardock passed in through the mouth of the
+adit; and directly after he had disappeared in the darkness, he
+re-appeared in the midst of a glow of light produced by a lanthorn he
+had placed behind a piece of rock.
+
+"Come on, my lads," he cried, and the two boys stepped in, with the cold
+water gurgling about their feet, and stooping to avoid striking their
+heads against the roof of the low gallery.
+
+"One o' the first things I mean to have done is to set the men to cut a
+gully along here for the water to run in, for I daresay we shall always
+have to keep the pump going.  Then the water can keep to itself, and we
+shall have a dry place for the trucks to run along."
+
+"But this place won't be used much," said Gwyn, as he followed the man,
+and kept on thinking about his strange feelings, as he crept along there
+in the darkness toward the light, after his terrible fall.
+
+"I don't know so much about that, my lad.  Don't you see, it will be
+splendid for getting rid of our rubbish?  The trucks can be tilted, and
+away it will go; but what's to prevent us from loading ships with ore
+out below there in fine weather?  But we shall see."
+
+It was a strange experience to pass out of the brilliant sunshine into
+the black, cold tunnel through the rock, with the water bubbling about
+their feet, and a creepy, gurgling whispering sound coming toward them
+in company with a heavy dull clanking, as the huge pump worked steadily
+on.  Try how they would to be firm, and forcing themselves to fall back
+upon the knowledge of what was taking place, there was still the feeling
+that this little stream of water was only the advance guard of a deluge,
+and that at any moment it might increase to a rushing flood, which would
+sweep them away, dashing them out headlong from the mouth of the gallery
+to fall into the sea.
+
+But there in front was the black outline of Hardock's stooping figure,
+with the lanthorn held before him, and making the water flash and
+sparkle, while from time to time the man held up the lanthorn, and
+pointed to a glittering appearance in the roof, or on the walls.
+
+"Ore," he said, with a chuckle.  "I didn't come to your father, Master
+Gwyn, with empty hands, did I?  Well, I'm glad he woke up to what it's
+all worth.  Here we are."
+
+He stopped short, for they had come to the shaft, and his light showed
+up the strong beams and wet iron ties which held the machinery in place.
+There were a couple of men here, too, with lanthorns hanging from what
+seemed to be a cross-beam.  On their right, was a wet-looking ladder,
+whose rounds glistened, and this ran up into darkness, where a great
+beam had been fixed, with a square hole where the top of the ladder
+rested, the light from above being almost entirely cut off.
+
+The men said something to Hardock, but their words were almost inaudible
+in the rattle and clank of the great pump, and the wash and rush of the
+water as it was drawn into a huge trough, and rushed from it into the
+adit.
+
+Hardock gave them a nod in reply, and then signed to the boys as he
+swung his lanthorn.
+
+"Come and look here," he shouted; and, with their bare feet slipping on
+the wet planks that were just loosely laid across the beams fitted into
+the old holes, cut no one knew when, in the sides of the shaft, they
+went down to where Hardock dropped on his knees and held the lanthorn
+through an opening, so that the light was reflected from the water,
+whose level was about a foot below where they now stood.
+
+"See that?" he shouted, so as to make his voice heard.
+
+"What, the water?" cried Gwyn.  "Yes."
+
+"No, no; my mark that I made in the wall with a pick?"
+
+"Oh, yes; the granite looks quite white," said Gwyn, as he looked at the
+roughly-cut notch some six inches long.
+
+"How far is the water below it?" cried Hardock.
+
+"About seven inches, eh, Joe?"
+
+"Nearly eight."
+
+"Then you may go up and tell your father the good news.  He'll like to
+hear it from you.  Tell him that we've lowered the water seven inches
+since the pump started, and if nothing goes wrong, we shall soon be
+making a stage lower down."
+
+"But what should go wrong?" cried Joe, who looked full of excitement.
+
+"A hundred things, my lad.  Machinery's a ticklish thing, and as for a
+mine, you never know what's going to happen from one hour to another.
+Go on, up with you both, my lads; it's news they'll be glad to hear, and
+you ought to be proud to take it."
+
+"We are," cried Gwyn, heartily.  "It's splendid, Sam.  You have done
+well."
+
+"Tidy, my lad, tidy.  Will you go up the ladder here?"
+
+"No," said Gwyn, "we've left our shoes and stockings outside."
+
+"Very well; go that way, then."
+
+"Yes," said Joe, "it's better than going up the shaft; the ladders look
+so wet, and the water drops upon you.  I saw it dripping yesterday.
+Come on."
+
+He stepped into the adit, and Gwyn followed.
+
+"Don't want a light, I s'pose?" said Hardock.
+
+"Oh, no; we shall see the sunshine directly," said Gwyn; and the two
+boys retraced their wet steps, soon caught sight of the light shining
+in, and made their way out to the platform, where they sat down in the
+sunshine to wipe their feet with their handkerchiefs, and then put on
+socks and boots, each giving his feet a stamp as he rose erect.
+
+"Isn't the water cold!  My feet are like ice," said Joe.
+
+"They'll soon get warm climbing up these ladders," said Gwyn.  "But
+steady!  Don't jump about; this platform doesn't seem any too safe.
+I'll ask father to have the stout rail put round.  Shall I go first?"
+
+"No; you came down first," said Joe.  "My turn now.  But I say, I'd a
+deal rather go up and down in a bucket.  What a height it seems."
+
+"Well, make it less," said Gwyn.  "Up with you! don't stand looking at
+it.  I want to be at the top."
+
+"So do I," said Joe, as he stood holding on by one of the rounds of the
+ladder, they two and the platform looking wonderfully small on the face
+of that immense cliff; the platform bearing a striking resemblance to
+some little bracket nailed against a wall, and occupied by two sparrows.
+
+Then, uttering a low sigh, Joe began to mount steadily, and as soon as
+he was a dozen feet up, Gwyn followed him.
+
+"It doesn't do to look upwards, does it?" said Joe, suddenly, when they
+had been climbing for about half-a-minute.
+
+"Well, don't think about it, then.  And don't talk.  You want all your
+breath for a job like this."
+
+Joe was silent, and the only sounds heard were the scraping of their
+boots on the wooden spells, and the crying of the gulls squabbling over
+some wave-tossed weed far below.
+
+Then, all at once, when he was about half-way up, Joe suddenly stopped
+short, but Gwyn did not notice it till his cap was within a few inches
+of the other's boots.
+
+"Well, go on," he cried cheerily.  "What's the matter--out of breath?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Eh?  What is it--what's the matter?" said Gwyn, for he was startled by
+the tone in which the word was uttered.
+
+"I--I don't know," came back in a hoarse whisper, which sent a shudder
+through Gwyn, as he involuntarily glanced down at the awful depth
+beneath him.  "It's the cold water, I think.  One of my feet has gone
+dead, and the other's getting numb.  Gwyn!  Gwyn!  Here, quick!  I don't
+know what I'm--Quick!--help!  I'm going to fall!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+GWYN SHOWS HIS METTLE.
+
+Too much horrified for the moment even to speak, Gwyn grasped the sides
+of the ladder with spasmodic strength; his eyes dilated, his jaw
+dropped, and he clung there completely paralysed.  Then his mental
+balance came back as suddenly as he had lost it, and feeling once more
+the strong, healthy lad he was, it came to him like a flash that it was
+impossible that Joe Jollivet, his companion in hundreds of rock-climbing
+expeditions--where they had successfully made their way along places
+which would have given onlookers what is known as "the creeps,"--could
+be in the danger he described, and with a merry laugh, he cried,--
+
+"Get out!  Go on, you old humbug, or I'll get a pin out of my waistcoat
+and give you the spur."
+
+There was no response.
+
+"Do you hear, old Jolly-wet?  I say, you know, this isn't the sort of
+place for playing larks.  Wait till we're up, and I'll give you such a
+warming!"
+
+Then the chill of horror came back, for Joe said in a whisper, whose
+tones swept away all possibility of his playing tricks,--
+
+"I'm not larking.  I can't stir."
+
+"I tell you you are larking," cried Gwyn, fiercely.  "Such nonsense!  Go
+on up, or I'll drive a pin into you right up to the head."
+
+The cold chill increased now, and Gwyn shuddered, for Joe said
+faintly,--
+
+"Do, please; it might give me strength."
+
+The vain hope that it might be all a trick was gone, and Gwyn was face
+to face with the horror of their position.  He too looked down, and
+there was the platform, with the water splashing and glittering in the
+sunshine as it struck upon the rock; and he knew that no help could come
+from that direction, for Hardock was at the pump in the shaft.  He
+looked up to the edge of the cliff, but no one was there, for the people
+were all gathered about the top of the mine, and were not likely to come
+and look over and see their position.  If help was to come to the boy
+above him, that help must come from where he stood; and, with the
+recollection of his own peril when he was being hauled up by the rope,
+forcing itself upon him, he began to act with a feeling of desperation
+which was ready to rob him of such nerve as he possessed.
+
+A clear and prompt action was necessary, as he knew only too well, and,
+setting his teeth hard together, he went on up without a word, step by
+step, as he leaned back to the full stretch of his arms, and reached to
+where he could just force his feet, one on either side of his
+companion's, the spell of the ladder just affording sufficient width,
+and then pressing Joe close against the rounds with his
+heavily-throbbing breast, he held on in silence for a few moments,
+trying to speak, but no words would come.
+
+Meanwhile, Joe remained silent and rigid, as if half insensible; and
+Gwyn's brain was active, though his tongue was silent, battling as he
+was with the question what to do.
+
+"Oh, if those gulls would only keep away!" he groaned to himself, for at
+least a dozen came softly swooping about them, and one so close that the
+boy felt the waft of the air set in motion by its wings.
+
+Then the throbbing and fluttering at his heart grew less painful, and
+the power to speak returned.
+
+With a strong endeavour to be calm and easy, he forced himself to treat
+the position jauntily.
+
+"There you are, old chap," he cried; "friend in need's a friend indeed.
+I could hold you on like that for a month--five minutes," he added to
+himself.  Then aloud once more.  "Feel better?"
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"Do you hear, stupid--feel better?"
+
+A low sigh--almost a groan--was the only answer, and Gwyn's teeth grated
+together.
+
+"Here, you, Joe," he said firmly.  "I know you can hear what I say, so
+listen.  You don't want for us both to go down, I know, so you've got to
+throw off the horrible feeling that's come over you, and do what I say.
+I'm going to hold you up like this for five minutes to get your wind,
+and then you've got to start and go up round by round.  You can't fall
+because I shall follow you, keeping like this, and holding you on till
+you're better.  You can hear all that, you know."
+
+Joe bent his head, and a peculiar quivering, catching sigh escaped his
+lips.
+
+"It's all nonsense; you want to give up over climbing a ladder such as
+we could run up.  'Tisn't like being on the rocks with nothing to hold
+on by, now, is it?  Let's see; we're half of the way up, and we can soon
+do it, so say when you feel ready, and then up you go!"
+
+But after a guess at the space of time named, Joe showed no inclination
+to say he was ready, and stood there, pressed against the ladder,
+breathing very feebly, and Gwyn began to be attacked once more by the
+chill of dread.
+
+He fought it back in his desperation, and in a tone which surprised
+himself, he cried,--
+
+"Now, then!  Time's up!  Go on!"
+
+To his intense delight, his energy seemed to be communicated to his
+companion; and as he hung back a little, Joe reached with one hand, got
+a fresh hold there with the other, and, raising his right foot, drew
+himself slowly and cautiously up, to stand on the next spell.
+
+"Cheerily ho!" sang out Gwyn, as he followed.  "I knew, I knew you could
+do it.  Now then!  Don't stop to get cold.  Up you go before I get out
+that pin."
+
+Joe slowly and laboriously began again, and reached the next step, but
+Gwyn felt no increase of hope, for he could tell how feeble and
+nerveless the boy was.  But he went on talking lightly, as he followed
+and let the poor fellow feel the support of his breast.
+
+"That's your sort.  Nine inches higher.  Two nine inches more--a foot
+and a half.  But, I say, no games; don't start off with a run and leave
+me behind.  You'd better let me go with you, in case your foot gives--
+gives way again."
+
+That repetition of the word gives was caused by a peculiar catching of
+Gwyn's breath.
+
+"I say," he continued, as they paused, "this is ever so much better than
+going up those wet ladders in the shaft.  I shall never like that way.
+Don't you remember looking down the shaft of that mine, where the hot,
+steamy mist came up, and the rounds of the ladder were all slippery with
+the grease that dropped from the men's candles stuck in their caps?  I
+do.  I said it would be like going down ladders of ice, and that you'd
+never catch me on them.  Our way won't be hot and steamy like that was,
+because there'll always be a draught of fresh sea air running up from
+the adit.  Now then, up you go again!  I begin to want my dinner."
+
+Joe did not stir, and Gwyn's face turned ghastly, while his mouth opened
+ready for the utterance of a wild cry for help.
+
+But the cry did not escape, for Gwyn's teeth closed with a snap.  He
+felt that it would result in adding to his companion's despair.
+
+He was once more master of himself.
+
+"Now then!" he cried; "I don't want to use that pin.  Go on, old
+lazybones."
+
+The energy was transferred again, and Joe slowly struggled up another
+step, closely followed by Gwyn, and then remained motionless and silent.
+
+"You stop and let yourself get cold again," cried Gwyn, resolutely now.
+"Begin once more, and don't stop.  You needn't mind, old chap.  I've got
+you as tight as tight.  Now then, can't you feel how safe you are?  Off
+with you!  I shall always be ready to give you a nip and hold you on.
+Now then, off!"
+
+But there was no response.
+
+"Do you hear!  This isn't the place to go to sleep, Joe!  Wake up!  Go
+on!  Never mind your feet being numb.  Go on pulling yourself up with
+your hands.  I'll give you a shove to help."
+
+No reply; no movement; and but for the spasmodic way in which the boy
+clung with his hands, as if involuntarily, like a bird or a bat clings
+in its sleep, he might have been pronounced perfectly helpless.
+
+"Now, once more, are you going to begin?" cried Gwyn, shouting fiercely.
+"Do you hear?"
+
+Still no reply, and in spite of appeal, threat, and at last a blow
+delivered heavily upon his shoulder, Joe did not stir, and Gwyn felt
+that their case was desperate indeed.  Each time he had forced his
+companion to make an effort it was as if the result was due to the
+energy he had communicated from his own body; but now he felt in his
+despair as if a reverse action were taking place, and his companion's
+want of nerve and inertia were being communicated to him; for the chilly
+feeling of despair was on the increase, and he knew now that poor Joe
+was beyond helping himself.
+
+"What can I do?" he thought, as he once more forced himself to the point
+of thinking and acting.  To get his companion up by his own force was
+impossible.  Even if he could have carried the weight up the ladder, it
+would have been impossible to get a good hold and retain it, and he
+already felt himself growing weak from horror.
+
+What to do?
+
+It would have been easy enough to climb over his companion and save his
+own life; but how could he ever look Major Jollivet or his father in the
+eyes again?  The momentary thought was dismissed on the instant as being
+cowardly and unworthy of an English lad.  But what to do?
+
+If he could have left him for a few minutes, he could have either gone
+up or gone down, and shouted for help; but he knew perfectly well that
+the moment he left the boy to himself, he would fall headlong.
+
+"What shall I do?  What shall I do?" he groaned aloud, and a querulous
+cry from one of the gulls still floating around them came as if in
+reply.
+
+"Oh, if I only had a gun," he cried angrily.  "Get out, you beasts!
+Who's going to fall!"
+
+Then he uttered a cry for help, and another, and another; but the shouts
+sounded feeble, and were lost in space, while more and more it was
+forced upon him that Joe was now insensible from fear and despair, his
+nerve completely gone.
+
+What could he do?  There seemed to be nothing but to hold on till Joe
+fell, and then for his father's sake, he must try and save himself.
+
+"Oh, if I only had a piece of rope," he muttered; but he had not so much
+as a piece of string.  There was his silk neckerchief; that was
+something, and Joe was wearing one, too, exactly like it; for the boys
+had a habit of dressing the same.
+
+It was something to do--something to occupy his thoughts for a few
+moments, and, setting one hand free, he passed it round the side of the
+ladder, leaned toward it, as he forced it toward his neck; his fingers
+seized the knot--a sailor's slip-knot--and the next minute the
+handkerchief was loose in his hands.
+
+A few more long moments, and he had taken his companion's from his neck.
+Then came the knotting together, a task which needed the service of
+both hands, and for a time he hesitated about setting the second free.
+
+Free he could not make it, but by clinging round the sides of the ladder
+with both arms, he brought his hands together, and with the skill taught
+him by the Cornish fishermen, he soon, without the help of his eyes, had
+the two handkerchiefs securely joined in a knot that would not slip, and
+was now possessed with a twisted silken cord about five feet long.
+
+But how slight!  Still it was of silk, and it was his only chance unless
+help came; and of that there seemed to be not the slightest hope.
+
+He twisted the silk round and round in his hands for some seconds after
+the fashion that he and Joe had observed when making a snood for their
+fishing lines, and then passing one end round the spell that was on a
+level with Joe's throat, he drew till both ends were of a length, and
+then tied the silken cord tightly to the piece of stout, strong oak,
+letting the ends hang down.
+
+Joe's hands were grasping the sides of the ladder--how feebly Gwyn did
+not know till he tried to move the left, when it gave way at once, and
+would have fallen to his side but for his own strong grasp.  Holding it
+firmly, he passed it round the left side of the ladder, placing it along
+the spell, and then passing one of the silken ends round the wrist, he
+drew it tight to the spell and kept it there, while he loosened the
+boy's right-hand, passed that round the other side, so that wrist rested
+upon wrist, and the next minute the handkerchief was slipped round it,
+and drawn tightly, binding both together.
+
+They were safely held so long as he kept up a tension upon the end of
+the silk; and this with great effort he was able to do with his left
+hand, while, working in the opposite way, he passed the second end round
+the two wrists once, dragged it as hard as he could, and then tied the
+first portion of a simple knot.  Then he dragged again and again,
+bringing his teeth to bear in holding the shorter end of the
+handkerchief, while he tugged and tugged till the silk cut into the
+boy's flesh, and his wrists were dragged firmly down upon the spell.
+There the second portion of the knot was tied; and, feeling that Joe
+could not slip, he bound the longer end round again twice, brought the
+first end to meet it, and once again tied as hard as he could.
+
+Breathless with the exertion of holding on by his crooked arms while he
+worked, and with the perspiration streaming down his face, he stood
+there panting for a few moments, holding on tightly, and peering through
+the spells to make sure that his knots were secure, and the silken cord
+sufficiently tight to stay Joe's wrists from being dragged through.
+Then he tried the fastening again, satisfying himself that Joe was as
+safe as hands could make him, and that his arms could not possibly be
+dragged away from the spell to which they were tied, even if his feet
+slipped from the round below.
+
+Satisfied at this, Gwyn's heart gave a throb of satisfaction.
+
+"You can't fall, Joe," he said.  "I don't want to leave you, but I must
+go for help."
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"Can you hear what I say?" cried Gwyn.
+
+Still no reply; and, feeling that he might safely leave him, Gwyn
+hesitated for a moment or two as to whether he should go up or down.
+
+The latter seemed to be the quicker way, and, after descending a step or
+two, he threw arms and legs round the sides of the ladder, and let
+himself slide to the platform.
+
+Here he stood for a moment to look up and see Joe hanging as he had left
+him.  Then, stooping down, he entered the adit, out of which the
+clanging sound of the huge pump went on volleying, while the water kept
+up its hissing and rushing sound.
+
+"Hardock!" he shouted, with his hands to his lips, and the cry
+reverberated in the narrow passage; but, though he shouted again and
+again, his voice did not penetrate, for the sound of the pumping and
+rushing of water, and the boy had to make his way right to where Hardock
+was anxiously watching the working of the machinery; and as Gwyn reached
+him, he was once more holding his lanthorn down to see how much the
+water had fallen.
+
+The man gave a violent start as a hand was laid upon his shoulder.
+
+"Come back!" shouted Hardock, to make himself heard, and he gazed
+wonderingly at the boy, whose face was ghastly.  "Here, don't you go and
+say young Master Joe has fallen."
+
+Gwyn placed his lips to the foreman's ear.
+
+"Can't fall yet.  Send word--ropes--top of ladder at once.  Danger."
+
+Hardock waited to hear no more, but dragged at the wire which formed the
+rough temporary signal to the engine-house, and the great beam of the
+pump stopped its work at once, when the silence was profound, save for a
+murmur high up over them at the mouth of the shaft.
+
+"What is it there?" came in a familiar voice, which sounded dull and
+strange as it was echoed from the dripping walls.
+
+"Help!" shouted Gwyn.  "Long ropes to the head of the outside ladders."
+
+"Right!" came back.
+
+"What's wrong?" came down then in another voice.
+
+"Joe Jollivet--danger," shouted Gwyn, stepping back to reply.  "Now,
+come on!" he cried to Hardock; and he led the way along the adit from
+which, short as had been the time since the pump ceased working, the
+water had run off.
+
+No more was said as they hurried along as fast as the sloping position
+necessary allowed; and on stepping out on to the platform, Gwyn looked
+up in fear and trembling, lest the silken cord should have given way,
+and fully anticipating that the ladder would be vacant.
+
+Hardock uttered a groan, but Gwyn had already begun to climb.
+
+"What are you going to do, lad?" shouted the man, excitedly.
+
+"Go up and hold him on."
+
+"No, no; I'm stronger than you."  But Gwyn was already making his way up
+as fast as he could, and Hardock, after a momentary hesitation,
+followed.
+
+Before they were half way, voices at the top were heard.  "Hold tight!"
+shouted the Colonel, in his fierce military fashion.  "Rope!"
+
+Then an order was heard, and a great coil of rope was thrown out, so
+that it might fall clear of the climbers, whizzed away from the rock
+with the rings opening out, and directly after, was hanging beside the
+ladder right to the platform.
+
+There was a clever brain at work on the top of the cliff, for, as Gwyn
+climbed the ladder, the rope was hauled in so as to keep the end close
+to his hands; and, seeing this, the boy uttered a sigh of relief, and
+climbed on, feeling that there was hope of saving his comrade now.
+
+"Shall I send someone down?" shouted the Colonel, who was evidently in
+command at the top.
+
+"No.  We'll do it," cried Gwyn, breathlessly.  "All right, Joe.  We're
+here."
+
+There was no response from above him, and at every step Gwyn felt as if
+his legs were turning to lead, and a nightmare-like sensation came over
+him of being obliged to keep on always clambering a tremendous ladder
+without ever reaching to where Joe was bound.
+
+And all this in the very brief space of time before he reached to where
+he had tied the insensible lad.
+
+Gwyn uttered a sigh like a groan as he touched Joe's feet.  Then,
+without hesitating, he went higher, till he was on a level, with his
+feet resting on the same spell, fully expecting moment by moment, as he
+ascended, that the silk would give way and Joe's fall dash them both
+down.  And, as at last he thrust his arms through the ladder on either
+side of the boy's neck and then spread them out, so as to secure them
+both tightly pressed against the spells, his head began to swim, and he
+felt that he could do no more.
+
+His position saved him, for in those moments he could not have clung
+there by his hands, his helplessness was too great.
+
+But this was all momentary, and he was recalled to himself by the voice
+of Hardock.
+
+"I say, lad, hope this ladder's strong enough for all three.  Now, then;
+what's next?  Will you tie the rope round him and cast him free?"
+
+Gwyn made no reply.  His lips parted, and he strove to speak, but not a
+word would come.
+
+"D'yer hear?" said Hardock.  "I say, will you make the rope fast round
+him?"
+
+"Below there!" came from above.  "Make the rope fast round Joe's chest--
+tight knots, mind, and send him up first.  Be smart!"
+
+"All right, sir," shouted back Hardock, as he took hold of the rope
+swinging close to his hand.  "Now, then, Master Gwyn, don't stand there
+such a gashly while thinking about it.  Lay hold and knot it round him.
+They'll soon draw him away from under you."
+
+Gwyn uttered an inarticulate sound, but only wedged his arms out more
+firmly.
+
+"Ready?" came from above in the Colonel's voice.
+
+"No, nothing like," roared Hardock.  "Hold hard.  Now, my lad, look
+alive.  Don't think about it, but get hold of the rope, and draw it
+round his chest.  Mind and not tie him to the ladder.  Steady, for it's
+all of a quiver now."
+
+Still Gwyn made no sign.
+
+"Hi!  What's come to you?" growled Hardock.
+
+"Are you asleep, below there?" shouted the Colonel.  "Hold fast, and
+I'll send someone down."
+
+"Nay, nay!" yelled Hardock, "the ladder won't bear another.  I'll get it
+done directly.  Now, Master Gwyn, pull yourself together, and make this
+rope fast.  D'yer hear?"
+
+"Yes," gasped the boy at last.  "Wait a minute and I'll try."
+
+"Wait a minute and you'll try," growled the man.  "We shall all be down
+directly.  My word!  What is the use o' boys.  Hi! hold fast and I'll
+try and get up above you and tie the rope myself."
+
+"No, no!" cried Gwyn, frantically.  "You can't climb over us."
+
+"But I must, lad, I aren't going to get round inside and try it that
+way.  I aren't a boy now."
+
+"No, don't try that," panted Gwyn, breathlessly.  "You'd pull us off.
+I'm coming round again.  I'll try soon, but I don't seem to have any
+breath."
+
+"Hi! below there! what are you about?" shouted the Colonel.  "Make that
+rope fast."
+
+"Yes, sir; yes, sir; directly," yelled Hardock.  "You, must wait."
+
+"Make it fast round Jollivet," shouted the Colonel.
+
+"All right, sir.  Now, Master Gwyn, you hear what your guv'nor says?"
+
+"Yes, I hear, Sam," panted the lad; "and I'm trying to do it.  I'll
+begin as soon as ever I can, but I feel that if I let go, Joe would come
+down on you.  He has no strength left in him, and--and I'm not much
+better."
+
+"And you'll let go, too," growled the man to himself, "and if you do,
+it's all over with me."  Then aloud: "Hold tight, my lad; I'm coming
+up."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+AN IGNOMINIOUS ASCENT.
+
+"Am I to send someone down?" cried the Colonel, angrily.
+
+"No, father," shouted Gwyn, his father's voice seeming to give him new
+force.  "The ladder won't bear four."
+
+"Then make fast that knot, sir.  Quick, at once!"
+
+"Yes, father," said the boy, as a thrill of energy ran through him, and
+he felt as if he could once more do something toward relieving himself
+from the strange feeling of inertia which had fettered every sense.
+
+"You get up higher," growled Hardock, "and hold on, my lad."
+
+"No.  Keep where you are," cried Gwyn, whose voice now sounded firm.
+"If I leave him, he'll go."
+
+"Nay, you go on; I'll take care o' that," said Hardock.  "Up with you!"
+
+"Keep down, I say," cried Gwyn, fiercely.
+
+"Are you ready?" shouted the Colonel.
+
+"In another minute, father," cried Gwyn; and, drawing out one arm, he
+made a snatch at the rope, drew it from Hardock's hand, and then hauled
+it higher by using his teeth as well as his right-hand.
+
+"Better let me come, my lad."
+
+"No," said Gwyn, shortly.
+
+"Ready?" came from above.
+
+"Not quite, father.  I'll say when."
+
+That last demand gave the final fillip to the lad's nerves, and, taking
+tightly hold of the spell above Joe's head with both hands, he raised
+his own legs till they came level with Joe's loins, and bestriding him
+as if on horseback, he crooked his legs and ankles round the sides of
+the ladder, held on by forcing his toes round a spell, and then, with
+his hands free, he hung back, and quickly knotted the rope about Joe's
+chest.
+
+"Steady, my lad!  Be ready to take hold," said Hardock, whose face was
+now streaming with perspiration, and his hands wet, as he looked up at
+the perilous position of Gwyn.  Then, obeying a sudden thought, he
+loosened one hand, snatched off his cap, threw it down, and took three
+steps up the ladder, raising himself so that he could force his head
+beneath the lad, with the result that he gave him plenty of support,
+relieving him of a great deal of the strain on his muscles, for during
+the next minute he was, as it were, seated upon the mining captain's
+head.
+
+"That's better," panted Gwyn.
+
+"Make a good knot, lad," growled Hardock; and all was perfectly silent
+at the edge of the cliff above them, for every movement was being
+attentively watched.
+
+"Hah!" sighed Gwyn, as he tightened the last knot.
+
+"Quite safe?" asked Hardock.
+
+"Yes, quite."
+
+"What next?"
+
+"Get down!"
+
+"Are you right?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Hardock yielded very slowly for a while, and then stopped and raised
+himself again.
+
+"What yer doing?"
+
+"Getting out my knife.  He's lashed to the spell."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+Gwyn's hands were dripping wet, and, as he tried to force his right into
+his pocket, he had a hard struggle, for it stuck to the lining, the
+strain of his position helping to resist its passage.  But at last he
+forced it in, to find to his horror that the knife was not in that
+pocket, and he had a terrible job to drag out his hand.
+
+"Can't get at my knife," he panted.
+
+"All right; have mine," was growled, and Hardock took out and opened his
+own.  "Here you are."
+
+The boy blindly lowered his hand for the knife, and not a whisper was
+heard in those critical moments.  For every movement was scanned, and
+the Colonel was lying on his chest, straining his eyes, as he waited to
+give the order to haul up.
+
+Gwyn gripped the knife, a sharp-pointed Spanish blade, and raised it,
+bending forward now, so as to look over Joe's shoulder to see where to
+cut.
+
+His intention was to thrust the point in between the silken cord and the
+boy's wrists; but he found it impossible without having both hands, and
+there was nothing for it but to saw right down.
+
+This he began to do just beneath the knots, hoping that the last part
+would yield before the knife could touch the boy's skin.
+
+"Take care, my lad," growled Hardock.
+
+"Yes; I'm trying not to cut him," panted Gwyn.
+
+"Nay, I mean when you're through.  Hold tight yourself."
+
+"Yes, I'll try."
+
+"Tell 'em to make the rope quite taut."
+
+"Haul and hold fast," cried Gwyn.
+
+"Right!" came promptly from above, and a heavy strain was felt.
+
+"I--tied it--so tight," muttered Gwyn, as he sawed away.
+
+"Ay, and his weight.  Steady, my lad, steady!"
+
+"Hah! that's through," cried Gwyn.  "Be ready to haul."
+
+"Right!" came from above.
+
+"Shall I get lower?" said Hardock.
+
+"Yes!--No!  The other knot holds him," panted Gwyn; and he had to begin
+cutting again; but this time he found that by laying the blade of the
+knife flat against the spell, he could force the point beneath the
+handkerchief.  "Now, steady, Sam," he said, "I'm going to have one big
+cut, and then hold on."
+
+"All right, my lad.  I'll support you all I can, but you must hold
+tight."
+
+The strain on the rope was firm and steady, as Gwyn drew a deep breath,
+forced the knife point steadily through beneath the silk, raised the
+edge of the blade a little more and a little more, and then, in an agony
+of despair, just as he was about to give one bold thrust, he let go, and
+snatched at the ladder side.
+
+For all at once there was a sharp, scraping sound.  The silk, which had
+been strained like a fiddle-string over a bridge, parted on the edge of
+the keen knife, and, as Joe's arms dropped quite nerveless and inert,
+down went the knife, and Gwyn felt that he was going after.
+
+For in those brief moments he seemed to be falling fast.
+
+But he was not moving; it was Joe being drawn upward, and the next
+minute Gwyn was clinging with his breast now on the spells of the
+ladder, against which he was being pressed, Hardock, with a rapid
+movement, having forced himself up so as to occupy the same position as
+Gwyn had so lately held with respect to Joe.
+
+"He's all right--if your knots hold," said Hardock, softly.  "How is it
+with you, my lad?"
+
+"Out of breath, that's all.  I can't look, though, now, Sam.  Watch and
+see if he goes up all right."
+
+"No need, my lad," said the man, bitterly.  "We should soon know if he
+came down.  Come, hold up your chin, and show your pluck.  There's
+nothing to mind now.  Why, you're all of a tremble."
+
+"Yes; it isn't that I feel frightened now," said the boy; "but all the
+muscles in my legs and arms are as if they were trembling and jerking."
+
+"'Nough to make 'em," growled Hardock.  "Never mind, the rope'll soon be
+down again--yes, they've got him, and they're letting another down.
+I'll soon have you fast and send you up."
+
+"No, you won't, Sam," said Gwyn, who was rapidly recovering his balance.
+"I haven't forgotten the last knot you made round me."
+
+"Well, well!  I do call that mean," growled the man.  "You comes and
+fetches me to help, and I has to chuck my cap away; then you chucks my
+best knife down after it; and now you chucks that there in my teeth.  I
+do call it a gashly shame."
+
+"Never mind.  I don't want the rope at all," said Gwyn.  "There, slacken
+your hold.  I'm going to climb up."
+
+"Nay; better have the rope, my lad."
+
+"I don't want the rope.  I'm tired and hot, but I can climb up."
+
+"Gwyn!" came at that moment.
+
+"Yes, father."
+
+"Just sarves you right," growled Hardock.  "Take some of the gashly
+conceit out of you, my lad.  Now, then, I'm going to tie you up."
+
+"No; I shall do it myself," said Gwyn, making a snatch at the line
+lowered down.  "Now, get out of my way."
+
+"Oh, very well; but don't blame me if you fall."
+
+"No fear, Sam."
+
+"Nay, there's no fear, my lad; but I hope we're not going to have no
+more o' this sort o' thing.  There's the pumping stopped and everything
+out o' gear, but it's always the way when there's boys about.  I never
+could understand what use they were, on'y to get in mischief and upset
+the work.  We sha'n't get much tin out o' Ydoll mine if you two's going
+to hang about, I know that much.  Now, then, the rope aren't safe."
+
+"Yes, it is," said Gwyn, who had made a loop and passed it over his head
+and arms.  "I'm not going to swing.  I'm going to walk up."
+
+"Ready, my lad?" cried the Colonel.
+
+"Yes, father; but I'll climb up, please.  You can have the rope hauled
+on as I come."
+
+"Come on, then," cried the Colonel.
+
+"Yes, father, coming."
+
+"Hor, hor!" laughed Hardock, derisively, as he drew back to the full
+extent of his arms so as to set Gwyn free.  "Up you goes, my lad, led
+just like a puppy-dog at the end of a string.  Mind you don't fall."
+
+"If it wasn't so dangerous for you, I'd kick you, Sam," said Gwyn.
+
+"Kick away, then, my lad; 'taint the first time I've been on a ladder by
+a few thousand times.  My hands and feet grows to a ladder, like, and
+holds on.  You won't knock me off.  But I say!"
+
+"What is it?" said Gwyn, who was steadily ascending, with the rope held
+fairly taut from above.
+
+"You'll pay for a new hat for me?"
+
+"Oh, yes, of course."
+
+"And another knife, better than the one you pitched overboard?"
+
+"Oh, we can come round in a boat and find that when the tide's down."
+
+"Rocks are never bare when the tide's down here, my lad.  There's always
+six fathom o' water close below here; so you wouldn't ha' been broken up
+if you'd falled; but you might ha' been drownded.  That were a
+five-shilling knife."
+
+"All right, Sam, I'll buy you another," shouted Gwyn, who was some
+distance up now.
+
+"Thank ye.  Before you go, though," said Sam Hardock.
+
+"Go?  Go where?"
+
+"Off to school, my lad; I'm going to 'tishion your two fathers to send
+you both right away, for I can't have you playing no more of your pranks
+in my mine, and so I tell you."
+
+Gwyn made no reply, but he went steadily up, while, on casting a glance
+below, he saw that the mine captain was making his way as steadily down;
+but he thought a good deal, and a great deal more afterwards, for, on
+reaching the top of the cliff, there lay Joe on the short grass, looking
+ghastly pale, and his father, with Joe's, ready to seize him by the arm
+and draw him into safety.
+
+"There must be no more of this," said the Colonel, sternly.  "You two
+boys are not fit to be trusted in these dangerous places.  Now, go home
+at once."
+
+The little crowd attracted by the accident had begun to cheer wildly,
+but the congratulatory sound did Gwyn no good.  He did not feel a bit
+like the hero of an adventure, one who had done brave deeds, but a very
+ordinary schoolboy sort of personage, who was being corrected for a
+fault, and he felt very miserable as he turned to Joe.
+
+"Are you coming home, too?"
+
+"Yes.  I suppose so," said Joe, dismally.
+
+There was another cheer, and the boys felt as if they could not face the
+crowd, till an angry flush came upon Gwyn's cheeks; for there stood,
+right in the front, the big, swarthy fellow who had been caught plumbing
+the depth of the mine, and he was grinning widely at them both.
+
+"Ugh!" thought Gwyn, "how I should like to punch that chap's head.
+Here, Joe, let's tell our fathers that this fellow is hanging about
+here."
+
+"No," said Joe, dismally.  "I feel as if I didn't mind about anything
+now.  My father looked at me as if I'd been doing it all on purpose to
+annoy him.  Let's go home."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+A BRUTAL THREAT.
+
+Gwyn did not see Joe for a whole week, and he did not go over to the
+mine, for the Colonel had called him into his room the next morning, and
+had a very long, serious talk with him, and this was the end of his
+lesson,--
+
+"Of course, I meant you to go and read for the army, Gwyn, my lad, but
+this mine has quite upset my plans, and I can't say yet what I shall do
+about you.  It will seem strange for one of our family to take to such a
+life, but a man can do his duty in the great fight of life as well
+whether he's a mine owner or a soldier.  He has his men to keep in hand,
+to win their confidence, and make them follow him, and to set them a
+good example, Gwyn.  But I can't say anything for certain.  It's all a
+speculation, and I never shut my eyes to the fact that it may turn out a
+failure.  If it does, we can go back to the old plans."
+
+"Yes, father," said the boy, rather dolefully, for his father had
+stopped as if waiting for him to speak.
+
+"But if it turns out a successful, honest venture, you'll have to go on
+with it, and be my right-hand man.  You'll have to learn to manage,
+therefore, better than ever I shall, for you'll begin young.  So we'll
+take up the study of it a bit, Gwyn, and you shall thoroughly learn what
+is necessary in geology, and metallurgy and chemistry.  If matters come
+to the worst, you won't make any the worse officer for knowing such
+matters as these.  It's a fine thing, knowledge.  Nobody can take that
+away from you, and the more you use it the richer you get.  It never
+wastes."
+
+"No, father," said Gwyn, who began to feel an intense desire now to go
+on with his reading about the wars of Europe, and the various campaigns
+of the British army, while the military text-book, which it had been his
+father's delight to examine him in, suddenly seemed to have grown
+anything but dry.
+
+"Begin reading up about the various minerals that accompany tin ore in
+quartz, for one thing, and we'll begin upon that text-book, dealing with
+the various methods of smelting and reducing ores, especially those
+portions about lead ore, and extracting the silver that is found with
+it."
+
+"Yes, father," said Gwyn, quietly; and the boy set his teeth, wrinkled
+his brow, and looked hard, for Colonel Pendarve treated his son in a
+very military fashion.  He was kindness and gentleness itself, but his
+laws were like those of the Medes and Persians done into plain English.
+
+But the whole week had passed, and Mrs Pendarve took him to task one
+morning.
+
+"Come, Gwyn," she said, "I am quite sure your father does not wish you
+to mope over your books, and give up going out to your old amusements."
+
+"Doesn't he, mother?" said the boy, drearily.
+
+"Of course not.  What has become of Joe Jollivet?  He has not been near
+you."
+
+"In the black books, too, I suppose," said Gwyn, bitterly.  "Major's
+been giving it to him."
+
+"Gwyn, I will not have you talk like that," said his mother.  "You boys
+both deserve being taken to task for your reckless folly.  You forget
+entirely the agony you caused me when I heard of what had taken place."
+
+"I didn't want to cause you agony, mother," pleaded the boy.
+
+"I know that, my dear, but you have been growing far too reckless of
+late.  Now be sensible, and go on as if there had been no trouble
+between your father and you.  I wish it.  Try and grasp the spirit in
+which your father's reproofs were given."
+
+"All right, mother, I will," said Gwyn; and his face brightened up once
+more.
+
+The consequence was that he went out into the yard, and unchained the
+dog, with very great difficulty, for the poor beast was nearly mad with
+excitement directly it realised the fact that it was going out with its
+master for a run; and as soon as they entered the lane, set off straight
+for the Major's gates, stopping every now and then to look round, and to
+see if Gwyn was going there.
+
+But half-way up the hill Gwyn turned off on to the rough granite
+moorland, and Grip had to come back a hundred yards to the place where
+his master had turned off, and dashed after him.
+
+It didn't matter to the dog, for there was some imaginary thing to hunt
+wherever they went; and as soon as he saw that he was on the right
+track, he began hunting most perseveringly.
+
+For Gwyn did not want to go to the Major's.  He felt that he would like
+to see Joe and have a good long talk with him, as well as compare notes;
+but if he had gone to the house, he would have had to see the Major, and
+that gentleman would doubtless have something to say that would not be
+pleasant to him--perhaps blame him for Joe getting into difficulties.
+
+No, he did not want to go to the Major's.
+
+"Like having to take another dose," he said to himself, and he went on
+toward the old circle of granite stones which had been set up some long
+time back, before men began to write the history of their deeds.
+
+It lay about a mile from the cove, high up on the windy common among the
+furze bushes, and was a capital place for a good think.  For you could
+climb up on the top of the highest stone, look right out to sea, and
+count the great vessels going up and down channel, far away on the
+glittering waters--large liners which left behind them long, thin clouds
+of smoke; stately ships with all sail set; trim yachts; and the
+red-sailed fishing fleet returning from their cruise round the coast,
+where the best places for shooting their nets were to be found.
+
+It was quite a climb up to the old stones, which were not seen from that
+side till you were close upon them, for they stood in a saucer-like
+hollow in the highest part of the ridge, and beyond, there was one of
+the deep gullies with which that part of Cornwall was scored--lovely
+spots, along which short rivulets made their way from the high ground
+down to the sea.
+
+Grip knew well enough now where his master was making for, and dashed
+forward as if certain that that mysterious object which he was always
+hunting had hidden itself away among the stones, and soon after a
+tremendous barking was heard.
+
+"Rabbit," muttered Gwyn; and for a few moments he felt disposed to begin
+running and join the dog in the chase.  But he did not, for, in spite of
+being out there on the breezy upland, where all was bright and sunny, he
+felt dull and disheartened.  Things were not as he could wish, for he
+had just begun to feel old enough to bear upon the rein when it was
+drawn tight, and to long to have the bit in his teeth and do what he
+liked.  The Colonel had been pleasant enough that morning, but he had
+not invited him to go to the mine; and it felt like a want of trust in
+him.
+
+So Gwyn felt in no humour for sport of any kind; he did not care to look
+out at the ships, and speculate upon what port they were bound for; he
+picked up no stones to send spinning at the grey gulls; did not see that
+the gorse was wonderfully full of flower; and did not even smell the
+wild thyme as he crushed it beneath his feet.  There were hundreds of
+tiny blue and copper butterflies flitting about, and a great hawk was
+havering overhead; but everything seemed as if his mind was out of taste
+and the objects he generally loved were flavourless.
+
+All he felt disposed to do was to turn himself into a young modern
+ascetic, prick his legs well in going through the furze, and then take a
+little bark off his shins in climbing twenty feet up on to the great
+monolith, and there sit and grump.
+
+"Bother the dog, what a row he's making!" he muttered.  "I wish I hadn't
+brought him."
+
+Then his lips parted to shout to Grip to be quiet, but he did not utter
+the words, for he stopped short just as he neared the first stone of the
+circle, on hearing the dog begin to bark furiously again, and a savage
+voice roar loudly,--
+
+"Get out, or I'll crush your head with this stone!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+A DOUBTFUL ACQUAINTANCE.
+
+Gwyn recognised the voice, and knew what was the matter, and his first
+aim was to make a rush to protect his dog from the crushing blow which
+would probably be given him with one of the many weather-worn fragments
+of granite lying about among the great monoliths.  But he was just where
+he could not make such a rush, for it would have been into a dense bed
+of gorse as high as himself, and forming a _chevaux de frise_ of
+millions of sharp thorns.
+
+The next best plan was to shout loudly, "You hurt my dog if you dare--"
+though the man might dare, and cast the stone all the same.
+
+But Gwyn did neither of these things, for another familiar voice rose
+from beyond the furze, crying loudly,--
+
+"You let that dog alone!  You touch him and I'll set him to worry you.
+Once he gets his teeth into you, he won't let go.  Here, Grip!  Come to
+heel!"
+
+"Well done, Joe!" muttered Gwyn, who felt that his dog was safe; and he
+ran to the end of the bank of prickly growth, where there was an
+opening, and suddenly appeared upon the scene.
+
+It was all just as he had pictured; there was Joe Jollivet, with Grip
+close to his legs, barking angrily and making short rushes, and there, a
+few yards away, stood the big, swarthy stranger who had been caught at
+the mine mouth, and whom Gwyn believed to have tampered with the furnace
+door, now standing with a big stone of eight or ten pounds' weight,
+ready to hurl at the dog if attacked.
+
+"Here, you put down that stone," cried Gwyn, angrily.  "How dare you
+threaten my dog!"
+
+"Stone aren't yours," said the man, tauntingly.  "This ground don't
+belong to you.  Keep your mongrel cur quiet."
+
+"My dog wouldn't interfere with you if you let it alone."
+
+"Oh, it's your dog, is it?" said the man.  "Well, take him home and
+chain him up.  I don't want to flatten his head, but I jolly soon will
+if he comes at me."
+
+"He couldn't hit Grip," said Joe, maliciously, as he bent down to pat
+and encourage the dog.  "Set him at the fellow--he has no business
+here."
+
+"What!" cried the fellow, who looked a man of three or four-and-thirty,
+but talked like a boy of their own age.  "Much right here as you have.
+You let me alone, and I'll let you alone.  What business have you to set
+your beastly dog at me?"
+
+"Who set him at you?" cried Joe.  "He only barked at you--he saw you
+were a stranger--and you picked up a stone, and that, of course, made
+him mad."
+
+"So would you pick up a stone, if a savage dog came at you.  Look at him
+now, showing his sharp teeth.  On'y wish I had his head screwed up in a
+carpenter's bench.  I'd jolly soon get the pinchers and nip 'em all out.
+He wouldn't have no more toothache while I knew him."
+
+"There, you be off," said Gwyn, "while your shoes are good."
+
+"Don't wear shoes, young 'un.  Mine's boots."
+
+"You're after no good hanging about here."
+
+"Er--think I want to steal your guv'nor's pears off the wall, now, don't
+yer?"
+
+"How do you know we've got pears on our wall?"
+
+"Looked over and see," said the man, grinning.
+
+"Yes, that's it; you're a regular spy, looking for what you can steal,"
+cried Joe.  "Be off!"
+
+"Sha'n't.  Much right here, I tell you, as you have.  But I like folks
+to talk about stealing!  Who nipped off with my fishing line and sinker?
+You give 'em back to me."
+
+"No; they're confiscated, same as poachers' nets," said Gwyn.  "Who sent
+you here?"
+
+"Sent me here?  Sent myself."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Wants a job.  I'm mining, and I heared you was going to open the old
+mine.  Think your guv'nors'll take me on?"
+
+"You put down that stone before you ask questions," said Gwyn.
+
+"You shut up your dog's mouth, then.  I don't want to kill him, but I
+aren't going to have him stick his teeth into me."
+
+"The dog won't hurt you if you don't threaten him.  Throw away that
+stone."
+
+"There you are, then; but I warn you, if he comes at me, I'll let him
+have my boot, and if he does get it, he won't have any more head."
+
+"Quiet, Grip!" said Gwyn, as the man threw away the stone, and the dog
+whined and said, "Don't talk to me like that; this fellow isn't to be
+trusted; make me drive him away."  At least not in words, for the dog
+spoke with his eyes, which seemed to suggest that this course should be
+taken.
+
+"Who are you, and where do you come from?" said Gwyn, looking at the man
+suspiciously.
+
+"Truro.  All sorts o' places wherever there's mines open and--work."
+
+"And you heard that this one was going to be opened?"
+
+"Yes, that's just what I did hear."
+
+"Then why did you come spying about the place?"
+
+"Never came spying about; only wanted to know how deep she was.  I don't
+like mines as is two hundred fathom deep.  Too hot enough, and such a
+long way up and down.  Takes all the steam out of you.  Will your
+guv'nors give me a job?"
+
+"Go to the office and ask them; that's the best way," said Gwyn, looking
+at the man suspiciously, as he took off his cap, and began to smooth it
+round and round.
+
+"Well, p'r'aps that won't be a bad way," said the fellow.  "But you two
+won't say anything again' me, will you, 'cause of that row we had when
+you smugged my line and sinker?"
+
+"I don't think I shall say any more than what happened," replied Gwyn.
+
+"'Cause it was all over a row, now, warn't it?  Of course, a chap gets
+his monkey up a bit when it comes to a fight.  That's nat'ral, ar'n't
+it?"
+
+Gwyn nodded, and felt as if he did not like the look of the man at all;
+but at the same time he was ready to own that there might be a good deal
+of prejudice in the matter.
+
+"Wouldn't like to go and say a good word for me, would you?" said the
+man.
+
+"Of course, I should not like to," said Gwyn, laughing.  "How can I go
+and speak for a man whom I only know through our having two rows with
+him.  That isn't natural, is it?"
+
+"No, I s'pose not," said the man, frankly.  "Well, I'll go myself.  I
+say, I am a wunner to work."
+
+"You'd better tell Colonel Pendarve so," said Gwyn, smiling.
+
+"Think so?  Well, I will, and good luck to me.  But, I say, hadn't you
+two better make your dog friends with me?"
+
+"No," said Gwyn, promptly.  "Grip will know fast enough whether he ought
+to be friends with you or no."
+
+"Would he?  Is he clever enough for that?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Gwyn; "he knows an honest man when he sees him, doesn't
+he, Joe?"
+
+"To be sure he does."
+
+"Think o' that, now," said the man.  "All right, then.  Don't you two go
+again' me.  I'll start for the office at once."
+
+"Here, what's your name?"
+
+"Dinass--Thomas Dinass," said the man, with a laugh, "but I'm mostly
+called Tom.  That all?"
+
+"Yes, that's all," said Gwyn, shortly; and the man turned to go, with
+the result that Grip made a rush after him, and the man faced round and
+held up his boot.
+
+"Come here, sir!  Come back!" shouted Gwyn; and the dog obeyed at once,
+but muttering protests the while, as if not considering such an
+interruption justifiable.
+
+Then all three stood watching till the man had disappeared, the dog
+uttering an angry whine from time to time, as if still dissatisfied.
+
+At last the two boys, who had met now for the first time since the
+adventure on the ladder, turned to gaze in each other's eyes, and ended
+in exchanging a short nod.
+
+"Going up?" said Gwyn at last.
+
+"Yes; I came on purpose, and found Grip here."
+
+"So did I come on purpose," said Gwyn.  "Wanted a good think.  Lead on."
+
+Joe went to the tallest of the old stones, and began to climb--no easy
+task, but one to which he seemed to be accustomed; and after a little
+difficulty, he obtained foothold, and then, getting a hand well on
+either side of one of the weather-worn angles, he drew himself higher
+and higher, and finally perched himself on the top.
+
+Before he was half up, Gwyn began to follow, without a thought of
+danger, though he did say, "Hold tight; don't come down on my head."
+
+Up he went skilfully enough, but before he was at the top, Grip uttered
+a few sharp barks, raised his ears, became excited, and jumped at the
+monolith, to scramble up a few feet, drop, and, learning no wisdom from
+failure, scramble up again and again, and fall back.
+
+Then, as he saw his master reach the top, he threw back his head, opened
+his jaws, and uttered a most doleful, long-drawn howl, as full of misery
+and disappointment as a dog could give vent to.
+
+"Quiet, will you!" cried Gwyn, and the dog answered with a sharp bark,
+to which he added another dismal, long-drawn howl.
+
+"Do you hear!" cried Gwyn; "don't make that row.  Lie down!"
+
+There was another howl.
+
+"Do you want me to throw stones at you?" cried Gwyn, fiercely.
+
+Doubtless the dog did not, for he had an intense aversion to being
+pelted; but, as if quite aware of the fact that there were no stones to
+cast, he threw his head up higher than ever, and put all his force into
+a dismal howl, that was unutterably mournful and strange.
+
+"You wretch!  Be quiet!  Lie down!" cried Gwyn; but the more he shouted
+the louder the dog howled, while he kept on making ineffectual efforts
+to mount the stone.
+
+"Let him be; never mind.  He'll soon get tired.  Want to talk."
+
+The boys settled themselves in uncomfortable positions on the narrow
+top, where the felspar crystals stood out at uncomfortable angles, and
+those of quartz were sharper still, and prepared for their long confab.
+As a matter of course, they would have been ten times as comfortable on
+the short turf just beyond the furze; but then, that would have been
+quite easy, and there would have been no excitement, or call upon their
+skill and energy.  There was nothing to be gained by climbing up the
+stone--nothing to see, nothing to find out; but there was the
+inclination to satisfy that commonplace form of excelsiorism which
+tempts so many to try and get to the top.  So the boys sat there,
+thoughtfully gazing out to sea, while the dog, after a good many howls,
+gave it up for a bad job, curled himself into an ottoman, hid his nose
+under his bushy collie tail, and went to sleep.
+
+Some minutes elapsed before either of the boys spoke, and when one did,
+it was with his eyes fixed upon the warm, brown sails of a
+fishing-lugger, miles away.
+
+It was Gwyn who commenced, and just as if they had been conversing on
+the subject for some time,--
+
+"Major very angry?"
+
+Joe nodded.
+
+"Awfully.  Said, knowing what a state of health he was in, it wasn't
+fair for me to go on trying to break my neck, for I was very useful to
+him when he had his bad fever fits--that it wasn't pleasant for him to
+stop at home, expecting to have me brought back in bits."
+
+"He didn't say that, did he?"
+
+"Yes, he did--bits that couldn't be put together again; and that, if
+this was the result of having you for a companion, I had better give you
+up."
+
+Gwyn drew a deep breath, and kicked his heels together with a loud
+clack.  Then there was a long pause.
+
+"Well," said Gwyn, at last; "are you going to give me up?"
+
+Joe did not make a direct answer, but proposed a question himself.
+
+"What did the Colonel say?"
+
+"Just about the same as your father did; only he didn't bring in about
+the fever, nor he didn't say anything about my being brought home in
+bits.  Said that I was a great nuisance, and he wondered how it was that
+I could not amuse myself like other boys did."
+
+"So we do," said Joe, sharply.  "I never knew of a boy yet who didn't
+get into a scrape sometimes."
+
+Gwyn grunted, and frowned more deeply.
+
+"Said it was disgraceful for me to run risks, and cause my mother no end
+of anxiety, and--"
+
+"Well, go on: what a time you are!" cried Joe, for Gwyn suddenly paused.
+"What else did he say?"
+
+"Oh, something you wouldn't like to hear."
+
+"Yes, I should.  Tell me what it was."
+
+Gwyn took out his knife, and began to pick with the point at a large
+crystal of pinkish felspar, which stood partly out of the huge block of
+granite.
+
+"I say, go on.  What an aggravating chap you are!"
+
+Gwyn went on picking.
+
+"I say, do you want me to shove you off the top here?"
+
+"No; and you couldn't, if I did."
+
+"Oh, couldn't I?--you'd see.  But I say, go on, Ydoll; tell us all about
+it.  I did tell you what my father said."
+
+"Said he supposed it was from associating with such a boy as you; for he
+was sure that I was too well-meaning a lad to do such things without
+being prompted."
+
+"Oh, my!  What a shame!" cried Joe.  "It was too bad."
+
+"Well, I didn't want to tell you, only you bothered me till I did
+speak."
+
+"Of course.  Isn't it better to know than have any one thinking such
+things of you without knowing.  But I say, though, it is too bad; I
+couldn't help turning like I did.  It came on all at once, and I
+couldn't stir."
+
+"He didn't mean about that so much.  He bullied me for not taking care
+of you, and stopping you from going up the ladder."
+
+"Did he?  Why, you couldn't help it."
+
+"He talked as if he supposed I could, and said if we went out again
+together, I had better take Grip's collar and chain, put the collar
+round your neck, and lead you."
+
+"Oh I say!  Just as if I was a monkey."
+
+"No; father meant a dog, or a puppy."  Joe gave himself a sudden twist
+round to face his companion, flushing with anger the while, and as the
+space on the top of the stone was very small, he nearly slipped off, and
+had to make a snatch at Gwyn to save himself from an ugly fall.
+
+"There!" cried Gwyn, "you're at it again.  You've made up your mind to
+break your neck, or something else."
+
+"It was all your fault," cried Joe, "saying things like that.  I don't
+believe your father said anything of the kind.  It was just to annoy
+me."
+
+"What, do you suppose I wanted to go home with fresh trouble to talk
+about?"
+
+"No, but it's your nasty, bantering, chaffing way.  Colonel Pendarve
+wouldn't have spoken about me like that."
+
+Gwyn laughed.
+
+"I suppose he didn't say I had better give you up as a companion--"
+
+"Did he?"
+
+"If I was always getting into some scrape or another."
+
+"No; but I say, Ydoll, did he?"
+
+"Something of the kind.  He said it was getting time for me to be
+thinking of something else beside tops and marbles."
+
+"Well, so we do.  Whoever thinks about tops and marbles now?  Why, I
+haven't touched such a thing for two years."
+
+"So I suppose you and I will have to part," continued Gwyn.
+
+Joe glanced at him sidewise.
+
+"It's no use for us to be companions if it means always getting into
+scapes at home."
+
+Joe began to whistle.  His face became perfectly smooth, and he watched
+his companion, as he picked away at the crystal, while Gwyn looked
+puzzled.
+
+"I say, you'll break the point of your knife directly," said Joe.
+
+"Well, suppose I do?"
+
+"Be a pity.  It's a good knife."
+
+"Well, you won't see it when it's broken if we're going to part."
+
+"Of course not; and you could get to the big grindstone they've set up
+under that shed for the men to grind their picks.  Soon give it a fresh
+point.  I say, how jolly that is--only to put on the band over the wheel
+shaft from the engine, and the stone goes spinning round!  I tried it
+one day on my knife.  It was splendid."
+
+"You seem precious glad that we've got to part," said Gwyn.
+
+"Not a bit of it.  It's all gammon."
+
+"Eh?  What is?"
+
+"Talking about separating.  It doesn't mean anything.  I know better
+than that.  Come, let's talk sense."
+
+"That's what I have been doing," said Gwyn, stiffly.
+
+"Not you; been bantering all the time.  They didn't mean it, and you
+didn't mean it.  We're to be partners over the mine some of these days,
+Ydoll, when we grow up, and they're tired of it.  I say, though, I don't
+think I shall like having that Tom Dinass here."
+
+"No," said Gwyn, thoughtfully.  "He looks as if he could bite.  Think
+what he said about getting work was all true?"
+
+"I suppose so.  Seems reasonable.  I don't like to disbelieve people
+when they speak out plainly to you."
+
+"No," said Gwyn, thoughtfully.  "If they've told you a crammer at some
+time, it makes all the difference, and you don't feel disposed to
+believe them again.  Perhaps it's all right, and when he's taken on, he
+may turn out a very good sort of fellow."
+
+"Yes; we shall have to chance it.  I say, though, Ydoll, we must be more
+careful for the future about not getting into scrapes together."
+
+"Won't matter if we're not to be companions any more.  We can't get into
+any, can we?"
+
+"Gammon!  They didn't mean it, I tell you.  We've only got to mind."
+
+"And we begin by getting up here, and running the risk of breaking our
+legs or wings."
+
+"Well, it was stupid, certainly," said Joe, thoughtfully.  "But then,
+you see, we were so used to climbing up it that it came quite natural."
+
+"Father says one has got to think about being a man now, and setting to
+work to understand the mining."
+
+"Yes," said Joe, with a sigh; "that's what my father said.  Seems rather
+hard to have to give up all our old games and excursions."
+
+"Then don't let's give them up," said Gwyn, quickly.  "They don't want
+us to, I know--only to work hard sometimes.  There, let's get down and
+go and see how they're getting on at the mine."
+
+"Shall we?" said Joe, doubtingly.
+
+"Yes.  Why not?  We needn't do anything risky.  I haven't been there
+since the day the pump was started.  Have you?"
+
+"No; haven't been near it."
+
+"Then come on!"
+
+Gwyn set the example of descending by lowering his legs over the side,
+gripping the angle with his knees, and let himself down cleverly, Joe
+following directly after; while Grip, who had uncurled himself, bounded
+away before them full of excitement.
+
+A week had resulted in a good deal of work being done by the many men
+employed; the roughly-made office had been advanced sufficiently for the
+two old officers to take possession, and spend a good deal of time in
+consultation with Hardock, who was at work from daylight to dusk,
+superintending, and was evidently most eager for the success of the
+mine.  The tall granite shaft was smoking away, and the puffs of steam
+and the whirring, buzzing noises told that the engine was fully at work,
+while a dull heavy _clank, clank_, came to the boys from the mouth of
+the shaft.
+
+The first person almost that they set eyes upon was Hardock, who came
+bustling out of the building over the mouth of the shaft, and stopped
+short to stare.  Then, giving his leg a heavy slap, his face expanded
+into a grin of welcome.
+
+"There you are, then, both of you at last.  Why, where have you been all
+this time?"
+
+"Oh, busy at home," said Gwyn, evasively.
+
+"Come to knock up an accident of some kind!" said the man, with the grin
+on his face expanding.
+
+"No, I haven't," said Gwyn, shortly.
+
+"You, then?" cried Hardock, turning to Joe, who coloured like a girl.
+
+"Ah, well, we won't quarrel now you have come, my lads: but the Colonel
+made my ears sing a bit the other day for not looking more sharply after
+you both.  Well, aren't you going to ask how the mine is?"
+
+"Yes," said Gwyn, glad to change the subject.  "Got all the water out?"
+
+"Nay, my lad, nor nothing like all."
+
+"Then you never will," said Joe.  "Depend upon it, there's a way in
+somewhere from the sea, and that's why the old place was forsaken."
+
+"Sounds reasonable," said Hardock, "'specially as the bits of ore we've
+come across are so rich."
+
+"Yes, that's it," said Gwyn.  "What a pity, though.  How far have you
+got down?"
+
+"Oh, a long way, my lad, and laid open the mouths of two galleries.
+Wonderful sight of water we've pumped out.  Don't seem to get much
+farther now."
+
+"No, and you never will," said Joe again, excitedly.  "I'm sorry,
+though.  Father will be so disappointed."
+
+"What makes you say that there's a way in from the sea?" said Hardock,
+quietly.
+
+"Because the shaft's so near.  It's a very bad job, though."
+
+"But look ye here," said Hardock, laying his hand on Gwyn's shoulder,
+"as you have come, tell me this: how should you try to find out whether
+it was sea-water we were pumping out?"
+
+"Why, by tasting it, of course," said Gwyn.  "It would be quite salt."
+
+"Of course!" said Hardock, with a chuckle, "that's what I did do."
+
+"And was it salt?" asked Joe.
+
+"No, it warn't.  It was fresh, all fresh; only it warn't good enough to
+make tea."
+
+"Why?" asked Gwyn.
+
+"'Cause you could taste the copper in it quite strong.  We shall get the
+water out, my lads, in time; but it's a big mine, and goodness knows how
+far the galleries run.  Strikes me that your guv'nors are going to be
+rich men and--Hullo!  What's he been doing there?"
+
+The boys turned, on seeing the direction of the mine captain's gaze, and
+they saw Tom Dinass's back, as he stood, cap in hand, talking to someone
+inside the office door--someone proving to be the Colonel.
+
+"Been to ask to be taken on to work at the mine," said Gwyn.
+
+"But that won't do, my lads," cried Hardock, excitedly.  "We want to be
+all friends here, and he belongs to the enemy.  They can't take him on!
+It would mean trouble, as sure as you're both there.  Oh, they wouldn't
+engage he."
+
+Hardock said no more, for Dinass had seen them as he turned from the
+office door, and came toward them at once.
+
+"Are you?" he said to Hardock, without the `How'; and the captain nodded
+in a sulky way.
+
+"What do you want here?" he said.
+
+"Just whatever you like, captain.  I'm an old hand, and ready for
+anything.  The guv'nors have took me on, and I'm come to work."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+SAM HARDOCK DISAPPROVES.
+
+_Clank, clank_! and _wash, wash_!  The great pump worked and the water
+came up clear and bright, to rush along the channel cut in the floor of
+the adit and pour from the end like a feathery waterfall into the sea,
+the spray being carried like a shower of rain for far enough on a breezy
+day.  But there seemed to be no end to it, and the proprietors began to
+look anxious.
+
+Still Hardock's face was always cheery.
+
+"Only because she's so big underground, and there's such a lot to get
+out, you see, my lads.  She's right enough.  Why, that water's been
+collecting from perhaps long before I was born.  We shall get her dry
+some day."
+
+But Dinass, who somehow always seemed to be near when the boys were
+about the mine, looked solemn, and as soon as Hardock's back was turned
+he gave Gwyn a significant wink.
+
+"I only hope he's right," said the man.
+
+"Then you don't know he is?" said Joe, sharply.
+
+"I don't say nothing, young gents, nothing at all; but that pump's been
+going long enough now to empty any mine, and yet, if you both go and
+look at the water, you'll see it's coming as fast as ever and just as
+clear."
+
+"Because they haven't got to the bottom of it yet," said Gwyn.
+
+"It aren't that, young gentleman," said Dinass, mysteriously.  "Of
+course it aren't my business, but if the mine belonged to me I should
+begin to get uncomfortable."
+
+"Why?" asked Joe.
+
+"Because I should be thinking that the old folks who digged this mine
+had to come up it in a hurry one day."
+
+"Why?--because there were bogies and goblins in it?"
+
+"No, sir, because they broke through one day into an underground river;
+and you can't never pump dry a place like that.  But there, I don't
+know, gentlemen--that's only what I think."
+
+The man went about his work, over which he was so assiduous that even
+Hardock could not complain, and the latter soon after encountered the
+lads.
+
+"Don't say Dinass told us," whispered Gwyn.  "Sam hates him badly enough
+as it is.  Let him think that it's our own idea."
+
+"Not got to the bottom of the water yet, then?" said Gwyn.
+
+"No, sir--not yet, not yet," replied the captain, blandly; "and it won't
+come any the quicker for you joking me about it."
+
+"But aren't you beginning to lose heart?"
+
+"Lose heart?  Wouldn't do to lose heart over a mine, sir.  No, no; man
+who digs in the earth for metals mustn't lose heart."
+
+"But we're not digging, only pumping."
+
+"But we might begin in one of these galleries nearly any time, sir.
+I've been down, and I've seen better stuff than they're getting in some
+of the mines, I can tell you, sir.  But we'd better have the water well
+under first."
+
+"But suppose you are never going to get it under?"
+
+"Eh?  No, I don't s'pose anything of the kind.  It's fresh water, and we
+must soon bottom it."
+
+"But suppose it's an underground river, Sam?" said Joe, sharply.
+
+"Underground river, my lad?  Then that will be a fine chance for you
+two.  I should be for getting my tackle ready, and going fishing as soon
+as the water's low enough.  Who knows what you might ketch?"
+
+"Nothing to laugh at, Sam," said Gwyn, sternly.  "If there should prove
+to be an underground stream, you'll never pump the mine dry."
+
+"Never, sir, and I shouldn't like to try; but," the man continued with a
+twinkle of the eye, "the steam-engine will.  That's the beauty of these
+things--they never get tired.  Here's the guv'nors."
+
+Colonel Pendarve came up with the Major, both looking very serious, and
+evidently troubled by the slow progress over the water.
+
+"Been down the shaft, Hardock?" said the former.
+
+"Yes, sir; just come up."
+
+"Any better news?" said the Major, quickly.
+
+"No, sir; it's just about the same.  Couldn't be better."
+
+"Not be better, man!  The anxiety is terrible."
+
+"Oh, no, sir," said Hardock; "that's only because you worry yourself
+over it.  Water's been steadily sinking ever since we began to pump."
+
+"But so slowly--so slowly, man."
+
+"Yes, sir, but there's the wonder of it.  Place is bigger than we
+expected."
+
+"Then the water is falling, Hardock?" said the Colonel.
+
+"Yes, sir, steady and sure; and whenever the pump has been stopped, the
+water hasn't risen, which is the best sign of all."
+
+"Yes; we must have patience, Jollivet, and wait."
+
+"Yes, sir," put in Hardock; "and if I might make so bold as to speak I
+wouldn't engage anyone else for the present.  When the mine's dry it
+will be time enough."
+
+"No; better get recruits while we can," said the Colonel.
+
+"But you have ideas on paying wages, sir, and I fancy I know the best
+sort of men we want."
+
+"Ah, you don't like the man Dinass," said the Colonel.
+
+"No, sir, I don't; not at all."
+
+"But you said he worked well and knew his business."
+
+"Yes, sir; but I don't like him none the more."
+
+"Petty jealousy, my man, because you did not have a word in the
+business.  Come along, Major, and let's see how the pump's getting on."
+
+"Jealousy," grunted Hardock; "just as if I'd be jealous of a chap like
+that.  What yer laughing at, Mr Gwyn?"
+
+"You, Sam.  Why, you're as jealous of Dinass as you can be."
+
+"Think so, sir?  What do you say, Mr Joe Jollivet?"
+
+"Didn't say anything, but I thought so.  You're afraid of his taking
+your place as foreman or captain."
+
+"Me?" cried the man, indignantly.  "'Fraid of an odd-job sort of a chap,
+took on like out of charity, being able to take my place?  Come, I do
+like that, Master Joe.  What do you think of it, Mr Gwyn?"
+
+"Think Joe Jollivet's right," said Gwyn, hotly; and Hardock turned upon
+him angrily,--
+
+"Well, aren't it enough to make me, sir.  Here was I out of work through
+mine after mine being advertised, and none of 'em a bit of good.  And
+what do I do but sit down and puzzle and think out what could be done,
+till I hit upon Ydoll and went up and examined it, and looked at bits of
+stuff that I found on the bank and round about the mouth, till I was
+sure as sure that it was a good thing that had never been properly
+worked, or they wouldn't have pitched away the good ore they did.
+Though what could you expect from people ever so long ago who had no
+proper machinery to do things with; and the more I work here the more
+I'm sure of there being heaps of good stuff to be got.  Well, what do I
+do?  Talks to you young gents about it, don't I? and then your fathers
+laugh at it all, and I'm regularly upset till they took the idea up.
+Then I set to and got the place in going order, and it's bound to be a
+very big thing, and all my doing, as you may say; and then up comes Mr
+Dinass to shove his nose in like the thin edge of a wedge.  How would
+you both like it if it was you?"
+
+"Well, I shouldn't like it at all," said Gwyn.
+
+"Of course, you wouldn't, sir, nor Mr Joe neither; and I just tell Mr
+Tom Dinass this: so long as he goes on and does his work, well and
+good--I sha'n't quarrel with him; but if he comes any underhanded games
+and tries to get me out of my place, I'll go round the mine with him."
+
+"You'll do what?" cried Joe.
+
+"See how deep the mine is with him, sir, and try how he likes that."
+
+Sam Hardock gave the lads a very meaning nod and walked away, leaving
+the pair looking inquiringly at each other.
+
+"He'd better mind what he's about," said Joe.  "That Tom Dinass is an
+ugly customer if he's put out."
+
+"Yes, but it's all talk," said Gwyn.  "People don't pitch one another
+down mines; and besides, you couldn't pitch anyone down our mine on
+account of the platforms.  Why, you couldn't drop more than fifteen or
+twenty feet anywhere."
+
+"No, but it would be very ugly if those two were to quarrel and fight."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+A MENTAL KINK.
+
+The time went on, with the carpenters and engineers hard at work.  As
+fast as the water was lowered enough, fresh platforms were placed across
+the shaft.  After a little consideration and conference with Hardock, it
+was decided not to let the men go up and down the mine by means of
+ladders on account of the labour and loss of time, but to erect one of
+the peculiar beams used in some mines, the platforms being at equal
+distances favouring the arrangement.
+
+The boys were present at the consultation, and when it was over they
+went off for a stroll, Grip following in a great state of excitement,
+and proceeding to stalk the gulls whenever he saw any searching for
+spoil on the grassy down at the top of the cliffs.
+
+But the dog had no success.  The gulls always saw him coming, and let
+him creep pretty near before giving a few hops with outstretched wings,
+and then sailing away just above his head, leaving him snapping angrily
+and making his futile bounds.
+
+After a time the boys threw themselves on the grass at the top of one of
+the highest cliffs, from whence they could look down through the
+transparent sea at the purply depths, or at the pale-green shallows,
+where the sand had drifted, or again, at where all the seaweed was of a
+rich golden brown.
+
+It was a lovely day, and in the offing the tints on the sea were
+glorious, but the boys had no eyes for anything then.  So to speak, they
+were looking back at the meeting which had just taken place at Colonel
+Pendarve's.
+
+"Father looked very serious about these lift things," said Gwyn, at
+last.
+
+"Enough to make him; it's nothing but pay, pay, pay.  I want to see them
+get to work and make money.  It will be skilly and bread for us if the
+mine fails."
+
+"'Tisn't going to fail.  Don't be a coward.  See what a grand thing this
+new apparatus will be."
+
+"Will it?" said Joe.  "I don't understand it a bit."
+
+"Why, it's easy enough."
+
+"I can understand about a bucket or a cage, let up and down by a rope
+running over a wheel, but this seems to me to be stupid."
+
+"Nonsense!  It's you who are stupid.  Can't you see that a great beam is
+to go from the top to the bottom of the mine?"
+
+"That's nonsense.  Where are they going to get one long enough?"
+
+"Can't they join a lot together till it is long enough, old Wisdom
+teeth?  Of course, it will have to be made in bits, and put together."
+
+"Well, what then?" cried Joe.
+
+"What then?  Sam Hardock and the engineer explained it simply enough.
+The beam is to have a little standing-place on it at every eighteen
+feet."
+
+"Yes, I understand that, and it's to be attached to an engine lever
+which will raise it eighteen feet, and then lower it eighteen feet."
+
+"Of course.  Well, what's the good of pretending you did not
+understand?"
+
+"I didn't pretend; I don't understand."
+
+Gwyn laughed.
+
+"You are a fellow!  There'll be a ledge for a man to stand on, all down
+the beam from top to bottom exactly opposite the regular platform."
+
+"Yes, I understand that."
+
+"Well, then, what is it you don't understand?" cried Gwyn, smiling.
+
+"How it works."
+
+"Why, you said you did just now.  Oh, I say, Jolly-wet, what a foggy old
+chap you are.  You said as plain as could be, that the beam rose and
+fell eighteen feet."
+
+"Oh, yes, I said that, but I don't understand about the men."
+
+"Well, you are a rum one, Joe.  Is it real, or are you making believe?"
+
+"Real.  Now, suppose it was us who wanted to go down."
+
+"Well, suppose it was us."
+
+"What do we do?"
+
+"Why, we--"
+
+"No, no, let me finish.  I say, what do we do?  We step on the ledge
+attached to the beam?"
+
+"Of course we do, only one at a time."
+
+"Very well, then, one at a time.  Then down goes the beam eighteen feet
+to the next platform."
+
+"Yes, and then up it rises again eighteen feet, and most likely there'd
+be a man on every ledge, from top to bottom."
+
+"Well, what's the good of that?"
+
+"Good?  Why, so that the men can ride up or down when they're tired, and
+do away with the ladders."
+
+"Isn't that absurd?  I'm sure my father never meant to put a lot of
+money into this thing so as to give the men a ride up and down on a
+patent see-saw."
+
+"Oh I say, Joe, what a chap you are!  What have you got in your head?"
+
+"This old see-saw that Hardock and the engineer want us to have, of
+course."
+
+"Well, can't you see how good it will be?"
+
+"No, I can't, nor you neither."
+
+"But don't you see it sends the men all down eighteen feet into the
+mine?"
+
+"Of course I can.  Never mind the men.  Suppose it's me, and I step on.
+It sends me down eighteen feet."
+
+"Yes, at one stride, and then comes up again; can't you see that?"
+
+"Of course, I can.  It comes up again, and brings me up with it, ready
+to go down again.  Why, it's no good.  It will be only like a jolly old
+up-and-down."
+
+Gwyn stared at his companion.
+
+"What are you talking about?" he said, but in a less confident tone.
+
+"You know, this gimcrack thing that was to do so much.  Why the idea's
+all wrong.  Don't you see?"
+
+Gwyn stared at his companion again.
+
+"Nonsense!" he cried, "it's all right.  There'll be a man step on to it
+at every platform, and then down he'll go."
+
+"Of course, and when he has gone down eighteen or twenty feet, up he'll
+come again.  It sounds very pretty, but it's all a muddle.  It's just
+like the story of the man who wanted to go to America, so he went up in
+a balloon and stayed there for hours and waited till the world had
+turned round enough, so as to come down in America."
+
+"Oh, but this is all right; they explained it exactly to my father, and
+I saw it all plainly enough then: it was as clear as could be," said
+Gwyn, thoughtfully.  "A man stepped on and went down."
+
+"Yes, and the beam rose and he came up again."
+
+Gwyn scratched his head and looked regularly puzzled, and the more he
+tried to see the plan clearly, the more confused he grew.
+
+"Here, I can't make it out now," he said at last.
+
+"Of course you can't, my lad; it's all wrong."
+
+"But if it is, there will be a terrible loss."
+
+"To be sure there will."
+
+"Let's go and talk to my father about it."
+
+"Or mine," said Joe.
+
+"Our place is nearest, or perhaps father's in the office," cried Gwyn,
+excitedly.  "Mind, I don't say you're right, because I seemed to see it
+all so clearly, though it has all turned misty and stupid like now."
+
+"I know how it was," said Joe.  "Sam Hardock had got the idea in his
+head, and he explained it all so that it seemed right; but it isn't, and
+the more I think about it, the more I wonder that no one saw what a
+muddle it was before."
+
+"Gammon!" cried Gwyn, springing up, and the two lads started back toward
+the mine; but they were not destined to reach it then, for they had not
+gone above a hundred yards along by the edge of the cliff, when they
+came upon Dinass seated with his back to a rock, smoking his pipe and
+gazing out to sea between his half-closed eyelids.
+
+"Hallo!" shouted Gwyn; "what are you doing here?"
+
+"Smoking," said the man, coolly.
+
+"Well, I can see that," cried Gwyn.  "How is it you are not at work?"
+
+"'Cause a man can't go on for ever without stopping.  Man aren't a
+clock, as only wants winding up once a week; must have rest sometimes."
+
+"Well, you have the night for rest," said Gwyn, sharply.
+
+"Sometimes," said Dinass; "but I was working the pump all last night."
+
+"Oh, then you're off work to-day?"
+
+"That's so, young gentleman, and getting warm again in the sun.  It was
+precious cold down there in the night, and I got wet right through to my
+backbone.  I'm only just beginning to get a bit dried now."
+
+"Look here, Ydoll," said Joe, sharply; "he'll have been talking to Sam
+Hardock about it, I know.  Here, Tom Dinass, what about that hobby
+up-and-down thing Sam Hardock wants to have in the mine?"
+
+"'Stead of ladders?  Well, what about it?"
+
+"It's all nonsense, isn't it?"
+
+"Well, I shouldn't call it nonsense," said the man, thoughtfully, as he
+took his pipe out of his mouth and sat thinking.
+
+"What do you call it, then?" said Joe.
+
+"Mellancolly, sir, that's what I call it--mellancolly."
+
+"Because it won't work?" cried Joe.
+
+"But it would work, wouldn't it?" said Gwyn.
+
+"Oh, yes, sir, it would work," said the man, "because the engine would
+pump it up and down."
+
+"Of course it would," said Joe; "but what's the use of having a thing
+that pumps up and down, unless it's to bring up water?"
+
+"Ay, but this is a thing as pumps men up and down," said Dinass.
+
+"Gammon!  It's impossible."
+
+Dinass looked at him in astonishment.
+
+"No, it aren't," he said gruffly.  "I've been pumped up and down one
+times enough, so I ought to know."
+
+"You have?" said Gwyn, eagerly.
+
+"Ay, over Redruth way."
+
+"There, then it is right," cried Gwyn.  "I knew it was.  What an old
+jolly wet blanket you are, Joe!"
+
+"But it can't be right," cried Joe, stubbornly.  "Here you get on a bit
+of a shelf and stand there and the beam goes down twenty feet."
+
+"Nay, it don't," said Dinass, interrupting; "only twelve foot."
+
+"Well it's all the same--it might be twenty feet, mightn't it?"
+
+"I s'pose so, sir.  Ones I've seen only goes twelve foot at a jog."
+
+"Twelve feet, then; and then it jigs up again," cried Joe.
+
+"Ay, just like a pump.  Man-engines they call 'em," said Dinass; "but I
+have heard 'em called farkuns."
+
+[Note: _Fahr-Kunst_.  First used in the Harz Mountain mines.]
+
+"Then you've seen more than one?" cried Gwyn.
+
+"More than one, sir!  I should think I have!"
+
+"And they do go well?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir, they go well enough after a fashion."
+
+"Can't," cried Joe.
+
+"But they do, sir," said Dinass.  "I've seen 'em and gone down deep
+mines on 'em."
+
+"Now you didn't--you went down twelve feet," said Joe, more stubbornly
+than ever.
+
+"Yes, sir, twelve foot at a time."
+
+"And then came up twelve feet."
+
+"That's right, sir."
+
+"Then what's the good of them if they only give you a ride up and down
+twelve feet?"
+
+"To take you to the bottom."
+
+"But they can't," cried Joe.
+
+"I dunno about can't!" said the man, gruffly; "all I know is that they
+do take 'em up or down whenever you like, and saves a lot of time,
+besides being (I will say that for 'em) a regular rest."
+
+"What, through just stepping on a shelf of the beam and stopping there?"
+
+"Who said anything about stopping there?" cried the man, roughly.  "You
+steps on to the shelf and down goes the beam twelve foot, and you steps
+off on to a bit o' platform.  Up goes the beam and brings the next shelf
+level with you, and on you gets to that.  Down you go another twelve
+foot, or another twenty-four.  Steps off, up comes the next shelf, and
+you steps on.  Down she goes again, and you steps on and off, and on and
+off, going down twelve foot at a time, till you're at the bottom, or
+where you want to be part of the way down at one of the galleries."
+
+"Of course," cried Gwyn, triumphantly.  "I knew it was German, all
+right, only I got a bit foggy over it when you said it wasn't."
+
+"But--"
+
+"I knew there was something.  We forgot about stepping off and letting
+the beam rise."
+
+Joe scratched his head.
+
+"Don't you see now?" cried Gwyn.
+
+"Beginning to: not quite," said Joe, still in the same confused way.
+Then, with a start, he gave his leg a hearty slap.  "Why, of course," he
+cried, "I see it all clearly enough now.  You step on and go down, and
+then step on and go up, and then you step on--and step on.  Oh, I say,
+how is it the thing does work after all?"
+
+"Why you--" began Gwyn, roaring with laughter the while, but Joe
+interrupted him.
+
+"No, no; I've got it all right now.  I see clearly enough.  But it is
+puzzling.  What an obstinate old block you were, Ydoll."
+
+"Eh?  Oh, come, I like that," cried Gwyn.  "Why you--" Then seeing the
+mirthful look on his companion's face he clapped him on the shoulder.
+"You did stick to it, though, that it wouldn't go, and no mistake."
+
+"Well, I couldn't see it anyhow.  It was a regular puzzle," said Joe,
+frankly.  "But I say, Tom Dinass, what made you call these man-engines
+melancholy things?"
+
+"'Cause of the mischief they doos, sir.  I do hope you won't have one
+here."
+
+"Why?  What mischief do they do?" cried Gwyn.
+
+"Kills the poor lads sometimes.  Lad doesn't step on or off at the right
+time, and he gets chopped between the step and the platform.  It's awful
+then.  'Bliged to be so very careful."
+
+"Man who goes down a mine ought to be very careful."
+
+"O' course, sir; but they things are horrid bad.  I don't like 'em."
+
+"But they can't be so dangerous as ladders, or going down in a bucket at
+the end of a string or chain; you might fall, or the chain might break.
+Such things do happen," said Gwyn.
+
+"Ay, sir, they do sometimes; but I don't like a farkun.  Accident's an
+accident, and you must have some; but these are horrid, and we shall be
+having some accident with that dog of yours if we don't mind."
+
+"Accident?" said Gwyn.  "What do you mean?"
+
+"He'll be a-biting me, and I shall have to go into horspittle."
+
+"Oh, he won't hurt you," cried Gwyn.
+
+"Don't know so much about that, sir," said the man, grinning.  "I should
+say if he did bite he would hurt me a deal.  Must have a precious nice
+pair o' legs, or he wouldn't keep smelling 'em as he does, and then
+stand licking his jaws."
+
+"I tell you he won't hurt you," cried Gwyn.  "Here, Grip--come away."
+
+The dog looked up at his master, and passed his tongue about his lower
+jaw.
+
+"Look at that, sir," said Dinass, laughing; but there was a peculiar
+look in his eyes.  "Strikes me as he'd eat cold meat any day without
+pickles."
+
+"I'll take care he sha'n't bite your legs, with or without pickles,"
+said Gwyn, laughing.  "Come along, Joe, and let's go and have a talk to
+Sam Hardock about the--what did he call it--far--far--what?"
+
+"I don't know," replied Joe; "but somehow I wish Master Tom Dinass
+hadn't been taken on."
+
+"Going to have a man-engine, are they?" muttered Dinass, as he sat
+watching the two lads from the corners of his eyes.  "Seems to me that
+things have gone pretty nigh far enough, and they'll have to be stopped.
+Won't eat my legs with or without pickles, won't he?  No, he won't if I
+know it.  Getting pretty nigh all the water out too.  Well, I daresay
+there'll be enough of it to drown that dog."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+GRIP TAKES AN INTEREST.
+
+"Now, Joe, this ought to be a big day," said Gwyn, one bright morning.
+"Father's all in a fidget, and he looked as queer at breakfast as if he
+hadn't slept all night."
+
+"Wasn't any as if," replied Joe; "my father says he didn't sleep a wink
+for thinking about the mine."
+
+"Oh, but people often say they haven't slept a wink when they've been
+snoring all the night.  See how the fellows used to say it at Worksop.
+I never believed them."
+
+"But when father says it you may believe him, for when he has fits of
+the old jungle fever come back, I'm obliged to give him his doses to
+make him sleep."
+
+"Well I woke ever so many times wondering whether it was time to get up.
+Once the moon was shining over the sea, and it was lovely.  It would
+have been a time to have gone off to Pen Ree Rocks congering."
+
+"Ugh, the beasts!" exclaimed Joe.  "But, I say, what a thing it will be
+if the place turns out no good after all this trouble and expense."
+
+"Don't talk about it," said Gwyn.  "But Sam says it's right enough."
+
+"And Tom Dinass shakes his head and says--as if he didn't believe it
+could be--that he hopes it may turn out all right, but he doubts it."
+
+"Tom Dinass is a miserable old frog croaker.  Sam knows.  He says
+there's no doubt about it.  The mine's rich, and it must have been
+worked in the old days in their rough way, without proper machinery,
+till the water got the better of them, and they had to give it up."
+
+"I hope it is so," said Joe, with a sigh.  "But, I say, what about going
+down?"
+
+"Your father won't go down."
+
+"Oh, yes, he will.  He says he shall go in the skep if your father
+does."
+
+"Oh, my father will go, of course; but he said I'd better not go till
+the mine was more dry, and the man-engine had been made and fitted."
+
+"Hurrah!  Glad of it!"
+
+"What do you mean by that?" cried Gwyn, angrily.
+
+"What I say!  I don't see why you should be allowed to go, and me stay
+up at grass."
+
+"Humph!  Just the place for you," said Gwyn.
+
+"And what do you mean by that?" cried Joe, angrily in turn.
+
+"Proper place for a donkey where there's plenty of grass."
+
+"Ah, now you've got one of your nasty disagreeable fits on.  Just like a
+Cornishman--I mean boy."
+
+"Better be a Cornish chap than a Frenchy."
+
+"Frenchy!  We've been long enough in England to be English now," cried
+Joe.  "But it's too hard for us not to go."
+
+"Regular shame!" said Gwyn.  "I've been longing for this day so as to
+have a regular examination.  It must be a wonderful place, Joe.  Quite a
+maze."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Joe, superciliously; "just a long hole, and
+when you've seen one bit you've seen all."
+
+"That's what the fox said to the grapes," said Gwyn, with a laugh.
+
+"No, he didn't; he said they were sour."
+
+"Never mind; it's just your way.  The place will be wonderful.  There
+are sure to be plenty of crystals and stalactites and wonderful caverns
+and places.  Oh, I do wish we were going down."
+
+"I don't know that I do now--the place will be horribly damp."
+
+"Fox again."
+
+"Look here, Gwyn Pendarve, if you wish to quarrel, say so, and I'll go
+somewhere else."
+
+"But I don't want to quarrel, Joseph Jollivet, Esquire," said Gwyn,
+imitating the other's stilted way of speaking.  "What's the good of
+quarrelling with you?"
+
+Joe picked up a stone and threw it as far as he could, so as to get rid
+of some of his irritability; and Grip, who had been sitting watching the
+boys, wondering what was the matter, went off helter-skelter, found the
+stone, and brought it back crackling against his sharp white teeth,
+dropped it at Joe's feet, and began to dance about and make leaps from
+the ground, barking, as if saying, "Throw it again--throw it again!"
+
+"Lie down, you old stupid!" cried Gwyn.
+
+"Let him have a run," said Joe, picking up the stone and jerking it as
+far as he could over the short grassy down, the dog tearing off again.
+
+"Ugh!  Look at your hand," said Gwyn, "all wet with the dog's
+`serlimer,' as the showman called it."
+
+"Oh, that's clean enough," said Joe; but he gave his hand a rub on the
+grass all the same.
+
+The dog came back panting, and Joe picked up the stone to give it
+another jerk, but, looking round for a fresh direction in which to throw
+it, he dropped the piece of granite.
+
+"Come on!" he shouted, as he started off; "they're going to the shaft."
+
+Gwyn glanced in the direction of the mine, and started after Joe, raced
+up to him, and they ran along to the building over the mouth, getting
+there just at the same time as the Colonel and Major Jollivet, the dog
+coming frantically behind.
+
+"Well, boys," cried the Colonel, "here we are, you see.  Wish us luck."
+
+"Of course I do, father," said Gwyn.  "But you'd better let us come,
+too."
+
+"No, no, no, no," said the Colonel, "better wait a bit.  Besides, you
+are not dressed for it.  We are, you see."
+
+He smilingly drew attention to their shooting caps and boots and long
+mackintoshes.
+
+"Yes," said the Major, laughing, "we're ready for a wet campaign."
+
+Gwyn was not in the habit of arguing with his father, whose quietest
+words always carried with them a military decision which meant a great
+deal, so he was silent, and contented himself with a glance at Joe, who
+took his cue from him and remained quiet.
+
+Several of the men were there standing about the square iron-bound box
+attached by a wire rope to a wheel overhead, and known as the skep,
+which, with another, would be the conveyances of the ore that was to be
+found, from deep down in the mine to the surface, or, as the miners
+termed it, to grass; and until the man-engine was finished this was the
+ordinary way up and down.
+
+There was Sam Hardock, muffled up in flannel garments, and wearing a
+leather cap like a helmet, with a brim, in front of which was his
+feather represented by a thick tallow candle.  He was armed with a stout
+pick in his belt, and the Colonel and Major both carried large
+geological hammers.
+
+Tom Dinass was there, too, in charge with the engineer of the skep, to
+ensure a safe descent.
+
+Then there were lanthorns, and Hardock, in addition, bore by a strap
+over his shoulder what looked like a large cartouche box, but its
+contents were to re-load the lanthorns, being thick tallow candles.
+
+"Got plenty of matches, Hardock?" said Gwyn, eagerly.
+
+"Oh yes, sir, two tin boxes full."
+
+"We have each a supply of wax matches, too, my boy," said the Colonel.
+"All ready, I think," he continued, turning to the Major, who nodded,
+and then said to him in a low tone of voice, overheard by the boys in
+addition to him for whom it was addressed,--
+
+"If anybody had told me six months ago that I should do this, I should
+have called him mad."
+
+"Never mind, old fellow," said the Colonel, laughingly; "better than
+vegetating as we were, and doing nothing.  It sets my old blood dancing
+in my veins again to have something like an adventure.  Well," he said
+aloud, "we may as well make a start.  By the way, have you any lunch to
+take down?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said the Major, tapping a sandwich-box in his coat pocket;
+"too old a campaigner to forget my rations."
+
+"Right," said the Colonel, tapping his own breast.  "Well, boys, if we
+get lost and don't come up again by some time next week, you will have
+to organise a search-party, and come down and find us."
+
+"Better let us come with you, father, to take care of you both."
+
+The Colonel laughed, and shook his head.
+
+"Now, Major," he cried, "forward!"
+
+The Major stepped into the great wooden bucket, the Colonel followed,
+and then Sam Hardock took his place beside them.
+
+"All ready!" cried the Colonel.  "Now, Hardock, give the word."
+
+The mining captain obeyed, there was a sharp, clicking noise, as the
+engineer touched the brake, and the wheel overhead began to revolve;
+then the skep dropped quickly and silently down through the square hole
+in the rough plank floor formed over the great open shaft, the pump
+being now still.  Then, all at once, as the boys caught at the stout
+railing about the opening and looked down, the lanthorns taken began to
+glow softly and grew brighter for a time; then the light decreased,
+growing more and more feeble till it was almost invisible, and Gwyn drew
+a deep breath and looked up at the revolving wheel.
+
+"Seems precious venturesome, doesn't it?" observed Joe.
+
+"Not half so bad as going down with a rope round you, and feeling it
+coming undone," said Gwyn.
+
+"No, but you did have water to fall into," said Joe.  "If the wire rope
+breaks, they'll fall on the stone bottom and be smashed."
+
+"Ah, yes," said Dinass, in solemn tones.  "Be a sad business that."
+
+"Will you be quiet, Tom Dinass!" cried Gwyn, irritably.  "You're always
+croaking about the mine."
+
+"Nay, sir, not me," replied the man.  "It were Mr Joe here as begun
+talking about the rope breaking and their coming down squelch."
+
+"Well, don't let anybody talk about such things," said Gwyn, who spoke
+as if he had been running hard.  "Nearly down now, aren't they?"
+
+"About half, sir," said the engineer.
+
+"Oh, I don't want to talk," said Dinass; "only one can't help thinking
+it's queer work for two gents to do.  It's a job for chaps like me.
+Howsoever, I hope they won't come to no harm."
+
+Grip growled at something, as if, in fact, he were resenting the man's
+words, but it might have only been that he was being troubled by the
+flea which he had several times that morning tried to scratch out of his
+thick coat.
+
+"You'd better not let them come to harm.  I say, mind they don't come
+down bang at the bottom," said Gwyn, after what seemed to be a long
+time.
+
+"He'll see to that, sir," said the man, nodding his head in the
+direction of the engineer.
+
+"Yes, young gentlemen, that's all right.  I've got the depth to an inch,
+and they'll come down as if on to a spring."
+
+"I say, how deep it seems," said Joe, who also was rather breathless.
+
+"Deep, sir!" said Dinass, with a laugh; "you don't call this deep?  Why,
+it's nothing to some of the pits out Saint Just way--is it, mate?"
+
+"Nothing at all," said the engineer.  "This is a baby."
+
+"Rather an old baby," said Gwyn, smiling.  "Why, this must be the oldest
+mine in Cornwall."
+
+"Dessay it is, sir," said the man; and he checked the wheel as he spoke,
+just as an empty skep of the same size as that which had descended made
+its appearance and came to a standstill.
+
+"Right!" came up from below, in a hollow whisper, and Gwyn drew a deep
+breath.
+
+"You two ought to have gone with 'em," said Dinass, "and had a look
+round."
+
+"Oh, don't bother," cried Gwyn, petulantly.  "I suppose we shall have
+our turn."
+
+"No offence meant, sir," said the man.  "Better let me go down with you.
+Dessay I can show you a lot about the mine."
+
+"I suppose it will be all one long passage from the bottom," said Joe.
+
+"Not it, sir," said Dinass, holding out his bare arm, and spreading his
+fingers.  "It'll go like that.  Lode runs along for a bit like my wrist,
+and then spreads out like my fingers here, or more like the root of a
+tree, and they pick along there to get the stuff where it runs richest.
+But you'll see.  We don't know yet; but, judging from the water pumped
+out, this mine must wander a very long way.  There's no knowing how
+far."
+
+"I say, how long will they stop down?" said Joe.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," replied Gwyn.  "Hours, I daresay."
+
+"Plenty of time for you young gents to take a boat and have half-a-day
+with the bass.  There's been lots jumping out of the water against Ydoll
+Point.  I should say they'd be well on the feed."
+
+"That's likely!" said Gwyn.  "You don't suppose we shall leave here till
+they come up?"
+
+"Oh, I didn't know, sir.  Makes no difference to me; only it'll be
+rather dull waiting."
+
+Grip uttered a low, uneasy growl again, and looked up at his master, and
+then went to the opening and peeped down.
+
+"Like us to send him down in the skep, sir?" said Dinass, grinning.
+"Better not, p'r'aps, as he might lose his way."
+
+"No fear of Grip losing his way--eh, Joe?"
+
+Joe shook his head.
+
+"He'd find his way back from anywhere if he had walked over the ground.
+Wouldn't you, Grip?"
+
+The dog gave a sharp bark as he turned his head, and then looked down
+again, whining and uneasy.
+
+"What's the matter, old boy?" said Gwyn.  "It's all right, old man,
+they've gone down.  Will you go with me?"
+
+The dog uttered a volley of barks, then turned to Dinass and growled.
+
+"Quiet, sir!" cried Gwyn.  "Look here, Tom Dinass, you must tease him,
+or he wouldn't be so disagreeable to you."
+
+"Me?  Me tease him, sir!  Not me."
+
+"Well, take my advice," said Gwyn, "don't.  He's a splendid dog to his
+friends; so you make good friends with him as soon as you can."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+ANXIOUS TIMES.
+
+An hour glided by and not a sound was heard from below.  Then another
+hour, and the boys began to grow impatient.
+
+"Why, the place must be very big," said Gwyn, after straining over the
+rail and looking down for some time.  "Shall I shout?"
+
+"Couldn't do no harm," said Dinass; and Gwyn hailed several times, and
+then gave place to Joe, who was beginning to look uncomfortable.
+
+But the second series of shouting produced nothing but a dull smothered
+echo, and the lad spoke quite hoarsely when he turned to Gwyn, who was
+looking angrily at Dinass and the engineer, both of whom sat coolly
+enough close to the skep shaft, waiting the signal to lift.
+
+"Think there's anything wrong?" said Joe in a whisper to the engineer.
+
+"Oh, no, the place is big.  See what a while it took to pump it out."
+
+"But there may be deep holes here and there, and it would be horrible if
+they had slipped down one."
+
+"They wouldn't all slip down a hole.  If one did, the others would come
+for help.  No; they're thoroughly exploring the place and chipping off
+specimens.  I daresay they'll bring up quite a load."
+
+"I hope so," said Joe, solemnly, and Gwyn, who felt very uncomfortable,
+tried to cheer him up, but in a low voice, so that the others should not
+hear.
+
+"I say, how strange it is that if anyone doesn't come back when you
+expect him you are sure to think he has met with an accident."
+
+"I don't, if they've only gone out," said Joe, with a shiver.  "This
+isn't like that.  This place seems to me now quite awful."
+
+"Pooh!  I say, I believe you'd go down and look for them if you might."
+
+"Yes," said Joe, quickly; "I shouldn't like to, but I would."
+
+"I wonder what it's like down below--all long, narrow passages
+roughly-cut through the rock," said Gwyn; "they wouldn't cut so
+carefully as they do now."
+
+"No, as they say, the old people would only cut where the lode of ore
+ran, of course.  But I hope there's nothing wrong."
+
+"Of course you do; so do I.  What's the good of fidgeting."
+
+Joe did not say what was the good of fidgeting, but he fidgeted all the
+same; and Gwyn noted, as the time went on, that his companion looked
+quite hollow-cheeked, while at the same time he felt a peculiar sinking
+sensation that was very much like dread; and at last, as over two hours
+and a-half had passed, he began to feel that something ought to be done.
+
+Joe not only felt, but said so, and frowned angrily as he spoke.
+
+"It's too bad," he said; "those two sit there as coolly and contentedly
+as if nothing could be the matter.  I say, Dinass," he cried aloud, "do
+you think there is anything wrong?"
+
+"No, sir," said the man, coolly, "I don't.  They're only having a good
+long prowl.  You'll hear 'em shout to be taken up directly."
+
+But the boys did not feel satisfied, and hung about the opening, growing
+more and more uneasy, though Gwyn kept the best face on the matter.
+
+"Don't you fidget," he said, "father was only joking, of course, about
+time; but he knew they'd be down a long while, and he meant to be.
+They're all right."
+
+"They're not all right," said Joe, quickly.  "They can't be, or we
+should have heard from them.  They've either fallen down some hole, or
+the roof has come down and crushed them, or they've lost their way in
+some wild out-of-the-way part of the mine.  Let's call for volunteers,
+and go down and search for them."
+
+"Hush!  Be quiet!  Don't be hysterical," whispered Gwyn; "there's no
+need to call for volunteers.  I feel sure I know what it means; this old
+mine must be very big, perhaps winds about for miles in all directions;
+and they're only having a good long hunt now they are down.  They'd
+laugh at us if we were to send volunteers."
+
+"Send volunteers down!" said Joe.
+
+"Well, lead them then.  Wait a bit and see."
+
+"They've been overcome by choke-damp."
+
+"Nonsense! that's only in coal pits.  Don't let these two see what a
+fright we're in."
+
+"Don't see that you're in any fright," said Joe, bitterly.  "You take it
+coolly enough."
+
+"Outside," said Gwyn; "perhaps I feel as much as you do, only I don't
+show it.  Joe, I wouldn't have my mother know about this for all the
+world--it would frighten her to death; and if we get talking about
+volunteers going down, someone is sure to go and tell her that we're in
+trouble, and she'll come on."
+
+"But we must do something; they may be dying for want of help."
+
+"Don't," whispered Gwyn, angrily; "you're as bad as a girl; try and
+think about how they are situated.  Perhaps there are miles of passages
+below there, and they would be hours wandering about.  Of course they go
+slowly."
+
+"Couldn't be miles of passages," said Joe, piteously.
+
+"Think the mine's very big, Dinass?" said Gwyn, quietly.
+
+"Oh, yes, sir, bigger than I thought for."
+
+"Some mines are very far to the end, aren't they?"
+
+"Miles," said the man calmly, and Gwyn gave his companion a nudge.
+"I've been in some of 'em myself.  Why, I know of one long 'un--an adit
+as goes from mine to mine to get rid of the pumpings--and it's somewhere
+about thirty miles."
+
+"Hear that, Joe?" whispered Gwyn.
+
+"Yes, I hear," said the lad, breathlessly.
+
+"I don't say there's anything of the kind here, of course; but I know
+one place where there's more than sixty miles o' workings, and it would
+take some time to go all over that, wouldn't it?"
+
+The boys were silent, and the engineer went on.
+
+"Oh yes, that's right enough," he said; "and to my mind it's rather bad
+for any folk strange to go down a mine they know nothing about."
+
+Joe started violently.
+
+"You see it's all noo to 'em," continued the engineer, "and they may
+wander away into places they know nothing about, and never find their
+way out again."
+
+"Gwyn!" groaned Joe.
+
+"Hush!  Be quiet!" was whispered back.
+
+"I have heard of such things."
+
+"But that was in deserted mines," said Gwyn, sharply.
+
+"Yes, I believe it was in deserted mines, now you say so, sir."
+
+"Of course it was, Joe, where nobody knew that they had gone down."
+
+"How could they have gone down without anyone knowing?" cried Joe.
+"There must have been someone to let them down."
+
+"Nay, they might have been venturesome and gone down by ladders, same as
+the old ones used to be from sollar to sollar."
+
+"What's a sollar?" said Gwyn, more for the sake of saying something than
+from a desire to know.
+
+"What you calls platforms or floors," said Dinass.  "Well, I will say
+one thing; I do hope the guv'nors haven't lost their way."
+
+"Of course, mate," said the engineer; "so do I; but if I was you young
+gents, I should begin to feel a little uncomfortable about them below."
+
+"We are horribly," cried Joe, wildly.
+
+"Exactly so, sir, for you see it must be getting on for four hours since
+they started."
+
+"Nay, not so much as that," cried Dinass.
+
+"I didn't say it was, mate--I only said it was getting on for four
+hours.  There mayn't be nothing wrong, but there may be; and there
+wouldn't be no harm in doing something now.  What do you say to getting
+some of the lads to go?  They was talking about it when I went outside,
+as I told mate Dinass here--didn't I, my son?"
+
+"Ay, you did--What do you say, Mr Gwyn?"
+
+"It is time to act," cried Joe, excitedly.
+
+"Yes," said Gwyn, as he drew a deep breath, "we must do something.  Get
+lanthorns and candles."
+
+"Shall I call to some of the men, sir," said Dinass, "and hear what they
+say?"
+
+The answer came from the doorway, where three or four heads appeared,
+and one of the owners said:
+
+"I say, mates, aren't it time we heerd something about them as is gone
+down?"
+
+"Yes," said Gwyn, firmly; "we're going down to see.  Will you come with
+me, Joe?"
+
+The boy's lips parted, though no words came; but he put out his hand and
+gripped his companion's fast.
+
+"Get lights, some of you, quick!" cried Gwyn; and a murmur was heard
+outside, a murmur that increased till it was a loud cheer; and then,
+distinctly from outside, a voice was heard to say,--
+
+"Hear that, mates?  The young masters are going down."
+
+And as if to endorse this, Grip, who had suddenly grown excited, burst
+into a loud bark.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+TRUE TO THE CORE.
+
+"Do you mean it, Master Gwyn?" said Dinass, sharply.
+
+"Mean it?  Of course.  You'll come with us and help."
+
+The man's mouth opened widely, and he stared for a few moments before he
+spoke,--
+
+"Help to get lanthorns and candles, sir?  Yes, of course."
+
+"Come down with us," said Gwyn, sharply.  "You can't let us go alone."
+
+"Not let you go alone, sir," growled the man, surlily.  "Well, you
+see--"
+
+"Yes, we see," cried Gwyn, "you have been used to mines, we have not."
+
+"Much used to this one as I am, sir.  I don't know no more about it than
+you do."
+
+"'Course you don't, matey," said the engineer, "but you can't say you
+won't go with 'em to look for the guv'nors and our mate."
+
+"Can't I?  Yes, I can," cried Dinass, fiercely; "easy; I won't go--
+there!"
+
+"Yah!" came in a fierce growl from the men outside.
+
+"Ah, but you don't mean it," cried the engineer.
+
+"Yes, I do," cried Dinass.  "Don't you be so precious handy sending
+people where they don't want to go.  Why don't you go yourself?"
+
+"How can I go?" said the engineer, sharply.  "My dooty's here.  Can you
+manage the skep and rope?"
+
+"How do I know till I try?" growled Dinass.
+
+"Try?  Why, you'd be doing some mischief.  I've no right to leave my
+work while anyone's down, and I won't leave it; but I'd go if I was
+free."
+
+"Tom Dinass will go," said Joe.  "You can't leave us in the lurch like
+this."
+
+"'Course not: it's his gammon," cried a man at the opening into the
+shed-like place.  "You'll go, mate."
+
+"Ay, he'll go," rose in chorus.
+
+"No, he won't," said Dinass, angrily.  "I get five-and-twenty shilling a
+week for working here, not for going to chuck away my life."
+
+"Gahn!" shouted a man.  "Your life aren't worth more nor no one else's.
+Who are you?"
+
+"Never you mind who I am," growled Dinass, "I aren't going to chuck away
+my life, and so I tell you."
+
+"Who wants you to chuck away your life?  Go on down, like a man," said
+the engineer.
+
+"You go yourself; I'll take care of the engines," cried Dinass.
+
+"That will do," said Gwyn, quietly.  "Let us have candles, please,
+quick."
+
+"Oh, you're not going down alone, young gen'lemen," said the man at the
+doorway who had spoken the most.  "Some on us'll go with you if he
+won't, but the guv'nors made him second like to Master Hardock, and he
+ought to go, and he will, too, or we'll make him."
+
+"Oh, will you?" cried Dinass, fiercely; "and how will you make me?"
+
+"Why, if you don't go down like a man along with the young masters,
+we'll tie you neck and crop, and stuff you in the skep, and two more of
+us'll come, too, and make you go first.  What do you say to that?"
+
+"Say you daren't," cried Dinass.
+
+"What do you say, lads?" cried the man.
+
+"Oh, we'll make him go," came in chorus.
+
+By this time, as Dinass stood there angry and defiant, the engineer had
+produced a candle-box and lit a couple of lanthorns, when Gwyn and Joe
+each took one, and stepped into the empty skep, followed by Grip, who
+curled up by their feet.
+
+"Can't go like that, young gents.  Them caps won't do.  Here, come out.
+Who'll lend young masters hats?"
+
+A couple of the strong leathern hats were eagerly offered, but only one
+would fit, and a fresh selection had to be made.
+
+"Better have flannel jackets, sir," said the engineer to Gwyn.
+
+"No, no, we can't wait for anything else.  Come, Joe.  Now let us down."
+
+He raised the iron rail which protected the hole, and again stepped into
+the skep, followed by Joe, lanthorn in hand, and with the candle-box
+slung from his shoulder.
+
+"Now, Tom Dinass," cried the engineer, "I'm with you."
+
+"Nay, I don't go this time," was the surly reply, as Dinass looked
+sharply round at the men who had crowded into the shed, and in response
+to a meaning nod from the engineer began to edge nearer to him.
+
+"Are you quite ready, Joe?  Lower away," cried Gwyn.
+
+"Wait a minute, sir," said the engineer, "you aren't quite ready.  Now,
+then, Dinass, be a man."
+
+"Oh, I'm man enough," said the miner, taking out his pipe and tobacco,
+"but I don't go down this time, I tell you."
+
+"Yes, you do," said the man who had spoken.  "Ready?"
+
+"Nay," cried Dinass, thrusting back his pipe and pouch and catching up a
+miner's pick, which he swung round his head; "keep back, you cowards.
+You're afraid to go yourselves, and you want to force me.  Keep off, or
+I'll do someone a mischief.  There isn't one of you as dare tackle me
+like a man."
+
+"Oh, yes, there is," cried the first speaker; "any of us would.  Now,
+once more, will you go down with the young gentlemen?"
+
+"Go yourself.  No!"
+
+"Oh, I'd go, but it's your job.  You're made next to Master Sam Hardock,
+so just show that you're worth the job."
+
+"Lower away there," cried Dinass, "and let the boys go down
+theirselves."
+
+"Not me," said the engineer.
+
+"Right," said the leader of the men.  "Now, Tom Dinass, this time
+settles it: will you go down?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Then here goes to make you."
+
+The man dashed at Dinass, who struck at him with the pick, but the
+handle was cleverly caught, the tool wrested from his grasp and thrown
+on the floor, while, before the striker could recover himself, he was
+seized, there was a short struggle, and his opponent, who was a clever
+Cornish wrestler, gave him what is termed the cross-buttock, lifted him
+from the ground, and laid him heavily on his back.
+
+The men raised a frantic cheer of delight, which jarred terribly on the
+two boys in their anxious state, though all the same they could not help
+feeling satisfied at seeing Dinass prostrated and lying helpless with
+the miner's foot upon his chest.
+
+"Let him get up," said Gwyn; "we'd sooner go alone than with him; but if
+you'll come with us I should be glad."
+
+"I'd come with you, sir, or any on us would--"
+
+"Ay, ay," chorused the men.
+
+"But we feel, as miners, that when a man's got his dooty to do, he must
+do it.  So Master Tom Dinass here must go by fair means or foul."
+
+"I'll go," cried Dinass.  "Set o' cowards--ten or a dozen on you again'
+one."
+
+"Nay, there was only one again' you with bare hands and without a pick.
+You go down, mate, and when you come up t'others'll see fair, and I'll
+show you whether I'm a coward."
+
+"Don't I tell you I'll go?" growled Dinass.  "Let me get up."
+
+"Do you mean it?  No games, or it'll be the worse for you," said the
+miner, sternly.
+
+"I said I'd go with them," growled Dinass.  "I aren't afraid, but I
+warn't engaged to do this sort of thing."
+
+"You'll go, then?"
+
+"Are you deaf?  Yersss!" roared Dinass; and as the miner took his foot
+from the prostrate man's chest another moved to the doorway to guard
+against retreat.
+
+But if Dinass had any intention of breaking away he did not show it.  He
+rose to his feet, shook himself, and picking up his hat, which had been
+knocked off, put it on, took it off again, glanced round for one he
+considered suitable, snatched it from its wearer's head, put it on his
+own and pitched the one he had worn to the miner he had robbed, and then
+stepped into the skep.
+
+"There you are," he said.  "Now, then, lower away;" and as he spoke he
+stooped down quickly seized the dog by the collar, and swung him out of
+the skep.
+
+"Don't!  Don't do that," cried Gwyn.  "Let the dog come."
+
+But his words were too late; the rail was clapped down, the engineer had
+seized the handle; there was a clang, a sharp blow upon a gong, and it
+seemed to the boys that the floor they had just left had suddenly shot
+up to the ceiling.  Then it gave place to a glow of light dotted with
+heads, and amidst a low murmur of voices there rose the furious barking
+of a dog.
+
+Directly after, they were conscious of the singular sensation that is
+felt when in a swing and descending after the rise, but in a greatly
+intensified way.  Then the glow overhead grew fainter and smaller, and
+the lanthorns they held seemed to burn more brightly, while a peculiar
+whishing, dripping noise made itself heard, telling of water oozing from
+some seam.
+
+"For we always are so jolly, oh!  So jolly, oh!" sang Dinass in a harsh,
+discordant voice.  "How do you like this, youngsters?"
+
+Neither of the boys answered, but the same thought came to them
+both--"that their companion was singing to make a show of his courage."
+
+"I didn't want to fight," continued Dinass; "but I could have knocked
+that fellow Harry Vores into the middle of next week if I'd liked.  I'd
+have come down, too, without any fuss if they'd asked me properly; but
+I'm not going to be bullied and driven, so I tell 'em."
+
+Still neither Gwyn nor Joe spoke, but stood listening to the dripping
+water, and wondering at the easy way in which the skep went down past
+platform and beam, whose presence was only shown by the gleam of the wet
+wood as the lanthorns passed.  And still down and down for what seemed
+to be an interminable length of time.
+
+They knew that they must have passed the openings of several horizontal
+galleries, but they saw no signs of them, as they stood drawing their
+breath hard, till all at once the skep stopped, and Dinass shouted
+boisterously,--
+
+"Here we are; bottom.  Give's hold o' one o' them lanthorns, or we shall
+be in the sumph."
+
+He snatched the lanthorn Joe carried, held it down, and stepped off the
+skep.
+
+"It's all right," he said; "there's some planking here."
+
+The two boys followed, and looked down into the black thick water of the
+sumph, a great tank into which the drainings of the mine ran ready for
+being pumped up; and now Gwyn held up his light to try and penetrate the
+gloom, but could only dimly trace the entrance of what appeared to be a
+huge, arch-roofed tunnel, and as they stepped over the rough wet granite
+beneath it, Dinass placed a hand to the side of his mouth and uttered a
+stentorian hail, which went echoing and rolling along before them, to be
+answered quite plainly from somewhere at a distance.
+
+A load fell from Gwyn's breast, and he uttered a sigh of relief.
+
+"It's all right, Joe," he said.  "There they are, but some distance in.
+Come on."
+
+He led the way, Joe followed, and Dinass came last with the other
+lanthorn; and in a few minutes the great archway contracted and grew
+lower and lower, till it very nearly met their heads, and the sides of
+the place were so near that they could in places have been touched by
+the extended hands.
+
+"Hold hard a moment," said Dinass, after they had gone on a short
+distance; and as the boys turned to him wonderingly, he continued, "this
+here's the main lead of course, but it's sure to begin striking out
+directly right and left like the roots of a tree.  What you've got to
+do's to keep to the main lead, and not go turning off either side.  It's
+not very easy, because they're often as big as one another.  That's what
+I wanted to say to you as one thing to mind.  T'other's to keep a sharp
+look-out for ways downward to lower leads.  There would be no railings
+left round here, 'cause the wood'll all have rotted away.  I'd keep your
+light low down, and if you see a place like a square well don't step
+into it.  You won't break your neck, 'cause it will be quite full of
+water, for the pumping hasn't reached down there, but you might be
+drowned, for it aren't likely I'm coming down after you."
+
+"I'll take care," said Gwyn, with his voice sounding husky; and Joe
+nodded, with his eyes looking wild and dilated.
+
+"That's all I wanted to say," said Dinass, "so on you go."
+
+"Give another shout," said Gwyn, "and let them know we're here."
+
+"What for?" said the man, roughly.
+
+"You heard what I said--to let them know we're here.  They answered
+before, but I suppose voices travel a long way."
+
+"Sometimes," said the man, with a strange laugh.
+
+"Shout, then; your voice is louder than ours," said Gwyn.
+
+"What's the good o' shouting?  They're miles away somewhere."
+
+"No, no, you heard them answer."
+
+"No I didn't," said the man, contemptuously; "that was only eckers."
+
+"What?" cried Gwyn, with his heart seeming to stand still.
+
+"Eckers.  Hark here."
+
+He put his hand to his mouth, and proved the truth of his words.
+
+"Sam!"
+
+"_Sam_!" very softly.
+
+"Har!"
+
+"_Har_!"
+
+"Dock!"
+
+"_Dock_!"--the echo coming some moments after the calls in a peculiar
+weird way.
+
+"Sam 'Ardock!" shouted Dinass then, with a loudness and suddenness which
+made the boys start.
+
+"_Dock_!" came back from evidently a great distance, giving such an idea
+of mystery and depth that the boys could hardly repress a shudder.
+
+"Only eckers," said the man; "and as old Sam Hardock would say, `it's a
+gashly great unked place,' but I think there's some tin in it.  Look
+there and there!"
+
+He held up the lanthorn he carried close to the roof, which sparkled
+with little purply-black grains running in company with a reddish bloom,
+as if from rouge, amongst the bright quartz of the tunnel.
+
+"Oh, never mind the tin," cried Joe.  "Pray, pray go on; we're losing
+time."
+
+"Yes, make haste," said Gwyn.  "We'd better keep straight along here,
+and stop and shout at every opening or turning."
+
+"Yes, that will be right," said Joe.  "Only do keep on.  My father is so
+weak from his illnesses, that I'm afraid he has broken down.  I ought
+not to have let him come."
+
+The words seemed strangely incongruous, and made Gwyn glance at his
+companion; but it was the tender nurse speaking, who had so often waited
+upon the Major through his campaign-born illnesses, and there was no
+call for mirth.
+
+Onward they went along the rugged tunnel, which wound and zigzagged in
+all directions, the course of the ancient miners having been governed by
+the track of the lode of tin; and soon after they came to where a vein
+had run off to their left, and been laboriously cut out with chisel,
+hammer, and pick.
+
+They shouted till the echoes they raised whispered and died away in the
+distance; but there was nothing to induce them to stay, and they went on
+again, to pause directly after by an opening on their right, where they
+again shouted in turn till they were hoarse, and once more went on to
+find branch after branch running from the main trunk, if main trunk it
+was; but all efforts were vain, and an hour must have gone by, nearly a
+quarter of which, at the last, had been here and there along the rugged
+gallery, without encountering a branch which showed where another vein
+had been followed.
+
+It was very warm, and the slippery moisture of the place produced a
+feeling of depression that was fast ripening into despair.  At first
+they had talked a good deal concerning the probabilities of the
+exploring party coming out into the main trunk from one of the branches
+they had passed, but, as Gwyn said, they dared not reckon upon this, and
+must keep on now they were there.  And at last they went trudging on
+almost in silence, the tramping of their feet and the quaint echoes
+being all that was heard, while three black shadows followed after them
+along the rugged floor, like three more explorers watching to see which
+way they went.
+
+All at once the silence was broken by Joe, who cried in a sharp, angry
+way,--
+
+"Stop!  Your candle's going out."
+
+Gwyn stopped without turning, opened the door of the lanthorn, and
+uttered an ejaculation.
+
+"Quite true," he said; "burned right down.  I'll put in another candle."
+
+The box was opened, a fresh one taken out, its loose wick burned and
+blown off in sparks, and then it was lit and stuck in the molten grease
+of the socket.
+
+"You had better have another candle in yours, Dinass," said Joe; and he
+watched Gwyn's actions impatiently, while the lad carefully trimmed the
+wick, and waited till the grease of the socket cooled enough to hold the
+fresh candle firm.
+
+"Now," said Joe, "you ought to give another good shout here before we
+start again."
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"Well, did you hear what was said?" cried Gwyn, closing and fastening
+his lanthorn.
+
+Still there was no answer.
+
+"Here, Tom Dinass," cried Gwyn, raising his lanthorn, as he turned to
+look back; "why don't you do what you're told?"
+
+His answer was a sudden snatch at his arm by Joe, who clung to it in a
+fierce way.
+
+"What's the matter?  Aren't you well?  Oh, I say, you must hold up now.
+Here, Tom Dinass."
+
+"Gone!" gasped Joe, in a low whisper, full of horror.
+
+"Gone?  Nonsense! he was here just now."
+
+"No.  It's ever so long since he spoke to us.  Gwyn, he has gone back
+and left us."
+
+"Left us?  What, alone here!" faltered Gwyn, as the grey, sparkling roof
+seemed to revolve before his eyes.
+
+"Yes, alone here, Gwyn!  Ydoll, old chap, it's horrible.  Can we ever
+find our way back?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+TO THE BITTER END.
+
+If ever an awful silence fell upon two unfortunate beings, it was upon
+those lads, deep down in the strange mazes of the ancient mine.  For
+some moments neither could speak, but each stood gazing at his
+companion, with the two shadows strangely mingled upon the rugged,
+faintly-glittering wall.
+
+Joe was the first to speak again, for his passionately-uttered question
+was not answered.
+
+"He warned us to beware of the holes and places, and he must have
+slipped down one."
+
+"Not he," said Gwyn, bitterly, as he stood scowling into the darkness.
+"He warned us when he was making up his mind to hang back and leave us.
+A miserable coward!"
+
+"You think that?"
+
+"I'm sure of it.  A sneak!  A miserable hound!  Oh, how could anyone who
+calls himself a man act like this!"
+
+"Perhaps he is close at hand after all.  Let's try," cried Joe, and he
+uttered a long piercing hail, again and again, but with no other result
+than to raise the solemn echoes, which sounded awe-inspiring, and so
+startling, that the lad ceased, and gazed piteously at his companion.
+
+"Feel scared, Joe?" said Gwyn at last.
+
+Joe nodded.
+
+"So do I.  It's very cowardly, of course, but the place is so creepy and
+strange."
+
+"Yes; let's get back.  We can't do any more, can we?"
+
+Gwyn made no reply, but stood with his brows knit, staring straight
+before him into the darkness beyond the dim halo cast by the lanthorn.
+
+"Why don't you speak?  Say something," cried Joe, half hysterically;
+but, though Gwyn's lips moved, no sounds came.  "Gwyn!" cried Joe again,
+"say something.  What's the good of us two being mates if we don't try
+to help each other?"
+
+"I was trying to help you," said Gwyn at last, in a strange voice he
+hardly knew as his own; "but I was thinking so much I couldn't speak--I
+couldn't get out a word."
+
+"Well, think aloud.  Keep talking, or I shall go mad."
+
+"With fright?" said Gwyn, slowly.
+
+"I don't know what it is, but I feel as if I can't bear it.  Say
+something."
+
+"Well, that's just how I feel, and I want to get over it, but I can't."
+
+There was another pause, and then, as if in a rage with himself, Gwyn
+burst out,--
+
+"We're not babies just woke up in the dark, and ready to call for our
+mothers to help us."
+
+"I called for mine to help me, though you could not hear," said Joe,
+simply; and his words sounded so strangely impressive that Gwyn uttered
+a sound like a gasp.
+
+"What is there to be afraid of?" he cried passionately.  "We ought to be
+savagely angry, and ready to feel that we could half kill that cowardly
+hound for forsaking us like this.  I know what you feel, Joe; that we
+must hurry back as fast as we can to the foot of the shaft, and shout to
+them to haul us out."
+
+"But do you really think Tom Dinass has sneaked away?"
+
+"I'm sure he has, out of spite because he was forced to come; and when
+we got back he would be one of the first to grin and sneer at us.  I
+want to run back as fast as I can, but you'll stand by me, won't you?"
+
+"Of course I will."
+
+"I know that, old chap.  Well, what did we come for?"
+
+"You know; to try and find them."
+
+"Yes, and I'm getting better now.  I couldn't help feeling scared.
+We're alone here, but we won't give up.  We've got to find them somehow,
+and we will.  I sha'n't turn back, for mother's sake.  How could I go
+and tell her I came down to try and find them, and was afraid to go on
+in the dark!"
+
+"Do you mean it?" said Joe, whose face was of a ghastly white.
+
+"Yes; and you won't turn like you did on the ladder?"
+
+"No."
+
+"There was something to be afraid of then, but there isn't now."
+
+"No," said Joe, with a gasp.
+
+"We've got a light and can avoid any pit-holes; the water has all been
+pumped out, and there are only the pools we passed here and there.
+Nothing can hurt us here, for the roof won't fall; it's too strong, cut
+all through the rock as it is."
+
+"Yes, but if we go on and lose ourselves as they have done--"
+
+"Well, we must find our way again; and if we can't we must wait till
+somebody comes."
+
+"Here!  Alone?"
+
+"We sha'n't be alone, because we're together."
+
+"But do you think anyone would come?"
+
+"Do you think all those men would stop hanging about the mouth, knowing
+we're lost, and not come and help us?  I don't."
+
+"No.  Englishmen wouldn't do that," said Joe, slowly.  "Let's go on.
+I'm not so scared now, but it is very horrible and lonely.  Suppose the
+light went out."
+
+"Well, we'd strike a match, and start another candle."
+
+"Ah, you've got some matches then?"
+
+"Yes; a whole box.  No, I haven't; not one."
+
+"Ydoll!" cried Joe in a despairing voice.
+
+"But we've got plenty of candles, and we'll take care to keep them
+alight.  Now then, if we stand still we shall lose heart again.  Ready?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Come on, then;" and, setting his teeth and holding the lanthorn well
+above his eyes, Gwyn led the way further into the solemn darkness of the
+newly dried-out mine.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+REVERSAL OF POSITION.
+
+The afternoon had glided by, and evening was approaching fast, as the
+men gathered about the mouth of the mine sat and chatted over the place
+and its prospects.  Work had been suspended for the greater part of the
+day, to allow the owners to make an inspection, and the men held quite a
+discussion meeting as to how matters would prove.
+
+Some were of opinion that they would have perhaps a few weeks' work, and
+then be dismissed; but among those who took the opposite view was Harry
+Vores, the miner who had behaved so well that day.
+
+"I don't think it will be so," he said.  "This is a gashly old mine; and
+depend upon it when it was worked they didn't get half out of it.  I
+begin to think that we shall soon find a lot; more men will be wanted;
+and I hope it will be so, for the pluck these two gentlemen have shown.
+We want a few more good mines to be going in the country, for things
+have been bad enough lately."
+
+Others took his side, and as the time went on and there was no signal
+from the bottom of the shaft, that was discussed as well.
+
+"Oh, they'll be all right," said Harry Vores.  "The place is bigger than
+we thought; but we ought to have known, seeing what a sight of water was
+pumped out.  They've only gone farther than they expected, and we shall
+be having them all up in a bunch directly."
+
+He had hardly uttered these words when the gong arranged for signalling
+gave three tings, and the engineer responded by standing by to hoist.
+
+Another signal was sent up, and the wheel began to revolve, the wire
+rope tightened, and the empty skep descended.
+
+"Won't bring 'em all up at once, will you, mate?" said Harry Vores.
+
+"No; two lots," said the engineer; and the men all eagerly gathered
+round the place to see the explorers of a mine which had not been
+entered probably for hundreds of years when they came up, and to learn
+what report they would have to give of the prospects of the place.
+
+The rope ran over the wheel almost silently, for the work had been well
+done; and as they were waiting, Grip, who had passed the greater part of
+his time watching the place where he had seen his master disappear, grew
+more and more excited.  He kept on bursting into loud fits of barking
+till the ascending skep appeared, when he bounded away among the men,
+barking, snarling and growling savagely, for the only occupant of the
+skep was Dinass.
+
+"Hullo!" cried Vores, as the man stepped out, muddy and wet, with his
+cheeks reddened by the minerals which had discoloured his hands, and
+looking as if he had rubbed his face from time to time.
+
+"Hullo, to you," he said sourly; and he sat down at once upon a rough
+bench, with the water slowly dripping from his legs and boots.
+
+"Where are the young guv'nors?  Lie down, dog!"
+
+"Young guv'nors?" said Dinass, looking wonderingly round as he slowly
+took the lanthorn from where it swung from his waist by a strap.
+
+"Yes, where are they?" cried Vores.
+
+"How should I know?" growled Dinass.  "Aren't they up here?"
+
+"Here?  No; we haven't seen them since they went down with you," cried
+Vores.
+
+"More aren't I, hardly; I thought they'd come up again."
+
+"Come up again!" cried the miner, as a low murmur arose from the men
+around.  "You don't mean to say that you've come up and left them two
+poor boys in the lurch!"
+
+"Lurch be hanged!" cried Dinass, fiercely, and now subsiding with a
+groin, as it he were in pain.  "It's them left me in the lurch.  They
+started a game on me; I saw 'em whispering together, but I didn't think
+it meant anything till we'd got some ways in, and my candle wanted a bit
+o' snuffing to make it burn; so I kneels down and opens the lanthorn,
+and it took a bit o' time, for I wetted my thumb and finger to snuff it,
+and the wick spluttered after, and the light went out.  Course I had my
+box o' matches, but it took ever so long to light the damp wick.  At
+last, though, I got it to burn, but it went out again; and I turns to
+them, where they was waiting for me when I see 'em last.  `Give's a
+fresh candle, sir,' I says, `for this here one won't burn.'  But there
+was no answer.  So I spoke louder, never thinking they was playing me
+any larks, but there was no answer; and I shouted, and there was no
+answer; and last of all I regularly got the horrors on me, for I was all
+alone."
+
+"Well?" said Vores, scornfully, "what then?"
+
+"Oh, then I begun wandering about in the dark banks and lanes, shouting
+and hollering, and going half mad.  It's a horrid place, and I must have
+gone about for miles before I found my way back to the sumph, and nearly
+fell into it.  But haven't they come up again?"
+
+"No," said Vores, who had stepped up and opened the lanthorn as the man
+went on talking.  "But how was it, when your candle wouldn't light
+again, that it's all burnt down in the socket?"
+
+"Oh, I did get it to light at last of all," said Dinass; "but I had to
+burn all my matches first, and hadn't one left for a pipe."
+
+"But you said you went about all in the dark."
+
+"Yes, that was afterwards, and it soon burned out."
+
+"Soon burned out!" cried Vores, fiercely.  "Look here, mates; this
+fellow's a stranger here, and I don't know why he should have been set
+over us, for he's a liar, that's what he is.  He didn't want to go down,
+and as soon as he could he hung back, and let those two poor boys go on
+all by themselves."
+
+"What!" cried Dinass, as a murmur arose; "it's you that's the liar;" and
+he rose scowling.
+
+"Dessay I am," said Vores as fiercely; "but I'm a honest sort of liar,
+if I am, and not a coward and a sneak, am I, lads?"
+
+"Nay, that you aren't, Harry Vores," cried another miner.  "We'll all
+say that."
+
+"Ay!  Shame, shame!" cried the miners.
+
+"I'll lay a halfpenny he's been waiting at the bottom of the shaft all
+the time, and then come up."
+
+"Get out of the way," roared Vores, "this is men's work, not cowards'.
+Here, lads, come on, we must go and fetch those boys up at once."
+
+He gave Dinass a heavy thrust with his hand as he spoke, and the man
+staggered back against Grip, who retaliated by seizing him by the leg of
+the trousers and hanging on till he was kicked away.
+
+But this incident was hardly noticed, for the men were busily arming
+themselves with lanthorns and candles ready for the descent.
+
+"Four of us'll be enough," said Vores, every man present having come
+forward to descend.  "Perhaps Tom Dinass, Esquire, would like to go too,
+though.  If so, we can make room for him."
+
+There was a roar of laughter at this, and Dinass glared round at the
+men, as he stood holding one leg resting on the bench, as if it had been
+badly bitten by the dog.
+
+"Ready?" cried Vores.
+
+"Ay, ay," was answered.
+
+"Come on, then, and let's get the boys up.  Dessay they've found their
+fathers before now."
+
+Vores stepped to the skep and laid his hand on the rail just as the last
+lanthorn was lit and snapped to, when there was the sharp ting on the
+gong again--the signal from below--and the men gave a hearty cheer.
+
+"Give another, my lads," cried Vores; and instead of taking their places
+in the empty skep, the men stood round and saw it descend, while they
+watched the other portion of the endless wire rope beginning to ascend
+steadily with its burden.
+
+"I wouldn't stand in your boots for a week's wage, my lad," said Vores,
+banteringly, as he looked to where Dinass stood, still resting his leg
+on the bench and holding it.
+
+"You mind your own business," he growled.
+
+"Ay, to be sure, mate; but when a brother workman's in trouble it is
+one's business to help him.  You're in trouble now.  Like a man to run
+and get a doctor to see to that hole the dog made in your trousers?"
+
+There was a roar of laughter.
+
+"Don't grin, mates," said Vores; "they're nearly a new pair, and there's
+a hole made in the leg.  He thinks it's in his skin."
+
+There was another roar of laughter which made Dinass look viciously
+round, his eyes lighting sharply on the dog, which had gone close up to
+the opening where the skep would rise, and kept on whining anxiously.
+
+"Smells his master," said Vores; and the dog then uttered a sharp bark
+as the top of the skep appeared with the link and iron bands attached to
+the wire rope.
+
+Then, to the surprise of all, Colonel Pendarve, the Major, and Sam
+Hardock stepped wearily out, their trousers wet, their mackintoshes and
+flannels discoloured, and their faces wet with perspiration.
+
+"Here you are, then, gentlemen," said Vores; "we thought you were lost.
+The young gents are waiting to come up, I s'pose."
+
+"Young gents?--waiting to come up?" cried the Colonel, who had just
+looked round with a disappointed air at not seeing his son waiting.
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"We all got tired o' waiting, and scared at your being so long, sir; and
+the young gents went down with Tom Dinass to seek for you."
+
+"What?  I don't understand you," cried the Colonel, excitedly.  "Dinass
+is here."
+
+"Yes, sir, he come up," said Vores; "but--the young gents are down
+still."
+
+"My son--my son--down that place!" cried the Colonel, while the Major
+uttered a groan.
+
+"Yes, sir, and we were just going down to search for 'em when you come
+up."
+
+"Horrible!" groaned the Major.
+
+"The place is a dreadful maze," cried the Colonel; "we were lost, and
+have had terrible work to find our way up.  You're quite exhausted,
+Jollivet.  Stay here.  Now, my lads; volunteers: who'll come down?"
+
+"All on us, sir," said Vores, sturdily; "they've got to be found."
+
+"Thank you," cried the Colonel, excitedly; and the look of exhaustion
+died out of his face.  "But you, Dinass--they say you went down with
+them.  Why are you here?"
+
+"'Cause they give me the slip, sir.  For a lark, I suppose."
+
+"When they were in great anxiety about their fathers?" cried the
+Colonel, scornfully.  "Do you dare to tell me such a lie as that?
+Explain yourself at once.  Quickly, for I have no time to spare."
+
+It was the stern officer speaking now, with his eyes flashing; and
+literally cowed by the Colonel's manner, and in dead silence, Dinass
+blundered through his narrative again, but with the addition of a little
+invention about the way in which his young companions had behaved.
+
+"Bah!" roared the Colonel at last; "that will do.  I see you turned
+poltroon and shrank back, to leave them to go on by themselves.  Man,
+man! if you hadn't the honest British pluck in you to go, why didn't you
+stay up?"
+
+"'Cause he funked it at fust, sir," said Vores; "but then, being second
+after Sam Hardock, we said it was his dooty, and made him go!"
+
+"Bah! he is of no use now.  Hah!  You have candles ready, I see.  How
+many will the skep take?"
+
+"Six on us, sir," said Vores.
+
+"Follow me, then, some of you," said the Colonel.  "Hardock, you're
+fagged out, and had better stay."
+
+"What! and leave them boys down there lost, sir?" cried Hardock,
+sharply.  "Not me."
+
+"Then head a second party; I'll go on with five."
+
+"Right you are, sir," said Hardock.  "Down with you, then; and we'll
+soon be after you.  Will someone give me a tin o' water?"
+
+Two men started up to supply his wants, as the Colonel and his party
+stepped into the skep to stand closely packed--too closely for Grip to
+find footing; and as the great bucket descended, the dog threw up his
+muzzle and uttered a dismal howl.
+
+"Quickly as you can," shouted the Colonel, as the skep went down; but
+the engineer shook his head.
+
+"Nay," he said to the remaining men present; "none o' that, my lads:
+slow and steady's my motter for this job.  One reg'lar rate and no
+other."
+
+In due time the other skep came to the surface, and Hardock, with a lump
+of bread in his hand and a fresh supply of candles and matches, stepped
+in, to be followed by five more, ready to dare anything in the search
+for the two lads; but once more poor Grip was left behind howling
+dismally, while Tom Dinass nursed his leg and glared at him with an evil
+eye.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+DOWN IN THE DEPTHS.
+
+"You lead with the lanthorn, Hardock," said the Colonel, as the man and
+his companions stepped out of the second skep and had to wade knee-deep
+for a few yards from the bottom of the shaft, the road lying low beneath
+the high, cavernous entrance to the mine, at one side of which a tiny
+stream of clear water was trickling.  There the bottom began to rise at
+the same rate as the roof grew lower; and soon they were, if not on dry
+land, walking over a floor of damp, slimy rock.
+
+"Keep straight on, sir?" said the captain.
+
+"Yes, right on.  They would not have entered the side gallery, or we
+should have met them as we came out."
+
+The first side gallery, a turning off to the left, was reached, and, but
+for the fact that the Colonel's party had strayed into that part by
+accident, it would have been passed unseen, as it was by the boys and
+Dinass, for the entrance was so like the rock on either side, and it
+turned off at such an acute angle, that it might have been passed a
+hundred times without its existence being known.
+
+The men were very silent, but they kept on raising their lanthorns and
+glancing at the roof and sides as they tramped on behind the Colonel.
+
+"There's good stuff here," whispered Vores to his nearest companion.
+
+"Yes, I've been noticing," was the reply.  "It's a fine mine, and
+there's ore enough to keep any number of us going without travelling
+far."
+
+"Yes," said Vores.  "Worked as they used to do it in the old days, when
+they only got out the richest stuff."
+
+Just then Hardock stopped, and, upon the others closing up, they found
+themselves at an opening on the right--one which struck right back, and,
+like the other, almost invisible to anyone passing with a dim light.
+
+"Shall we give a good shout here, sir?" said Hardock.
+
+"Yes," was the reply; and the men hailed as with one voice, sending a
+volume of sound rolling and echoing down the passage of the main road
+and along its tributary.
+
+Then all stood silent, listening to the echoes which died away in the
+distance, making some of the experienced miners, accustomed as they were
+to such underground journeys, shiver and look strange.
+
+"Vasty place, mate," whispered Vores to Hardock, after they had all
+hailed again and listened vainly for a reply.
+
+"Vasty?" said Hardock.  "Ay!  The gashly place is like a great net, and
+seems to have no end."
+
+"Forward," said the Colonel.  "No, stop.  We have plenty of candles,
+have we not?"
+
+"Yes, sir, heaps," was the reply.
+
+"Light one, then, and stick it in a crevice of the rock here at the
+corner."
+
+While the man was busily executing the order, the Colonel took out his
+pocket-book, wrote largely on a leaf, "Gone in search of you.  Wait till
+we return," and tore it out to place it close to the candle where the
+light could shine on the white scrap of paper.
+
+Then on they went again, with the experienced miners talking to one
+another in whispers, as with wondering eyes they took note of the value
+of the traces they kept on seeing in the rugged walls of the main
+gallery they traversed--tokens hardly heeded by the two boys in their
+anxiety to gain tidings of their fathers.
+
+"It's going to be a grand place, my son," whispered Vores; "and only to
+think of it, for such a mine to have lain untouched ever since the time
+of our great-great-gaffers--great-great-great-great, ever so many
+great-gaffers, and nobody thinking it worth trying."
+
+"Ay, but there must have been some reason," said the other.
+
+"Bah!  Old women's tales about goblin sprites and things that live
+underground.  We never saw anything uglier than ourselves, though, did
+we, all the years we worked in mines?"
+
+"Nay, I never did," said the man who walked beside Vores; "but still
+there's no knowing what may be, my lad, and it seems better to hold
+one's tongue when one's going along in the dark in just such a place as
+strange things might be living in."
+
+Hardock stopped where another branch went off at a sharp angle, his
+experienced eyes accustomed to mines and dense darkness, making them
+plain directly; and here another shout was sent volleying down between
+the wet gleaming walls, to echo and vibrate in a way which sounded
+awful; but when the men shouted again the echoes died away into
+whispers, and then rose again more wildly, but only to die finally into
+silence.
+
+Without waiting for an order, Hardock lit and fixed another candle
+against the glittering wall of the mine passage, the Colonel wrote on a
+slip of paper, and this too was placed where it must be seen; but the
+Colonel hesitated as if about to alter the wording.
+
+"No," he said, "I dare not tell them to make for the sumph, they might
+lose their way.  You feel sure that you can bring us back by here,
+Hardock?"
+
+The man was silent for a few moments, and then he spoke in a husky
+voice.
+
+"No, sir," he said, "I can't say I am.  I think I can, but I thought so
+this morning.  The place is all a puzzle of confusion, and it's so big.
+Next time we come down I'll have a pail of paint and a brush, and paint
+arrows pointing to the foot of the shaft at every turn.  But I'll try my
+best."
+
+"Ay, we'll all try, sir," said Harry Vores.
+
+"Forward!" cried the Colonel, abruptly; and once more they went on till
+all at once, after leaving candle after candle burning, they reached a
+part where the main lode seemed to have suddenly broken up into
+half-a-dozen, each running in a different direction, and spreading
+widely, the two outer going off at very obtuse angles.
+
+Here they paused, unconscious of the fact that they had passed the spot,
+only a couple of hundred yards back, where the boys had made their
+heroic resolve to go on.
+
+"Let me see," said the Colonel, excitedly; "it was the third passage
+from the left that we took this morning."
+
+Hardock raised his lanthorn and stared vacantly in his employer's face.
+
+"No, sir, no," he cried breathlessly; "the third coming from the right."
+
+"No, no, you are wrong.  The third from the left; I counted them this
+morning--six of these branches.  Why, Hardock, there are seven of them
+now."
+
+"Yes, sir, seven, and that one running from the right-hand one makes
+eight.  I did not see those two this morning by our one lanthorn.  There
+are--yes--eight."
+
+"What are we all to do?  My head is growing hopelessly confused."
+
+He gazed piteously at Hardock, who seemed to be in a like hopeless
+plight, suffering as they both were from exhaustion.
+
+"I--I'm not sure, sir, now.  We went in and out of so many galleries,
+all ending just the same, that I'm afraid I've lost count."
+
+"Oh, Hardock!  Hardock!" groaned the Colonel, "this is horrible.  We
+must not break down, man.  Try and think; oh, try and think.  Remember
+that those two boys are lost, and they are wandering helplessly in
+search of us.  They will go on and on into the farther recesses of this
+awful place, and lie down at last to die--giving their lives for ours.
+There, there, I am babbling like some idiot.  Forward, my men; there is
+no time to lose.  We must find them."
+
+"Yes, sir; we must find them," cried Hardock; "which passage shall we
+take?"
+
+"Stop a moment," said the Colonel, in a voice which seemed to have
+suddenly grown feeble; and he signed to the mining captain to light a
+candle and place it where they stood, while he tremblingly wrote on
+another leaf of his pocket-book,--
+
+"Make for the pit-shaft."
+
+He tore out the leaf, and the men noticed how his hand trembled; and he
+stood waiting for it to be taken by Hardock, who had sunk on his knees
+and was holding the candle sidewise, so that a little of the grease
+might drip into a crack where he meant to stick the candle close to the
+side.
+
+Hardock groaned as he rose and took the paper, staggering as he stooped
+again to place it by the candle.  But he recovered his steadiness again
+directly, and looked, to the Colonel for orders.
+
+"Which branch, sir?" he said.
+
+"The largest," said the Colonel in a hollow voice; "it is the most
+likely because it goes nearly straight.  Forward then."
+
+They obeyed in silence, and for another couple of hours they went on,
+finding the gallery they had taken branch and branch again and again;
+but though they sent shout after shout, there was no reply but those
+given by the echoes, and they went on again, still leaving burning
+candles at each division of the way.
+
+Then all at once, as the Colonel was writing his directions on the
+pocket-book leaf, Vores saw the pencil drop from his hand; the book
+followed, and he reeled and would have fallen had not the miner caught
+him and lowered him gently to the rocky floor.
+
+"I knew it, I knew it," groaned Hardock.  "He was dead beat when we got
+back, for we've had an awful day.  It's only been his spirit which has
+kept him up.  And now I'm dead beat, too, for I had to almost carry the
+Major when we were nearly back.  It's like killing him to rouse him to
+go on again.  Harry Vores, you're a man who can think and help when
+one's in trouble.  There's miles and miles of this place, and the more
+we go on the more tangled up it gets.  Which way are we going now:--
+east, west, north, or south?  Of course, nobody knows."
+
+"What's that?" cried Vores, for a low deep murmur came upon their ears,
+and was repeated time after time.  "I know; water falling a long way
+off.  Then that's how it was so much had to be pumped out."
+
+"Yes," said Hardock; "that's water, sure enough.  I thought I heard it
+this morning.  But look here, what shall, we do--carry the Colonel
+forward or go back?"
+
+There was no reply; but the murmur, as of water falling heavily at a
+great distance, came once more to their ears.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+THE POSITION DARKENS.
+
+"Isn't a flood coming to sweep us away, is it?" said Vores, in a low
+voice full of the awe he felt.
+
+"Nay, that's no flood," said Hardock.  "There'll be no flood, lads, that
+I can't master with my pumping gear.  Now, look here, all of you; I want
+to try and find those boys, but we can't carry the guv'nor farther in.
+What do you all say?"
+
+The men gathered round him, a weird-looking company with their
+lanthorns, turned to Vores as their spokesman, and the latter took off
+his hat and wiped his streaming brow.
+
+"And I want to find those two poor lads," he said; "but I want to go
+back, for it's turrerble work searching a place that you don't know, and
+in which you seem to lose your way.  It's just madness to go on carrying
+the guv'nor with us; and the captain here is dead beat, so it's nonsense
+to let him go on."
+
+"Then what must we do?" said Hardock, who looked quite exhausted.
+
+"'Vide into two parties," said Vores.  "One, headed by Sam Hardock, 'll
+take the guv'nor back to grass; t'other party, all volunteers, 'll
+choose a leader and go on searching till a fresh gang comes down and
+brings some grub for 'em.  That's all I can say.  If some 'un 'll make a
+better plan I'd be glad to hear it and follow it out."
+
+There was a dead silence, during which every man thought of the frank
+lads, who had won the hearts of those who knew them, but no one spoke.
+
+"Well, boys," said Hardock at last, "has anyone anything to say?  As for
+me, I don't feel like sneaking out of it; I think I'll be for leading
+the search-party if anyone volunteers."
+
+"Oh, some on us'll volunteer," said one of the men.  "I don't feel like
+going home to my supper and bed--to can't eat, and to can't sleep for
+thinking of those two merry lads as I've often gone out to fish with and
+shared their dinner with 'em.  Not me.  I'll volunteer."
+
+"Same here, my lads," said Vores; "I'm with you.  That's two of us.
+Anyone else say the word?"
+
+"Ay!--ay!--ay!"  Quite a chorus of `ays' broke out as the miners
+volunteered to a man.
+
+"Well done," cried Vores, "that's hearty; I feel just as if I'd had a
+good meal, and was fresh as a daisy.  But we can't all stay.  Sam
+Hardock, how many do you want to help carry the guv'nor back?"
+
+"Three twos," said Hardock, "for I'm no use yet.  I can only just carry
+myself."
+
+"That's seven then, so pick your men and we'll stay, five of us, and
+find the lads somehow."
+
+"I say that Harry Vores leads us," said the man who had first
+volunteered.
+
+"Hear, hear!" was chorused, and a few minutes only elapsed before
+Hardock had chosen his party and turned to raise the Colonel, to go
+back.
+
+"What's limpet-shells and sand doing down here?" said Vores, as he held
+a lanthorn to light the men.
+
+"Forsils," said Hardock, glancing at a couple Vores had picked up.
+
+"Nay, they aren't stony shells," said Vores.  "I know; they used to eat
+'em, and they're some the old chaps as did the mining brought down for
+dinner."
+
+"Ready?" said Hardock.
+
+"Ay, ay," cried the men, who had made what children call a dandy chair
+with their hands, and supported the Colonel, whose arms were placed
+about their necks.
+
+"Then as he says, and I wish I could hear him say it now, `Forward!'"
+
+The men started, and Hardock turned to Vores.
+
+"Seems like acting Tom Dinassy, my lad," he said bitterly.  "I don't
+feel as if I could go."
+
+"Do you want to get up a row?" said Vores, sourly.  "Be off and look
+after the guv'nor; don't stop putting us chaps out of heart and making
+us think you jealous of me doing your work."
+
+Hardock held out his hand to his fellow-workman.
+
+"Thank ye, my lad," he said.  "Go on, then, and take care.  I've kept
+just enough candle to last us to the shaft foot; don't go farther than
+you can find your way out."
+
+"We're going to find those two boys," said Vores through his set teeth.
+"By-and-by, if we don't come back, you send a fresh shift, and let 'em
+bring us some prog and some blankets; but I'm hoping you'll find them up
+at grass when you get there.  Now off you go, and so do we."
+
+They parted without another word, and the next minute the dim light of
+the lanthorns borne by the men were dying away in two directions--the
+party bearing the Colonel progressing slowly till he recovered himself
+somewhat and ordered them to stop.
+
+"Nay, sir, there's no need," said Hardock; "we keep on taking you in
+three shifts, and can go on for long enough."
+
+"Thank you, my lads, thank you," said the Colonel; "but I am better now.
+Anxiety and fatigue were too much for me.  I'm stronger, and can walk."
+
+"Nay, sir, you can better ride."
+
+"If I am overdone again I will ask you to carry me," said the Colonel.
+"I am not a wounded man, my lads; only at the heart," he added bitterly
+to himself.  "How am I to face his mother if he is not found?"
+
+They set him down, and he walked on slowly for a few hundred yards; but
+after that one of the men saw him display a disposition to rest, and in
+his rough way offered his arm.
+
+"May help you a bit, sir, like a walking stick," said the man, with a
+smile.
+
+"Thank you, my lad.  God bless you for your kindness," said the Colonel
+as he took the man's arm; and they went on again for some time till far
+ahead there was the faint gleam of a light reflected from the wet
+granite rock, and the Colonel uttered a cry--
+
+"Ah!  Quick! quick!  My poor boys!  At last! at last!"
+
+He hastened his steps, and the men exchanged glances and then looked at
+Hardock, expecting him to speak.
+
+But Hardock felt choking, and remained silent as they went on, till,
+turning about an angle in the zigzagging gallery, they came suddenly
+upon a nearly burned-out candle stuck against the wall, and beneath it,
+plainly to be seen, one of the leaves of the Colonel's pocket-book.
+
+It was some moments before the old officer spoke, for the finding of the
+light confused him.
+
+"Why, what's this?" he said, in an agitated voice; "you have taken some
+turning by mistake, and worked round to the way we came.  Then very
+likely my poor boys have done the same, and found their way out by now."
+
+No one spoke.
+
+"Don't you think so, my lads?"
+
+Still no one answered; and now he began to grasp the truth.
+
+"Why, what's this?" he cried angrily.  "Surely you men have not dared--
+have not been such cowards--as to turn back!  Halt!"
+
+The last word was uttered in so commanding a tone of voice that the
+little party stopped as one man.
+
+"Hardock!  Explain yourself, sir.  Did you dare to change the
+arrangements during my temporary indisposition?"
+
+"Beg your pardon, sir, you were completely beat out, and we felt that we
+must carry you back to the shaft."
+
+"What insolence!" roared the Colonel.  "Right about face.  Forward once
+more.  But," he added bitterly, "if any man among you is too cowardly to
+help me, he can go back."
+
+He turned and strode off into the darkness, and Hardock followed just in
+time to catch him as he reeled and snatched at the side of the gallery
+to save himself from falling.
+
+"You can't do it, sir, you can't do it," said Hardock, with his voice
+full of the rough sympathy he felt.  "We did it all for the best.  We'd
+have carried you farther in, but it seemed like so much madness, and so
+we decided.  Part's gone on with Harry Vores, and we're going to send in
+another shift as soon as we get back."
+
+The Colonel looked at him despairingly, for he knew that the man's words
+were true, and that it would be impossible to go on.
+
+"We did what we thought were right, sir," continued Hardock; "and it's
+quite likely that the young gents have got safely back by now."
+
+The Colonel made no reply, but suffered himself to be led back to where
+the men were waiting, and then, growing more helpless minute by minute,
+he was conducted, after a long and toilsome task, which included several
+pauses to rest, to the foot of the shaft.
+
+The water had increased till it was nearly knee-deep when they waded to
+where the skep was waiting, and the Colonel was half fainting from
+exhaustion; but the feeling that the boys might be safely back revived
+him somewhat, and he strove hard to maintain his composure as they all
+stepped in, the signal was given, and they began to rise.  But he was
+hanging heavily upon the arm of one of the men before the mouth of the
+shaft was reached, and he looked dazed and confused, feeling as if in a
+dream, when the engineer cried,--
+
+"Well, found 'em?"
+
+"Then they've not come back?" said Hardock.
+
+The Colonel heard no more, but just as his senses left him he was
+conscious of a trembling hand being thrust into his, and a voice
+saying,--
+
+"Our poor lads, Pendarve; can nothing more be done?"
+
+Something more could be done, for the work-people about the place--
+carpenters, smiths and miners--volunteered freely enough; and in the
+course of the night two more gangs went down, and Vores and his party
+gave them such advice as they could, after returning utterly wearied
+out; but it became more and more evident that the lads had either fallen
+down some smaller shaft, as yet undiscovered, in one of the side drifts
+of the mine, or wandered right away--how far none could tell until the
+place had been thoroughly explored.
+
+And at this time anxious watchers in the shed over the mouth of the mine
+had been recruited by the coming of one who said little, her pale, drawn
+face telling its own tale of her sufferings as she sat there, ready to
+start at every sound, and spring up excitedly whenever the signal was
+given for the skep to be raised.
+
+But there was no news, and she always shrank back again, to seat herself
+in a corner of the shed, as if desirous of being alone, and to avoid
+listening to the words of comfort others were eager to utter.
+
+"Not a word, Jollivet, not a word," whispered the Colonel once during
+the horrors of that long-drawn night.  "She has not spoken, but her eyes
+are so full of reproach, and they seem to keep on asking me why I could
+not be content without plunging into all the excitement and trouble
+connected with this mine."
+
+The Major groaned.
+
+"Don't you look at me like that," said the Colonel, appealingly.  "I am
+doing everything I can; and as soon as I can stir, I will head a party
+to go right on as far as the mine extends."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+IN DARKNESS.
+
+Gwyn Pendarve opened his eyes, feeling sore and in grievous pain.  A
+sharp point seemed to be running into his side, and he was hurting his
+neck, while one shoulder felt as if it had become set, so that, though
+it ached terribly, he could not move.
+
+He did not know how it was or why it was, for all was confused and
+strange; and he lay trying to puzzle out clearly why Caer Point light
+should be revolving so quickly, now flashing up brightly, and now
+sinking again till all was nearly dark.
+
+It seemed very strange, for he had often looked out to sea on dark
+nights, over to where the great lighthouse stood up on the Jagger Rock
+ten miles away, seeing the light increase till it seemed like a comet,
+whose long, well-defined tail slowly swept round over the sea till it
+was hidden by the back of the lanthorn, and he waited till it flashed
+out again; but it had never given him pains in the body before, neither
+could he recall that it smelt so nasty, just like burnt mutton-chops.
+
+That was the strangest part of it, for he remembered when the fishermen
+sailed over there with them so that they could have some conger fishing
+off the rocks, the light keepers took them round, and among other things
+showed them the store-room in the lower part of the building, where the
+great drums of crystal oil for trimming the lamps were lifted into the
+tank.  Yes, of course they burned paraffin oil in the great optical
+lanthorn; but though it was tremendously hot there, when the light was
+in full play, there was scarcely any odour, while now it smelt of burnt
+mutton fat.
+
+Gwyn could not make it out.  There, in the far distance, was the light,
+now flashing out brightly, now dying; out into darkness, smelling
+horribly, making him very hot, and giving him all those aching pains
+from which he was suffering.
+
+There was another problem, too, that he had to solve; why was it that a
+lighthouse lanthorn ten miles away on a dark night should make him so
+hot that the perspiration stood out all over his face, and the collar of
+his shirt was soaked?
+
+Why was it?--why was it?  He puzzled and puzzled in a muddled way, but
+seemed to get no nearer the solution.  There was the light still coming
+and going and smelling badly, and making him so hot that he felt as if
+he could not breathe.
+
+Then the solution came like a flash, which lit up his mind just as all
+was black darkness; and in spite of the agony he felt as soon as he
+moved, he started up into a sitting posture, and then made for the
+light.
+
+For he knew now that it was not the lighthouse lanthorn on Jagger Rock
+ten miles away, but the common lanthorn he had brought down into the
+mine some time before, and set about ten feet off, where it could not be
+kicked over when they turned over in their sleep--the sleep into which
+he had plunged at once as if into a stupor.
+
+It was from this stupor that he had now awakened to turn from the sultry
+heat of the mine, chilled to the heart with horror, for the fresh candle
+he had lit had burned down into the socket, and was giving the final
+flickers before going out, and they had not a match to strike and light
+another.
+
+Stretching out his trembling hands, he felt in the black darkness for
+the lanthorn, touched it after two or three ineffectual trials, and
+snatched it back, feeling his fingers burnt, just as the light gave a
+final flare, the jar of his touch upon the lanthorn being sufficient to
+quench the tiny flame.
+
+In the horror of the moment Gwyn uttered a loud cry, and the result was
+a quick movement close at hand, followed by a voice saying,--
+
+"Yes, father, all right.  I'll get up and fetch it.  Is the pain so
+bad?"
+
+Gwyn tried to speak, but no words came.
+
+"Did you call, father?"
+
+There was perfect silence in the stifling place, and Joe Jollivet spoke
+again, drowsily now.
+
+"Must have dreamt it.  But--hallo--Oh, my back!  What ever's the matter
+with it, and--here! hallo!  What does it all mean?  I must have been
+walking in my sleep."
+
+"Oh, Joe, Joe!" cried his companion.
+
+"Ydoll!  You there?  I say--what--what--where are we?"
+
+"Don't you understand?--where we lay down when we could get no farther."
+
+There was the sound of some one drawing a long gasping breath, and then
+silence again, till Joe spoke in a piteous voice.
+
+"I was dreaming that father was taken ill in the night, and he called
+me.  Oh, Ydoll, old chap, my head feels so queer.  Then we haven't found
+them?  I don't feel as if I could recollect anything.  It's all black
+like.  We came down to find them, didn't we?"
+
+"Yes," said Gwyn, "and walked till you stumbled and fell."
+
+"I did?  Yes, I recollect now.  I was regularly beaten.  We came such a
+long way for hours and hours.  Then we've both been to sleep?"
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"But why is it so dark?"
+
+"The candle I set up burned out."
+
+"Well, light another.  You have some more."
+
+"What am I to light one with?" groaned Gwyn.
+
+"Oh!  I'd forgotten," cried Joe, piteously, "you've no matches."
+
+"No, I've no matches."
+
+"But you had some, I know--you had a box; feel in your pockets again."
+
+There was a faint rustling sound as in obedience to his companion's
+imperative words, Gwyn felt in each pocket vainly, and then uttered a
+sigh like a groan.
+
+"No, no, no!" he cried, "there is a hole in my pocket, and the box must
+have gone through."
+
+"Oh," cried Joe, angrily; "how could I be such a fool as to trust you to
+carry them?"
+
+"You mean how could you be such a fool as to come without a box
+yourself," said Gwyn, bitterly.
+
+"Yes, that's it, I suppose.  Here, I know--we must strike a light from
+the rock with the backs of our knives."
+
+"What for?" said Gwyn, bitterly.  "Where are the tinder and matches?"
+
+Joe uttered a sigh, and they both relapsed into silence once more.
+
+"What are we to do?" said Joe, at last.  "It is horrible, horrible to be
+in this black darkness.  Say something, Ydoll--we can't lie down here
+and die."
+
+"We can't go on in the black darkness," said Gwyn, bitterly.
+
+"We must feel our way."
+
+"And suppose we come to some hole and go down?"
+
+Joe drew his breath sharply through his teeth as he winced at the
+horrible idea.
+
+"Better lie down again and go to sleep," said Gwyn, despondently.  "We
+can do no more."
+
+"Lie down till they come with lights and find us?"
+
+"Yes," said Gwyn, who gathered courage from these words of hope.  "It's
+of no use to give up.  Father must have found his way out by this time.
+Sam Hardock knows so much about mines; he is sure not to be lost for
+long."
+
+"But if they don't find us?  I'm so faint and hungry now I don't know
+what to do."
+
+"Yes, I suppose what I feel is being hungry," sighed Gwyn, "but we
+mustn't think about it.  I say, how far do you think we wandered about
+yesterday?"
+
+"Miles and miles and miles," said Joe, dismally; "and for nothing at all
+but to lose ourselves.  But I say, Ydoll, it wasn't yesterday.  We
+couldn't have slept long."
+
+"I felt as if I slept all night."
+
+"But we couldn't; because we only slept as long as our candle burned."
+
+"Of course not.  How stupid!  But I'm so done up that my head doesn't
+seem as if it would go; let's lie down and go to sleep till they find
+us."
+
+"And perhaps that will be never.  Someone will find our bones, perhaps."
+
+"Ha, ha!" cried Gwyn, bursting into a mocking laugh.  "We're a nice pair
+of miserable cowards!  I did think you had more pluck in you, Joe."
+
+"That's what I thought about you, Ydoll."
+
+"So did I," said Gwyn, frankly; "and all the time I'm as great a coward
+as you are.  I say, though, doesn't it show a fellow up when he gets
+into trouble?  Can't show me up in the dark, though, can it?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know; I only know I feel horribly miserable.  Let's go to
+sleep and forget it all."
+
+"Sha'n't," shouted Gwyn, making an effort over himself.  "I won't be
+such a jolly miserable coward, and you sha'n't neither.  We'll do
+something."
+
+"Ay, it's all very well to talk, but what can we do?--cooey?"
+
+"No good, or I'd cooey loud enough to bring some of the stones down.  I
+say, though, isn't it wonderful how solid it all is--no stones falling
+from the roof."
+
+"How could they fall when there are none to fall?  Isn't it all cut
+through the solid rock?"
+
+"Humph! yes, I suppose so; but we have found scarcely anything to fall
+over."
+
+"No," said Joe, sarcastically, "it's a lovely place.  I wish the beastly
+old mine had been burnt before we had anything to do with it."
+
+"Oh, I say, what a plucked 'un you are, Joey.  Breaking down over a bit
+of trouble.  I feel ever so much better now, for I'm sure the dad has
+found his way out."
+
+"I was thinking about my father."
+
+"Well, so was I.  My father wouldn't go out without yours.  They're too
+good old chums to forsake one another; and you see if before long they
+don't both come with a lot of men carrying baskets--cold roast chicken,
+slices of ham, bread and butter, and a kettle and wood to light the fire
+and make some tea."
+
+"I say! don't, don't, don't," cried Joe.  "I was bad enough before, now
+you're making me feel savagely hungry.  But I say, Ydoll, do you really
+think they've got out?"
+
+"I'm sure of it."
+
+"And not lost themselves so that they won't be found till it's too
+late?"
+
+"Get out!  Too late?  They'll be all right, and so shall we; we're only
+lost for a bit in the dark, and we don't mind a bit.  I don't now.  I
+feel as plucky as a gamecock.  And I say, Joe."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Tom Dinass?"
+
+"What about him?--a beast!"
+
+"What we're going to do when we see the sneak again.  I say, it won't be
+the first time we've had a set-to with him."
+
+"Oh, I should like to--"
+
+"Ah!"
+
+Gwyn uttered a wild cry, as if something from out of the darkness had
+seized him; and as the cry went echoing down the long zigzag passage in
+which they were, Joe uttered a gasp, and in spite of his desire to stand
+by his friend, dashed off from the unknown danger by which they were
+beset.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+GWYN GIVES IT UP.
+
+There came a dull sound out of the darkness, as if Joe had struck
+against the wall of the mine; but he gave vent to no exclamation, and
+Gwyn cried to him to stop.
+
+"Where are you?  Don't run off like that, Joe!--Joe!  Where are you?"
+
+"Here," said the lad, hoarsely.  "What is it?  What has hurt you?"
+
+"Hurt me?  I thought something had hurt you.  What made you rush off?"
+
+"You shouted.  What was it?"
+
+"Enough to make me shout.  Where are you?"
+
+Guided by their voices, the lads approached till they were close
+together.
+
+"Now what was it?" panted Joe, who was still trembling from the nervous
+alarm and shock.
+
+"Give me your hand."
+
+Joe obeyed shrinkingly, and felt it passed along the skirt of his
+companion's jacket.
+
+"Feel it?"
+
+"Yes, I feel something inside the lining.  What is it--a box?"
+
+"Yes, the matches.  They got through the hole into the lining.  Wait
+till I get them out."
+
+This was only achieved with the help of a knife.
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated the boy, as he at last dragged out the box, struck a
+match, and held it over his head to see where the candle-box had been
+laid; and then by quick manipulation he managed to get a wick well
+alight before the tiny deal splint was extinct.
+
+In his excitement and delight, Joe clapped his hands as the candle was
+forced into the empty socket, and the lanthorn door closed.
+
+"Oh, what a beautiful thing light is!" he cried.
+
+"And what a horrible thing darkness, at a time like this!  There, one
+feels better, and quite rested.  Let's go on, and we may come to them at
+any time now."
+
+Joe said nothing, for fear of damping his companion's spirits; but he
+knew that they were not rested--that they would soon be forced to stop;
+and as he gazed right away before them, and tried to pierce the gloom
+beyond the circle of light shed by the candle, the hopeless nature of
+their quest forced itself upon him more and more.
+
+But Gwyn's spirits seemed to be now unnaturally high, and as they went
+on following the narrowed tunnels, and passing along such branches as
+seemed to be the most likely from their size, he held up the lanthorn to
+point out that the ore seemed to have been cut out for ten or twenty
+feet above their heads in a slanting direction.  In another place he
+paused to look into a narrow passage that seemed to have been only just
+commenced, for there was glittering ore at the end, and the marks of
+picks or hammers, looking as if they had been lately made.
+
+"There's nothing to mind, Joe," he said; "only I do want to get back to
+the shaft now."
+
+"Then why not turn?"
+
+"We did, ever so long ago.  Don't you remember seeing that beginning of
+a passage as we came along?"
+
+"I remember stopping to look into two niches like this one but they were
+ever so far back, and we are still going on into the depths of the
+mine."
+
+"No, no; we took a turn off to the left soon after I lit the fresh
+candle, and we must be getting back towards the entrance."
+
+Joe said nothing, but he felt sure that he was right; and they went on
+again till at the end of another lane Gwyn stopped short.
+
+"I say, I felt sure we were going back.  Do you really believe that we
+are going farther in?"
+
+"I felt sure that we were a little while ago, but I am not so sure now,
+for one gets confused."
+
+"Yes, confused," said Gwyn, sadly.  "We seem to have been constantly
+following turnings leading in all directions, and they're all alike, and
+go on and on.  Aren't you getting tired?"
+
+"Horribly; but we mustn't think of that.  Let's notice what we see, so
+as to have something to tell them when we get home."
+
+"Well, that's soon done; the walls are nearly all alike, and the
+passages run in veins, one of which the people who used to work here
+followed until they had got out all the ore, and then they opened
+others."
+
+"But the ore seems to be richer in some places than in others."
+
+"Yes, and the walls seem wetter in some places than in others; and
+sometimes one crushes shells beneath one's feet, and there's quantities
+of sand."
+
+"But how far should you think we are now from the entrance?"
+
+"I don't know.  Miles and miles."
+
+"Oh, that's exaggeration, for we've come along so slowly; and being
+tired makes you feel that it is a long way."
+
+They went on and on, at last, as if in a dream, following the winding
+and zigzagging passages, and speaking more and more seldom, till at last
+they found themselves in a place which they certainly had not seen
+before, for the mine suddenly opened out into a wide irregular hall,
+supported here and there by rugged pillars left by the miners; and now
+confusion grew doubly confused, for, as they went slowly around over the
+rugged, well-worn floor, and in and out among the pillars, they could
+dimly see that passages and shafts went from all sides.  The roof
+sparkled as the light was held up, and they could note that in places
+the marks of the miners' picks and hammers still remained.
+
+Roughly speaking, the place was about a hundred feet across, and the
+floor in the centre was piled up into a hillock, as if the ore that had
+been brought from the passages around had been thrown in a heap--for
+that it was ore, and apparently rich in quality, they were now learned
+enough in metallurgy to know.
+
+Gwyn had a fancy that, this being a central position, if the party they
+sought were still in the mine they would be somewhere here; and he made
+Joe start by hailing loudly, but raised so strange a volley of echoes
+that he refrained from repeating his cry, preferring to wait and listen
+for the answer which did not come.
+
+"It's of no use," he said; "let's turn back; they must have got out by
+now."
+
+"Yes, I hope so; but what an awfully big place it is.  I say, though,
+where was it we came in--by that passage, wasn't it?"
+
+Gwyn looked in the direction pointed out, but felt certain that it was
+not correct.  At the same time, though, he fully realised that he was
+quite at fault, for at least a dozen of the low tunnels opened upon this
+rugged, pillared hall, so exactly alike, and they had wandered about so
+much since they entered, and began to thread their way in and out among
+the pillars, that he stared blankly at Joe in his weariness, and
+muttered despairingly,--
+
+"I give it up."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+A NOVEL NIGHTMARE.
+
+From that hour they both "gave it up"--in other words, resigned
+themselves in a hopeless weary way to their fate, and went on in an
+automatic fashion, resting, tramping on again over patches of sand and
+clean hard places where the rock had been worn smooth.  The pangs of
+hunger attacked them more and more, and then came maddening thirst which
+they assuaged by drinking from one of the clear pools lying in
+depressions, the water tasting sweet and pure.  From time to time the
+candles were renewed in the lanthorn, and the rate at which they burned
+was marked with feverish earnestness; and at last, in their dread of a
+serious calamity, it was arranged that one should watch while the other
+slept.  In this way they would be sure of not being missed by a body of
+searchers who might come by and, hearing no sound, pass in ignorance of
+their position.
+
+Gwyn kept the first watch, Joe having completely broken down and begun
+to reel from side to side of the passage they were struggling along in a
+hopeless way; and when Gwyn caught his arm to save him from falling, he
+turned and smiled at him feebly.
+
+"Legs won't go any longer," he said gently; and, sinking upon his knees,
+he lay down on the bare rock, placed his hand under his face as he
+uttered a low sigh, and Gwyn said quietly,--
+
+"That's right; have a nap, and then we'll go on again."
+
+There was no reply, and Gwyn bent over him and held the lanthorn to his
+face.
+
+"How soon anyone goes to sleep!" he said softly.  "Seems to be all in a
+moment."
+
+The boy stood looking down at his companion for a few moments, and then
+turned with the light to inspect their position.
+
+They were in a curve of one of the galleries formed by the extraction of
+the veins of tin ore, and there was little to see but the ruddy-tinted
+walls, sparkling roof, and dusty floor.  A faint dripping noise showed
+him where water was falling from the roof, and in the rock a basin of
+some inches in depth was worn, from which he refreshed himself, and then
+felt better as he walked on for a hundred yards in a feeble, weary way,
+to find that which gave him a little hope, for the gallery suddenly
+began to run upward, and came to an end.
+
+"But it may only be the end of this part," muttered Gwyn; "there are
+others which go on I suppose, but one can't get any farther here, and
+that's something."
+
+He walked back to where Joe lay sleeping heavily, after convincing
+himself of the reason why the turning had come to an end where it did,
+for the vein had run upward, gradually growing thinner till, at some
+thirty feet up, as far as he could make out by his dim light, the men
+had ceased working, probably from the supply not being worth their
+trouble.
+
+Joe was muttering in his sleep when Gwyn reached his side, but for a
+time his words were unintelligible.  Then quite plainly he said,--
+
+"Be good for you, father.  The mine will give you something to do, and
+then you won't have time to think so much of your old wounds."
+
+"And if he has got out safely and they never find us, this will be like
+a new wound for the poor old Major to think about," mused Gwyn.  "How
+dreadful it is, and how helpless we seem!  It's always the same; gallery
+after gallery, just alike, and that's why it's so puzzling.  I wonder
+whether any of the old miners were ever lost here and starved to death."
+
+The thought was so horribly suggestive that the perspiration came out in
+great drops on the boy's face, and he glanced quickly to right and left,
+even holding up his lanthorn, fancying for the moment that he might
+catch sight of some dried-up traces of the poor unfortunates who had
+struggled on for days, as they had, and then sunk down to rise no more.
+
+"How horrible!" he muttered; "and how can Joe lie there sleeping, when
+perhaps our fate may be like theirs?"
+
+But he had unconsciously started another train of thought which set him
+calculating, and took his attention from the imaginary horrors which had
+troubled him.
+
+"Wandered about for days and days," he mused.  "It seems like it, but
+that's impossible.  It can't be much more than one, or we couldn't have
+kept on.  We should have been starved to death.  We couldn't have lived
+on water."
+
+He wiped his wet brow, and it seemed to him that the gallery they were
+in was not so stifling and hot, unless it was that he had grown weaker.
+Still one thing was certain; he could breathe more freely.
+
+"Getting used to it," he thought; and, putting down the lanthorn, he
+seated himself with his back close to the wall.
+
+Joe slept heavily, and the lad looked at him enviously.
+
+"I couldn't sleep so peaceably as that," he said half aloud.  "How can a
+fellow sleep when he doesn't know but what his father may be dying close
+by from starvation and weakness.  It seems too bad."
+
+Gwyn opened the lanthorn and found that the candle was half burned down,
+and for a moment he thought of setting up another in its place, for fear
+he should go to sleep and it should burn out.
+
+"Be such a pity," he said, "we don't want light while we're asleep; only
+to wake up here in this horrible place is enough to drive anybody mad."
+
+Then he closed the lanthorn again.
+
+"I sha'n't go to sleep," he muttered.  "In too much trouble."  And he
+began thinking in a sore, dreary way of his mother seated at home
+waiting for news of his father and of him.
+
+"It'll nearly kill her," he said.  "But she'll like it for me to have
+come here in search of poor dad.  It would have been so cowardly if I
+hadn't come, and she would have felt ashamed of me.  Yes, she'll like my
+dying like this."
+
+He paused, for his thoughts made him ponder.
+
+"We can't be going to die," he said to himself, "or we shouldn't be
+taking it all so easily and be so quiet and calm.  If we felt that we
+really were going to die, we should be half mad with horror, and run
+shrieking about till we dropped in a fit.  No," he said softly, "it
+isn't like that.  People on board ship, when they know it's going to
+sink, all behave quite calmly and patiently.  There was that ship that
+was being burned with the soldiers on board.  They all stood up before
+their officers, waiting for the end, and went down at last like men.
+But I don't feel despairing like, and as if we were going to die."
+
+Then he began to think of his peaceful home life, and of the days at
+school till about a year ago, when he had come home to study military
+matters with his father and Major Jollivet, prior to being sent to one
+of the military colleges in about a year's time.
+
+"And now this mining has altered everything," mused Gwyn, "and--"
+
+He started violently, sprang up, and looked about him, for his name had
+been uttered loudly close to his ear.
+
+But all was still now, and a curious creepy sensation ran through him
+and made him shiver with apprehension--a strange, superstitious kind of
+apprehension, as if something invisible were close to him.
+
+"What a cowardly donkey!" he muttered, for his name was uttered again,
+and plainly enough it came from Joe.
+
+"Talking in his sleep; and I was ready to fancy it was something `no
+canny.'  Why I must have been dropping off to sleep, too, and it
+startled me into wakefulness.  This won't do.  Sentries must not sleep
+at their posts."
+
+He began to do what the soldiers call "sentry go."  But in a few minutes
+he grew so weary and hot that he was glad to stop by his sleeping
+companion, and stand looking down at him lying so peacefully there with
+his head upon his hand.
+
+"Just as if he were in a feather bed and with a soft pillow under his
+cheek.  Wish I could lie down and have a nap for half-an-hour.  I will,
+and then he can have another."
+
+Gwyn bent down to waken his companion, who just then burst out with a
+merry laugh.
+
+"Oh, I say, father, you shouldn't," he said.  "Just as if I didn't take
+care.  It isn't--"
+
+"Isn't what, Joe?" said Gwyn, softly.
+
+"The wrong bottle.  You're always thinking I give you the wrong
+medicine, and saying it tastes different.  Hah!"
+
+He ended with a long deep sigh of content, and lay perfectly silent.
+
+"I can't wake him," muttered Gwyn; and with a weary groan he seated
+himself once more, supporting his back against the side of the gallery,
+for he was too weak and tired to stand, and in an instant he was out in
+the bright sunshine, with the water making the boat he was in dance and
+the sail flap, as he glided along out of the cave into the open sea.
+Then with a violent start he was awake again, drawing himself up and
+fighting hard against terrible odds, for Nature said that he was
+completely exhausted, and must rest.
+
+And as he set his teeth and stared hard at the faintly glittering wall
+opposite, where the great vein of milk-white quartz was spangled with
+grains of tin, his head bowed down and dropped forward till his chin
+touched his chest.
+
+Again he sprang up, to prop his head back against the rock, but it had
+been hacked away so that it curved over and seemed to join Nature in her
+efforts to master him and force him to sleep, bending down his head and
+sending it in the old direction, so that his brow seemed heavier than
+lead, and he bent it lower and lower, while once more he was out on the
+glittering waters of the sea, the boat bounding rapidly along and all
+trouble at an end.  For the darkness of the cavernous mine was gone,
+with all its weary horrors--there was nothing to mind, nothing to do,
+but sink lower and lower in the boat, and rest.
+
+Hard--angular--stony?  The granite chipped by hammer and pick felt like
+the softest down, as Gwyn swayed slowly over to his left, his shoulders
+rubbing against the wall and his half-braced muscles involuntarily
+acting in obedience to his will to keep him upright, so that he did not
+fall, but gently subsided till he was lying prone close to the lanthorn,
+which shed its faint yellowish light and cast dim shadows which, there
+in that gloomy spot, looked like a couple of graves newly banked up to
+mark the spots where the two lads had lain down to die or to be found
+and live, whichever fate ordained.
+
+Joe must have slept for what was guessed to be a couple of hours; but
+they had passed, and he still slept on, with his rest growing more and
+more sweet and restful, while for Gwyn there was nothing but profound
+silence and vacancy.  He did not dream--only plunged deeper and deeper
+into the stupor till six hours had passed away, and then the dream came.
+
+A terrible wild dream of being somewhere in great danger--a place from
+which there was no escape from a dangerous wolf-like beast, which had
+followed him for hours, and was slowly hunting him down.
+
+And every moment the vision grew more real, and the fierce beast came
+closer and closer in spite of his efforts to escape--mad, frantic
+efforts--while every limb was like lead, and held him back so that he
+might be the monster's prey.
+
+He felt that it was a delusion, and that he must soon wake and find
+relief; but when he did, the relief did not come for the horrors of the
+dream were continued in the reality, and his lips parted to utter a wild
+cry; but lips, tongue, and throat were all parched and dry, and he lay
+there in an agony which seemed maddening.
+
+There was no question now of where he was, for though it was intensely
+dark he knew well enough, for he had awakened into full consciousness
+with every sense unnaturally sharpened, and making things clear.  His
+limbs were like lead still, but it was not from nightmare, for they were
+numbed and helpless.  There was the unpleasant odour of the burnt-out
+candle, and the sickly smoke hanging about him, as if the light had but
+lately gone out, and he could hear Joe's stertorous breathing as if he
+too were in trouble; and simultaneously with it came the knowledge that,
+after all, the cavernous place out of which the water had been drained
+was inhabited by strange beasts, one of which had attacked him.
+
+For the moment he was ready to explain it as a form of nightmare, but it
+was too real.  It was the hard stern reality itself.  There was the
+weight upon his chest, but not the heavy inert mass of a hideous dream,
+but that of some creature full of palpitating life extended upon him.
+He could feel the motion as it breathed, the heavy pulsations of its
+heart, and, worst horror of all, the hot breath from its panting jaws
+not many inches from his brow.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+MAN'S GOOD FRIEND.
+
+Gwyn tried hard to cry aloud to his companion for help--to make an
+effort for life; but for what seemed to him to be a long space of time
+he could not stir.  At last, though, when he could bear the horror no
+longer, and just as the creature moved as if gathering its legs beneath
+it like some cat about to spring, the boy made a sudden heave, and threw
+the beast from his chest, at the same time struggling to rise and make
+for where he felt that Joe was lying; but with a strange, hollow cry the
+animal sprang at him with such force that he was driven backwards, while
+the creature regained its position upon his chest, and Gwyn lay back
+half paralysed.
+
+But not from fear.  Astonishment and delight had that effect, and, weak
+and prostrated as he was for some moments, he could not speak.
+
+At last one word escaped from his lips, and in an instant--_throb,
+throb, throb, throb_--there was a heavy beating on his ribs, a joyous
+whining sound greeted his ears, and a cold nose and wet tongue were
+playing about his face.
+
+"Oh, Grip!  Grip!  Grip!" he sobbed out at last, half hysterical with
+excitement; and seizing the dog by the neck he held him fast, while Grip
+burst now into a frantic paroxysm of barking.
+
+"You good old dog, then you have found us," cried Gwyn, as he sat up now
+and held on tightly to the dog's collar, for fear he should be left
+again.  "Why, there must be someone with him!  Here, Grip, Grip, old
+chap, your master!  Where is he, then?"
+
+There was another frantic burst of barking, and Joe's voice was heard
+out of the darkness.
+
+"What's that?  What does it mean?  Hi!  Ydoll, are you there?"
+
+"Yes, yes.  Here's Grip!  And--and--they must be--Oh, Joe, Joe, I
+can't--"
+
+What it was that Gwyn Pendarve could not do was never heard, for he
+pressed his lips together and clenched his teeth to keep back all sound.
+He had no longer any control over himself, and in those anguished
+moments he felt, as he afterwards declared to himself, that he was
+acting like a girl.
+
+Joe was nearly as bad, but it was in the darkness and there was no one
+to witness their emotion, as he too kept silence, fearing to hear even
+his own voice; so that Grip had the whole of the conversation to
+himself--a repetition that at another time would have been monotonous,
+but which now sounded musical in the extreme.
+
+At last Gwyn recovered his equanimity to some extent, and, taking out
+the matches, struck one, but the moisture of his fingers prevented it
+from igniting, and he had to try two more before he could get anything
+but soft phosphorescent streaks on the box; and as the damp matches were
+thrown down, Grip sniffed at them and whined loudly.
+
+Then one flashed out brilliantly, lighting up the darkness, was watched
+excitedly, and began to blaze up and transfer its illuminating powers to
+the one candle the boys had left, one which was directly after safely
+sheltered by the glass of the lanthorn.
+
+At this point the joy of the dog was unbounded, and was shown in leaps,
+bounds and frantic barking, accompanied by rushes and sham worryings of
+his master's legs; and when driven off, he favoured Joe in the same way.
+
+"Only to think of it," cried Joe, "that dog following us and running us
+down in the dark!  How could he have done it?  I never heard that dogs
+could see in the dark like cats."
+
+"They can't," said Gwyn, going down on his knees to give the dog a hug.
+"A jolly old chap--they see with their noses; don't you, old Grip?"
+
+"_Whuf_!" cried the dog; and he made a frantic effort to lick his
+master's face.
+
+"It's wonderful!" cried Joe, excitedly.
+
+"Yes, makes a fellow wish he had a nose like a dog.  Why, Jolly, we
+could have found our way out, then."
+
+"Don't see it," said Joe, who was in a peculiarly excited state, which
+made him ready to laugh or cry at the slightest provocation.
+
+"Don't see it!  Of course you don't.  Couldn't we have smelt our way out
+by our own track, same as he did?  But bother all that.  Why, Jolly, if
+I could only feel sure that the dads were safe out, I shouldn't care a
+bit."
+
+"No; I shouldn't either.  Oh, I say, isn't it a relief?"
+
+"Yes, and so I feel all right.  They're out: I'm sure of it."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"By Grip being here."
+
+"That doesn't prove it."
+
+"Yes it does.  I know!  Father said, `I'll send Grip down; he'll find
+them.'"
+
+"Well, it does sound likely; but I say, Ydoll, isn't it queer?"
+
+"What, being here?"
+
+"No; while I was so miserable and feeling as I did, I was only faint;
+now I feel so hungry I could eat anything."
+
+"Same here," said Gwyn; "but it's all right; they're out; father sent
+Grip--didn't he, Grip?"
+
+The dog barked loudly and leaped up at him.
+
+"There, hear him?  He understands," cried Gwyn; but Joe shook his head.
+
+"I don't know," he said.  "The dog found us right enough, but that
+doesn't prove that he'll find his way back."
+
+"He'd better," said Gwyn with mock earnestness; "if he doesn't we'll eat
+him.  Do you hear, sir?"
+
+The dog barked again.
+
+"It's all right," said Gwyn, merrily.  "Now then, pack up, and let's go
+home--do you hear, Grip?"
+
+The dog threw up his head and barked loudly.
+
+"Ready, Joe?"
+
+"Ready--of course."
+
+"Come on, then.  Now, Grip, old fellow, lead the way.  Go home!"
+
+The dog barked again, and trotted in the opposite direction to which
+they had expected, making for the partly driven gallery where the roof
+ran up, showing how the lode of tin had ascended; and when he reached
+the blank end beginning to bark loudly.
+
+"Come back, stupid!" cried Gwyn; "we found that out ourselves.  That's
+the end of the mine.  All right.  Now, lead the way home."
+
+But the dog barked again loudly; and it was not until Gwyn followed to
+the end and seized his collar that he gave up.  "Now then, off with you,
+but don't go too fast.  Forward!  Quick march!"
+
+The lad had straddled across the dog, holding him between his knees,
+with head pointed as he believed in the direction of the shaft; and at
+the last sound he unloosed him from the grip of his knees, and the dog
+started steadily off, and they followed, but in a few minutes had to
+take to running, for, after looking back several times to see if he was
+followed, Grip increased his pace, and directly after disappeared in the
+darkness beyond the glow shed by the lanthorn.
+
+"You've done it now," cried Joe.  "Why didn't you make your handkerchief
+fast to his collar?  He's gone home."
+
+"Think so?" said Gwyn, blankly.
+
+"Yes; that's certain enough; and we're just as badly off as ever."
+
+"No," said Gwyn, in a tone full of confidence; "Grip found us, and he'll
+come back again for certain."
+
+"But we shall have to stop where we are, perhaps for another day or
+two."
+
+"Oh, no, he will not be long," said Gwyn; but there was less confidence
+in his tones, and he stopped short, and began to call and whistle, with
+the sounds echoing loudly along the tunnel-like place; but for some
+moments all was silent, and Joe gave vent to a groan.
+
+"Oh, why did you let him go, Ydoll?  It was madness."
+
+"Well," said the lad, bitterly, "you were as bad as I--you never said a
+word about holding him."
+
+"No, I never thought of it," said Joe, with a sigh.  "But how horrid,
+after thinking we were all right!"
+
+"Yet it is disappointing," said Gwyn, gloomily; "but he'll soon come
+back when he finds that we are not following him; and even if he went
+right back to them, they'd send him in again."
+
+"I don't believe they did send him in," said Joe, despairingly.
+
+"They must.  He couldn't have climbed down the ladders or got into the
+skep of his own accord, and, if he had, they wouldn't have let him down.
+They sent him, I'm sure."
+
+"No, I'm afraid not," said Joe, piteously; "they didn't send him."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because if they had, they would have done what people always do under
+such circumstances--written a note, and tied it to the dog's collar.  He
+had no note tied to his collar, I'm sure."
+
+"No, I didn't see or feel any," said Gwyn, thoughtfully.
+
+"No; we should have been sure to see it if he had one; so, for certain,
+the dog came of his own will, and I don't think it's likely he'll come
+again.  He may or he may not."
+
+Gwyn did not feel as if he could combat this idea, for Joe's notion that
+a note would have been tied to the dog's collar--a note with a few
+encouraging words--seemed very probable; so he remained silent,
+listening intently for the faintest sound.
+
+But the silence was more terrible than ever, and, saving the musical
+dash of water from time to time, and an occasional rustle as of a few
+grains of earth or sand trickling down from the walls, all was still.
+
+"Hear him coming back?" said Gwyn, at last, very dismally.
+
+"No, but there is something I keep hearing.  Can't you?"
+
+"I?  No," said Gwyn, quickly.  "What can you hear?--footsteps?"
+
+"Oh, no; not that.  It's a humming, rolling kind of noise, very, very
+faint; and I can't always hear it.  I'm not sure it is anything but a
+kind of singing in my ears.  There, I can hear it now.  Can you?"
+
+Gwyn listened intently.
+
+"No.  Perhaps it is only fancy.  Listen again.  Oh, that dog must come
+back."
+
+Joe sat down, with the lanthorn beside him.
+
+"Oh, don't give up like that!" cried Gwyn.  "Let's make a fresh start,
+and try and find our way out."
+
+"It's impossible--we can't without help."
+
+"Don't I always tell you that a chap oughtn't to wait to be helped, but
+try to help himself?"
+
+"Yes, you often preach," said Joe, dismally.
+
+"Yes, and try too.  Why, I--Ah! hear that?" cried Gwyn, excitedly.
+
+"No," said Joe, after a pause.
+
+"Don't be so stupid!  You can--Listen!"
+
+They held their breath, and plainly now came the barking of a dog.
+
+"There!" cried Gwyn.  "Here, here, here!" and he whistled before
+listening again, when there was the pattering of the dog's nails on the
+rocky floor, and almost directly after Grip bounded up to them.
+
+"Ah, we mustn't have any more of that, old fellow," cried Gwyn, seizing
+the dog's collar, and patting him.  "Get on, you old rascal; can't you
+see we've only got two legs apiece to your four?"
+
+The dog strained to be off again, barking excitedly; but Gwyn held on
+while their neckerchiefs were tied together, and then fastened to the
+dog's collar.
+
+"Now, then, forward once more.  Come on, Joe, you must carry the
+lanthorn and walk by his head.  Steady, stupid!  We can't run.  Walk,
+will you?  Now, then, forward for home."
+
+The dog barked and went off panting, with his tongue out and glistening
+in the light as the red end was curled, and he strained hard, as if
+bound to drag as much as he could behind him, while the boys' spirits
+steadily rose as their confidence in the dog's knowledge of the way back
+began to increase.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+TOO EAGER BY HALF.
+
+"Think the candle will last, Jolly?" said Gwyn, after they had
+progressed for some time and the lanthorn door was opened.
+
+"Plenty--yes," said Joe.
+
+"Wish I knew there was enough and to spare," said Gwyn.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I'd have a bite off the end.  I'm so faint and hungry, it's
+quite horrible."
+
+"Horrid!" exclaimed Joe.
+
+"Not it.  Nothing's horrid when you're starving.  But I don't suppose
+it's very far as the crow flies."
+
+"Crows don't fly in tin mines," said Joe, who was in better spirits now.
+
+"Well, then, in a straight line."
+
+"I don't believe there's a straight line in the place."
+
+"I say, don't chop logic, Jolly, and don't--I say, look here, Grip,
+steady! don't pull a fellow's arm off!" interpolated Gwyn, for the dog
+tugged heavily at the neckerchiefs.  "Look here, Joe, old chap, do talk
+gently to me, for I'm so hungry that I feel quite vicious, and just as
+if I could bite.  Ah, would you get away!  Steady, sir!  We want to get
+home as badly as you do--for `hoozza! we're homeward bound--bound;
+hoozza, we're homeward bound!'" sang the boy wildly.
+
+"Don't you holloa till you're out of the wood."
+
+"I wasn't holloaing," cried Gwyn, with hysterical merriment.  "I was
+singing, only you've no ear for music."
+
+"Not for such music as that.  Hark at the echoes!--they sound just like
+howls."
+
+"All right, but don't talk about getting out of the wood when we're like
+moles underground."
+
+"Who's chopping logic now?"
+
+"Oh, anybody.  Steady, Grip, slow march."
+
+"Does he pull so hard?"
+
+"Horribly; but I don't mind--it shows he knows his way."
+
+Grip barked and dragged at the improvised leash as if determined to
+hasten their pace.
+
+"It's just like the greyhounds do over the coursing.  But pull away, old
+chap!  I say, though, isn't it hot now?"
+
+"Yes, I'm bathed in perspiration.  We must be very deep down."
+
+"Oh, no, it's just about on a level; sometimes we go down, and sometimes
+up."
+
+_Splash, splash, splash_, and then the dog's progress seemed to be
+checked, as the boys followed into a pool of water which filled all the
+tunnel to the sides.
+
+"Stop!" cried Joe, as he waded to his knees.
+
+"Why?  What for?"
+
+"Because we're going wrong."
+
+"So I thought; but Grip ought to know."
+
+"He can't, because we never came along here."
+
+"No; but that proves he's right, for we never came along here, and we
+always lost ourselves."
+
+"But it's getting deeper, and there's no knowing how deep it will be."
+
+"Never mind; we must wade."
+
+Joe went on, and the water was soon up to their waists, while the dog
+swam on.
+
+"I'm sure Grip's going wrong," said Joe, excitedly, as the light of the
+lanthorn gleamed from the surface of what was now a narrow canal.
+
+"Get on.  Grip knows."
+
+"He can't.  It's impossible that he could have scented us over water."
+
+"Yes, so it is," said Gwyn, anxiously; and he stopped, naturally
+checking the dog, who began to splash and to howl and bark angrily.
+
+"Well, we must go on now.  Perhaps it's the way he came."
+
+"Couldn't be, because he was not wet."
+
+"Well, I am right over my waist," said Gwyn.  "Shall we go on?  We can
+swim if it gets deeper."
+
+"I say, let's try it a little farther."  And holding the light well up,
+they waded on, with the water growing deeper, till it reached their
+chests and soon after their chins.
+
+"Now then--go back or swim?" asked Gwyn.
+
+"Oh, go on; Grip must know.  I suppose the floor has gone down a good
+deal here."
+
+"Can you keep the lanthorn out of the water?  If you can't we must not
+go on; because it would be too horrible to swim here in the dark, and I
+don't know whether I could keep on with only one hand swimming and
+holding Grip with the other."
+
+"He'd tow you along," said Joe.
+
+"Halt!  Hold the light higher," shouted Gwyn, and his words reverberated
+strangely.
+
+_Grate, grate, scratch_, came a strange sound.
+
+"Do you hear what I say?" cried Gwyn, excitedly.
+
+"I can't, I can't--there isn't room."
+
+"Then give it to me," said Gwyn, fiercely, from where he stood a few
+yards now in advance of his companion.  "How am I to see what I'm
+doing?--and I know you'll have it in the water directly."
+
+"Don't I tell you I can't?" cried Joe, wildly.  "Can't you see there
+isn't room?  I'm holding it close up to the roof now."  And at a glance
+Gwyn saw that the roof was so low where they were that the gallery was
+nearly filled by the water.
+
+"Oh, hang the dog!" cried Gwyn, desperately.  "Quiet, sir!  Come back!"
+for with the water steadily deepening it seemed madness to let the
+animal lure them on into what appeared to be certain death.
+
+"Yes, yes, come back," panted Joe; "it's horrible.  Here, Grip, Grip,
+Grip!  Here, here, here!"
+
+But the dog only whined and swam on, and then began to beat the water
+wildly as if he were drowning, for in his excitement and dread, Gwyn had
+now begun to haul upon the leash, dragging the dog partly under water in
+his efforts to get hold of its collar.
+
+It was no easy task; for as the dog rose again, it was evidently
+frightened by its immersion beneath the surface, and began barking,
+whining, and struggling to escape from its master's grasp.
+
+"What is it?  What are you doing?" cried Joe, as he held the light close
+to the roof.
+
+"Doing?  Can't you see the dog's half mad.  Quiet, Grip!  What is it!
+Hold still, will you?"
+
+But this seemed to be the last thing the poor beast was disposed to do;
+for the tie, drag under the surface, and the seizure by the collar were
+all suggestive to its benighted intellect of death by drowning; and just
+as Gwyn, chin-deep in the water now and hardly able from his natural
+buoyancy to keep his footing, was backing towards the light, holding by
+the collar with both hands, the dog gathered itself together with its
+hind-legs resting against its master's breast, and made a tremendous
+bound as if for life.
+
+Gwyn had had some experience of the muscular power in a collie dog, but
+never till that moment did he fully realise what strength a desperate
+animal does possess; for that bound sent the dog forward and him
+backward; and completely off his balance, his head went down, his legs
+rose from his buoyancy in the water, and as he made a desperate effort
+to regain his feet, there came a sharp drag at the neckerchief he had
+twisted round his hand, and he was dragged under in turn and towed along
+for some moments before he could get his head above the surface of the
+black water again.  Then, obeying his natural instinct, he struck out
+and began to swim, feeling himself drawn steadily along by the dog
+farther and farther from the light which gleamed from the water, and
+into the black darkness and the unknown depths.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
+
+THE HELP AT LAST.
+
+Joe uttered a groan, and began to wade after his companion, scraping the
+lanthorn against the roof from time to time in his agitation.  He would
+have called to Gwyn to come back, but he could not find the words.  He
+felt, though, that he must follow to help him, and began to wonder
+whether he could keep the light above water with one hand as he swam;
+and he prepared to try, for he felt that he must strike out as soon as
+the water touched his chin.
+
+Then he paused, for from out of the darkness, and loud above the
+splashing, came Gwyn's angry words to the dog.
+
+"You wretch!  Come back!" he roared.  "Wait till I get out of this, and
+I'll give you such a licking as will make your coat rougher than ever.
+Come back, will you!"
+
+Grip made no sign of hearing, but swam on with all his might, and as he
+swam with one hand, Gwyn kept on lowering his feet to try for the
+bottom; but the dog's swimming was so energetic that the boy lost his
+balance again and again, and had a lesson in a man's helplessness in the
+water.
+
+At last, and just when a feeling of dread was beginning to freeze his
+nerves, Gwyn, on lowering his legs, touched the rock, and giving an
+angry drag at the kerchiefs to check the dog, he regained his feet, and
+found the water little above his waist.
+
+"It's all right," he panted.  "Come on, Joe; the floor dips down there,
+and you're nearly in the deepest part, I think.  I don't suppose you'll
+have to swim.  I shouldn't if this wretch of a dog had not pulled me
+over."
+
+Joe waded on very slowly and cautiously, finding his companion's words
+quite correct, and that, after just keeping his mouth above water, the
+level sank during the next few paces to his chin, then to his chest, and
+soon after to his waist, after which he easily reached his dripping
+companion.
+
+"Nice mess, isn't it?" said Gwyn.  "I wish old Sam Hardock was in it--
+pretending that the mine was pumped out.  Will you be quiet, Grip?
+There, get on!  It's all right if we're going in the proper direction;"
+and then, after wading on about a couple of hundred yards with the water
+still falling, Grip was able to walk, and uttering a joyous bark, he
+splashed along for a little way, and then stopped short, and gave
+himself a regular canine water-distributing shake which made him seem as
+if about to throw off his skin.
+
+"Look at that," cried Gwyn now.  "Only just wet above one's shoes."
+
+Another fifty yards and they were upon the dry rocky floor, which they
+liberally bedewed with the water which trickled from their clothes as
+they were hurried on by the dog, who strained more than ever at his
+leash.
+
+"It must be a good sign for him to tug like this," said Gwyn.
+
+"Yes; he seems to know the way.  It's of no use to try and stop him, for
+we know that we were all wrong, and perhaps he's right."
+
+"Yes; look at him," said Gwyn; "there can't be a doubt about it.  See
+how he tugs to get along."
+
+"Yes; and now I think of it," said Joe, eagerly, "we haven't come
+through that hall-like place with the pillars all about."
+
+"Haven't come to it yet, perhaps."
+
+Joe shook his head, and gave his companion a meaning look.
+
+"It isn't that," he said.  "We've come quite a different way."
+
+"Well, it doesn't matter," said Gwyn, so long as we get to the foot of
+the shaft; "and I shall be very glad, for, wet, tired, and hungry, it's
+very horrible being here."
+
+They went on, led by the dog like two blind beggars Gwyn said, as he
+tried to look cheerfully upon their position, when he received another
+mental check, for Joe cried suddenly, "Stop a moment, for there's
+something wrong with this candle;" and a shudder worse than that which
+had attacked the boy when the water first rose to his breast ran through
+his nerves.
+
+Joe opened the door of the lanthorn with a jerk, and the candle, which
+had fallen over on one side and was smoking the glass, dropped out on to
+the rocky floor; but Gwyn stooped quickly and saved it from becoming
+extinct, while the dog uttered an impatient bark and dragged at the
+leash again.
+
+And it was always so as they proceeded, that the boys' strength, which
+had flickered up at the hope of rescue brought by the dog, rapidly
+burned down now like the candle, which quickly approached its end; while
+the dog seemed to be untiring and toiled and tugged away, as if trying
+to draw his master onward.  They spoke less and less, and dragged their
+feet, and grew more helpless, till at the end of a couple of hours Joe
+suddenly said,--
+
+"It's of no use, Ydoll; I can go no farther, and he's only taking us
+more into the mine.  There isn't a bit of it we've passed before."
+
+"Never mind; we must trust him now," said Gwyn, sadly; "we can't go
+back."
+
+"No, but we oughtn't to have trusted him at all.  We ought to have felt
+that we knew better than a dog."
+
+"Stop!  What are you going to do?" cried Gwyn, angrily.
+
+"This," said Joe; and he let himself sink down on the rocky floor, and
+laid his head on his hand.
+
+"No, no; get up!  You sha'n't turn coward like this.  Get up, I say!"
+
+"I--can't," said Joe.  "I'm dead beat.  You go on, and if Grip takes you
+out try and find me again.  If you can't, tell father I did my best."
+
+"I won't; I sha'n't," cried Gwyn, furiously.  "Think I'm going to leave
+you?"
+
+"Yes.  Save yourself."
+
+"You get up," cried Gwyn; and stooping down, he caught one of his
+companion's arms, dragged at it with a heavy jerk, and found that he had
+miscalculated his strength, for he sank upon his knees, felt as if the
+lanthorn was gliding round him, and then subsided close by where Joe
+lay, while just then the dog gave a furious tug at the leash, freed
+itself, and dashed off into the darkness, barking apparently with
+delight.
+
+"It's of no good, Joe; I'm as bad as you," said Gwyn, slowly; "I can't
+get up again."
+
+"Never mind, Ydoll; we have done our duty, old chap, as the dads said we
+ought to as soldiers' sons.  We have, haven't we?"
+
+"No, not quite," cried Gwyn.  "Let's have one more try--I will, and you
+shall."
+
+He made an effort to rise, but sank back and nearly fainted, but
+recovered himself to feel that Joe had got hold of his hand, and he
+uttered a piteous sigh.
+
+"Light's going out, Jolly, and if they don't find us soon our lights'll
+go out, too.  I wouldn't care so much if it wasn't for the mater,
+because it will nearly kill her," he continued drearily.  "She's ever so
+fond of me, though I've alway been doing things to upset her.  Father
+won't mind so much, because he'll say I died like a man doing my duty."
+
+"How will they know that?" mused Joe, whose eyes were half-closed.
+"Let's write it down on paper."
+
+Gwyn was silent for a few moments as he lay thinking, but at last he
+spoke.
+
+"No," he said; "that would be like what father calls blowing your own
+trumpet.  He used to say to me that if he had gone about praising
+himself and telling people that he was a great soldier and had done all
+kinds of brave deeds, he would have been made a general before now; but
+he wouldn't.  `If they can't find out I've done my duty, and served my
+Queen as I should, let it be,' he said.  And that's what we ought to do
+when we've fought well.  If they don't find out that we've done what we
+should, it doesn't much matter; let it go.  I'm tired out and faint, as
+you are, and--so's the candle, Joe.  There, it has gone out."
+
+Joe uttered a low, long, weary sigh, as, after dancing up and down two
+or three times, the light suddenly went out.
+
+"Frightened?" said Gwyn, gently, as the black darkness closed them in.
+
+"No, only sleepy," was the reply.  "Good-night."
+
+"Good-night," said Gwyn, softly; and the next minute they were sleeping
+calmly, with their breath coming and going gently, and the dripping of
+water from somewhere close at hand sounding like the beating of the
+pendulum of some great clock.
+
+Once more the loud barking of a dog, long after the boys had lain down
+to rest, and Grip was dragging first at Gwyn, then at Joe, seizing their
+jackets in his teeth and tugging and shaking at them, but with no
+greater effect than to make Gwyn utter a weary sigh.
+
+The dog barked again and tugged at him, but, finding his efforts of no
+avail, he stood with his paws resting on his master's breast, threw up
+his head, and uttered a dismal long-drawn howl which went echoing along
+the passages, and a faint shout was heard from far away.
+
+The dog sprang from where he stood, ran a few yards, and stood barking
+furiously before running back to where Gwyn lay, when he seized and
+shook him again, and howled, ending by giving three or four licks at his
+face.  Then he threw up his head once more, and sent forth another
+prolonged, dismal howl.
+
+This was answered by a faintly-heard whistle, and the dog barked loudly
+over and over again, till a voice nearer now called his name.
+
+All this was repeated till a gleam was seen on the wall, and now the dog
+grew frantic in his barking, running to and fro, and finally, as voices
+were faintly heard, and the gleaming of lights grew plainer, he crouched
+down with his head resting on Gwyn's breast, panting heavily as if tired
+out.
+
+"Here, Grip!  Grip!  Grip!  Where are you?" rang out in the Colonel's
+voice; and the dog answered with a single bark, repeated at intervals
+till the lights grew plainer, shadows appeared on the walls, there was
+the trampling of feet, and a voice said,--
+
+"Hold up, sir; he must be close at hand.  The dog keeps in one place, so
+he must have found them.  Here, here, here!"
+
+There was a long whistle, but the dog did not leave his place, only gave
+a sharp bark; and the next minute lights were being held over the Major
+and Colonel Pendarve, as they knelt beside their sons, trying all they
+knew to bring them back to their senses.
+
+Their efforts were not without effect, for after a time Gwyn opened his
+eyes, stared blankly at the light, and said feebly,--
+
+"Don't!  Let me go to sleep."
+
+Shortly after the two boys were being carefully carried in a
+semi-unconscious state by the willing hands of the search-party, through
+the bewildering mazes of the old mine, with Grip trotting on in front as
+if he were in command; and in this way the foot of the shaft was reached
+and they were safely taken to grass.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.
+
+GRIP'S ANTIPATHY.
+
+"I really think you ought to stay in, Gwyn," said Mrs Pendarve,
+anxiously.
+
+"Oh, I'll stay in if you like, mother," said the boy, patting the hand
+that was laid upon his arm, and looking affectionately in his mother's
+eyes; "but don't you think it would be all nonsense?"
+
+"Yes," said the Colonel, firmly, as he looked up from the work he was
+reading.  "He's quite well, my dear."
+
+"No, no, my love; he's too pale to be well."
+
+"Fancy, my dear; but perhaps he may be.  Describe your symptoms, Gwyn,
+my boy."
+
+"Haven't got any to describe, father," said Gwyn, merrily.
+
+"Well, then, to satisfy your mother, how do you feel?"
+
+"Ashamed of myself, father, for having had the doctor."
+
+"Exactly.  He's quite well, my dear.  It was bad for him, of course; but
+a strong, healthy boy does not take long to recover from a long walk and
+some enforced abstinence--There, you can go, Gwyn, and--"
+
+"Yes, father?" said the boy, for the Colonel paused.
+
+"There's young Jollivet coming over the hill, so Major Jollivet and I
+would feel greatly obliged if you two lads did not get into another
+scrape for some time to come."
+
+"Oh, I say," cried Gwyn, "I do call that too bad.  Isn't it, mother?
+Father lets the Major take him down and get lost in the mine--"
+
+"Nothing of the kind, sir.  We found our way back--you did not."
+
+"And then when we go down," continued Gwyn, without heeding his father's
+words, "to try and find them, father calls it getting into a scrape."
+
+"Ah, well, never mind what I called it," said the Colonel, smiling; "but
+be careful, please.  We don't want any more exploring."
+
+Gwyn went off, met Joe, and they made for a favourite place on the cliff
+where they could look down on the sea and the sailing gulls to have a
+chat about their late adventure, this being their first meeting since
+they were carried home from the mine.
+
+"You're all right, aren't you, Ydoll?" said Joe.
+
+"Never felt better in my life, only I don't feel as if I could sit still
+here.  Let's go to the mine."
+
+"To go down?  No, thank you--not to-day."
+
+"Who wants to go down.  I mean to have a talk to Sam and the men.  I
+want to hear more about it.  Oh, I say, though, it's too bad to have
+left old Grip chained up.  Let's go and fetch him and, after we've been
+to the mine, give him a good run over the down and along the cliff."
+
+"Yes," said Joe, quietly; and Gwyn led the way back toward the house by
+the cove.
+
+"That dog ought to have a golden collar," said Gwyn.  "No; I tell you
+what--he shall have one made of the first tin that is smelted."
+
+"Too soft; it would bend," said Joe.
+
+"Very well, then, we'll have some copper put with it to make it hard,
+and turn it to bronze."
+
+"What's the good?  Dogs don't want ornaments.  He'd be a deal happier
+with his old leather strap."
+
+"I don't care; he shall have one of bronze."
+
+He told Grip this when he reached the yard, and the dog rushed toward
+them, standing on his hind-legs and straining against his collar at the
+full extent of his chain till he was unfastened, when he went half mad
+with excitement till they were out of the grounds and on their way
+toward the mine.  Then as he trotted on before them straight for the
+buildings they heard the panting of the engine, and came in sight of the
+smoke.
+
+For the pump was steadily at work again, clearing out the water which
+had begun to gather, consequent upon the enforced inaction.
+
+Sam Hardock caught sight of them before they reached the mine, and came
+to meet them, smiling largely.
+
+"How are you, gentlemen?--how are you?" he cried.  "Not much the worse,
+then, from your trip underground?"
+
+"Oh, no, Sam, we're right enough," said Gwyn; "but I say, I can't
+understand about our only being in the mine two days.  It seemed to me
+like a week."
+
+"Fortnight," said Joe, correcting him.
+
+"Well, fortnight, then."
+
+"Ay, it would," said Hardock, looking serious now.  "I mind being shut
+up in one of the Truro mines by a fall; and we were only there about
+thirty hours, but it seemed to me just like thirty days."
+
+"But hasn't there been a mistake?  We must have been there more than
+forty-eight hours."
+
+"No, my lad; that was the time, and quite long enough, too; but I'm
+afraid it would have been twice as long if it hadn't been for this dog.
+It was a fine idea to send him down to try and find you."
+
+"A splendid idea!  Who's was it?"
+
+"Oh, never mind about that," said Hardock, stooping down to pat the dog
+in the most friendly way.  "Someone said after we'd got back along of
+your father, Mr Gwyn, that the dog was more likely to find you than
+anyone; but just then the Colonel ordered a fresh search, and a party
+went down, and then another, and another, for there was no stopping;
+they hunted for you well.  But at last him who proposed the dog said he
+was sure that was the way to go to work; and then at last the Colonel
+says, `Well, Hardock,' he says, `I believe you're right.  Try the dog!'"
+
+"Then it was you who proposed it," said Gwyn, catching the miner's arm.
+
+"Me?  Was it?  Well, perhaps it was," said Hardock; "but lor' a mussy, I
+was all in such a flurry over the business I don't half recollect.  Sort
+o' idee it was Harry Vores.  Maybe it was."
+
+"No, it wasn't," said Gwyn; "I'm sure it was you, Sam.  Now, wasn't it?"
+
+He caught the man's hand in his, and there was a dim look in his eyes
+which went straight to the miner's heart, and he said huskily--
+
+"Well, s'pose it was, Master Gwyn, wouldn't you ha' been ready to jump
+at anything as a last sort o' chance, when there was two lads lost away
+down in a place like that?  Why, I'd ha' done anything, let alone
+depending on a dog.  It warn't as if I didn't want to go myself: I did
+go till I dropped and couldn't do no more, and begun to wish I'd never
+said a word about the gashly old mine."
+
+"Well, don't go on like that," cried Gwyn, laughing, as he warmly shook
+the mine captain's hand, while Joe caught hold of the other and held on.
+
+"Here, hi, don't you two go on like that," cried the man; "what's the
+good o' making such a fuss.  It was the dog saved your lives, not me, my
+lads; and do leave off, please.  You're making me feel like a fool."
+
+"No, we're not; we're trying to make you feel that we're grateful for
+what you did, Sam," said Gwyn.
+
+"Why, of course, I know that," said the man, with his voice sounding
+husky and strange; "but don't you see what you're doing, both of you?"
+
+"Yes; shaking hands," said Joe.
+
+"Nay; pumping my arms up and down till you've made the water come.  Look
+here, if, if my eyes aren't quite wet.  Ah!"
+
+Hardock gave himself a shake, as if to get rid of his feeling of
+weakness, and then indulged in one of his broadest smiles.
+
+"There," he said, "it's all over now; but my word, me and Harry Vores--
+ay, and every man-Jack of us--did feel bad.  For, as I says to Harry, I
+says, it warn't as if it had been two rough chaps like us reg'lar mining
+lads.  It was our trade; but for you two young gents, not yet growed up,
+to come to such an end was more than we could bear.  But we did try, lot
+after lot of us.  It warn't for want o' trying that we didn't find you.
+Wonderful place, though, aren't it?"
+
+"Horrible!" said Joe.
+
+"Oh, I don't know, sir; not horrible," said the man in a tone that was
+half-reproachful; "it's wonderful, I call it, and ten times as big as I
+expected."
+
+"So big and dangerous that it will be no good," said Joe.
+
+"What!" cried Hardock, laughing.  "Did you look about you when you were
+down there?"
+
+"As much as we could for the darkness."
+
+"And so did I, sir," said the man, with a chuckle.  "Of course, most
+when I was wandering about with your fathers.  No good because it's so
+big?  Wait a bit, and you'll see.  Why, I shall begin to make a regular
+map plan of that place below.  It will take months and months perhaps,
+but we shall explore a bit at a time, and mark the roads and drifts with
+arrows, and we shall all get more and more used to it."
+
+"One could hardly get used to such a place as a tin mine, Sam," said
+Gwyn.
+
+"Oh, yes, we could, sir, and we shall.  But I see you didn't make the
+use of your eyes that I did, or you'd have more to say."
+
+"What do you mean?" cried Gwyn.
+
+"Didn't you see how rough all the mining had been?"
+
+"Well, yes."
+
+"And don't you see what that means?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then I'll tell you, both of you--there's ore there enough to make your
+fathers the richest gentlemen in these parts; and there isn't a company
+in Cornwall as wouldn't do anything to get it.  New-fashioned machinery
+will do what the old miners couldn't manage, and we won't have any more
+losing our way.  There, I'm busy; so good-bye, and good luck to you
+both.  Some day, when you grow to be men, you'll thank me for what I've
+done, for I've about made you both."
+
+"That means we're both going to be very rich some day," said Gwyn; "but
+it doesn't matter.  Come on, and let's give old Grip a jolly good run.
+Come on, old dog."
+
+Grip did not come, but led off; and they made for the edge of the cliff,
+which ran along, on an average, three hundred feet above where the waves
+beat at their feet, but they had not gone far before Joe, who had
+glanced back, said quickly,--
+
+"What's Tom Dinass following us for out here?"
+
+Gwyn glanced back, too.
+
+"Not following us," he said quickly; "he's making for the bend of the
+rock yonder."
+
+"Yes," said Joe; "but that's where he knows we shall have to pass.  What
+does he mean?  He must have seen us at the mine and followed."
+
+"I don't know," said Gwyn, thoughtfully; and a peculiar feeling of
+uneasiness attacked him.  "But never mind; let's go on, or he'll think
+we're afraid of him."
+
+"I am," said Joe, frankly.
+
+"Well, then, if you are, you mustn't show it.  Come on.  Quiet, Grip."
+
+For though the man was several hundred yards away, Grip had caught sight
+of him, set up all the thick hair about his neck, and uttered a low,
+deep growl.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
+
+GWYN'S ERROR.
+
+All at once, as the boys went along near the cliff edge, they found that
+Dinass had disappeared, and Joe expressed himself as being relieved.
+
+"Went back beyond that ridge of rocks, I suppose," said Gwyn; "but I
+certainly thought he wanted to cut us off for some reason.  Well, it's a
+good job he has gone."
+
+But a little later they found that Dinass had not gone, for all the
+while Grip had had an eye on his movements and had acted after the
+manner of a dog.
+
+For, after about five minutes, there was a sharp barking heard as the
+boys trudged on.
+
+"Why, where's Grip?" said Gwyn.  "I thought he was here."
+
+The barking was repeated, and the dog was seen close to the edge of the
+cliff a hundred yards away, barking at something below him.
+
+"What's he found?" said Joe.
+
+"Oh, it's only at the gulls lower down.  There's that shelf where it
+looks as if the granite had slipped down a little way.  Let's see what
+he is about."
+
+The dog kept up his barking, and the boys walked up, to find no gull
+below, but Tom Dinass seated in a nook smoking his pipe, with a couple
+of ominous-looking pieces of stone within reach of his hand, both
+evidently intended for Grip's special benefit should he attack, which he
+refrained from doing.
+
+"Mornin', gentlemen," said the man.  "Wish you'd keep that dawg chained
+up when you come to the mine; you see he don't like me."
+
+"He won't hurt you if you don't tease him," said Gwyn.  "Come to heel,
+Grip."
+
+The dog uttered a remonstrant growl, but obeyed, and Dinass drew himself
+back against the cliff.
+
+"Safer down here," he said.
+
+"Yes, you are safer there," said Gwyn.  "Good-morning."
+
+"One minute, sir, please.  Don't go away yet; I want just a word with
+you."
+
+"Yes, what is it?" said Gwyn, shortly, while Joe gazed from the man to
+the depths below, troubled the while by some confused notion that he
+meant mischief.
+
+"Only just a word or two, Mr Gwyn, sir," said the man in a humble
+manner, which accorded badly with his fierce, truculent appearance; and
+for the moment the lad addressed thought that he meant treachery, and
+he, Joe, could not help glancing at the precipice so close at hand.
+"You see, I'm an unlucky sort of fellow, and somehow make people think
+wrong things about me.  You and me got wrong first time you see me; but
+I didn't mean no harm, and things got better till the other day over the
+bit o' fuss about going down."
+
+"When you behaved like a cur and left us to take our chance.  Quiet,
+Grip?"
+
+"Look at that now!" cried Dinass, appealing to nobody--"even him turning
+again' me.  Why, I ought to say as you two young gents went and forsook
+me down the old pit.  Sure as goodness, I thought you both did it as a
+lark.  Why, it warn't in me to do such a thing; and if you'd only waited
+a few minutes till I'd got my candle right, I'd perhaps ha' been able to
+save you from being lost.  Anyhow I would ha' tried."
+
+"Do you expect us to believe that you did not sneak back and leave us?"
+said Gwyn.
+
+"Well, as young gents, I do hope you will, sir.  Why, I'd sooner have
+cut my head off than do such a thing.  Forsake yer!  Why I was half mad
+when I found you'd gone on, and I run and shouted here and there till I
+was hoarse as a crow; and when I found I was reg'lar lost there, I can't
+tell you what I felt.  That's a true word, sir; I never was so scared in
+my life."
+
+"Ah, well, perhaps we'd better say no more about it, Dinass."
+
+"Tom Dinass, sir.  Don't speak as if you was out with me, too."
+
+"We both thought you had left us in the lurch; but if you say you did
+not, why, we are, bound to believe you."
+
+"_Bah_!" said Grip, in a growl full of disgust.
+
+"Quiet, sir!"
+
+"Ay, even that dawg don't take to me," said Dinass, in an ill-used tone.
+"But there, I don't care now you young gents believe me."
+
+"All right; good-morning," said Gwyn, shortly.  "Come along, Joe."
+
+"Nay, nay, don't go away like that, Mr Gwyn, you'll think better of me
+soon, when you aren't so sore about it.  For I put it to you, sir, as a
+gentleman as knows what the mine is, and to you, too, Master Joe
+Jollivet, you both know--Aren't it a place where a man can lose himself
+quickly?"
+
+"Well, yes, of course," said Gwyn.
+
+"Exactly; well, I lost myself same as you did; and because I warn't with
+you, everybody's again me--Sam Hardock and Harry Vores, and all the men,
+even the engine tenter; and that aren't the worst of it."
+
+"What is, then?" said Joe.
+
+"Why this, sir," said the man, earnestly: "They've made a bad report of
+me to the guv'nors just when I was getting on and settling down to a
+good job in what seems like to be a rich mine with regular work, and I'm
+under notice to leave."
+
+"Serve you right for being such a sneak," said Joe, angrily.
+
+"Oh, Master Joe, you are hard on a man; but you'll try and believe me,
+sir.  I did work hard to find you both."
+
+"I daresay we're wrong, Joe," said Gwyn; and the dog uttered another
+growl which sounded wonderfully like the word "_Bah_!"
+
+"Yes, sir, wrong you are; and seeing how scarce work is, and so many
+mines not going, you won't mind putting a word in for me to the Colonel
+and the Major."
+
+"What for?  What about?" said Gwyn, sharply.  "Your character?"
+
+"Nay, sir, I don't want no character.  Sam Hardock says the mine's rich,
+and I want to stay on.  You say the right word to the Colonel, and he'll
+keep me on."
+
+"I don't feel as if I could, Dinass," said Gwyn, thoughtfully.
+
+"Not just this minute, sir," said the man, humbly; "but if you think
+about it, and how hard it is for a man to lose his bread for a thing
+like that, you'll feel different about it.  Do try, sir, please.  I'm a
+useful man, and you'll want me; and I'll never forget it if you do."
+
+"Well," said Gwyn, "I'll think about it; but if I do ask my father, he
+may not listen to me."
+
+"Oh, yes, he will, sir; he'd do anything you asked him; and so would
+yours, Master Joe.  Do, please, gentlemen, and very thankful I'll be."
+
+"Come along, Joe," said Gwyn.
+
+"And you will speak a word for me, sir--both of you?"
+
+"I'll see," said Joe; and with Grip trotting softly behind them, the two
+lads hurried off.
+
+"You won't ask for him to stay, Ydoll?" said Joe, earnestly, as soon as
+they were out of earshot.
+
+"Why not?  Perhaps we're misjudging him after all."
+
+"But I never liked him," said Joe.
+
+"Well I didn't, and I don't; but that's no reason why we should be
+unfair.  He isn't a pleasant fellow, and nobody seems to take to him; I
+believe he is right about all the men being set against him."
+
+"Well, then, it's right for him to go."
+
+"Oh, I say, Jolly, don't be hard and unfair on a fellow.  One ought to
+stick up for the weaker side.  Let's go and see if father's in the
+office."
+
+"And you are going to speak for him?"
+
+"Yes; and so are you;" and Gwyn led the way to the new mine buildings
+where the carpenters and masons were still busy, passing the shaft where
+the pump was steadily at work, but going very slowly, for there was very
+little water to keep down.
+
+As the boys approached the doorway they saw Hardock come out and go on
+to the mine, while on entering they found the Colonel and the Major
+examining a rough statement drawn up by the captain who had just left.
+
+"Well, boys," said Major Jollivet, "have you come in to hear about it?"
+
+"No," said Gwyn, staring; "about what, sir?"
+
+"The venture, my boy.  Hardock reports that the mine is very rich in
+ore, and that we have entered upon a very good speculation."
+
+"Yes, that is so, Gwyn," said his father; "and we are going to begin
+work in real earnest now--I mean, begin raising ore; and we must engage
+more men.  Well; you were going to say something."
+
+"Yes, father," said Gwyn, rushing into his subject at once.  "We have
+just seen Dinass."
+
+"Yes," said the Colonel, frowning; "he goes in about ten days, and we
+want someone in his place.  What about him?"
+
+"He has been telling us about his trouble--that he is dismissed."
+
+"He need not worry you about it, boy.  He should have behaved better."
+
+"Yes; rank cowardice," said Joe's father, shortly.
+
+"No, Major; he has been explaining how it was to us, and he tells me it
+was all accidental.  He says we left him behind, and that he searched
+for us for long enough afterwards, till he was quite lost.  It is an
+awkward place to miss your way in."
+
+"Yes, you boys ought to know that," said the colonel.  "Then this man
+has been getting hold of you to petition to stay?"
+
+"Yes, father; he asked us to speak for him."
+
+"Well, and are you going to?" said the Major.
+
+"Yes, sir; I should like you and my father to give him another trial."
+
+"But you don't like the man, Gwyn," said the Colonel.
+
+"No, father--not at all; but I don't like to be prejudiced."
+
+"And you, Joe," said the Major, "don't you want to be prejudiced?"
+
+"No, father; Ydoll here has put it so that I'm ready to back him up.
+Dinass says he wants to get on, and doesn't like the idea of leaving a
+good rich mine."
+
+"Humph!" said the Colonel.  "We don't want to dismiss men--we want to
+engage them.  What do you say, Jollivet; shall we give him another
+trial?"
+
+"I think so," said the Major.  "He's a big, strong, well set up fellow.
+Pity to drum a man out of the regiment who may be useful."
+
+"Yes," said the Colonel, sharply.  "Well, Gwyn, perhaps we have been too
+hard on him.  He is not popular with the other men, but he may turn out
+all right, and we can't afford to dismiss a willing worker; so you may
+tell him that, at the interposition of you two boys, we will cancel the
+dismissal, and he can stay on."
+
+"And tell him, boys," said the Major, "that he is to do your
+recommendation credit."
+
+"Yes, of course," came in duet, and the boys hurried out to look for
+Dinass and tell him their news.
+
+"Thank ye, my lads," he said, smiling grimly.  "I'll stay, and won't
+forget it."
+
+That night Dinass wrote a letter to somebody he knew--an ill-spelt
+letter in a clumsy, schoolboyish hand; but it contained the information
+that the old mine was rich beyond belief, and that he was beginning to
+see his way.
+
+Gwyn did not know it then, but he had committed one of the great errors
+of his life.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.
+
+SAM HARDOCK BRINGS NEWS.
+
+Time went on, and at the end of a year Ydoll Mine was in working order,
+with a good staff, the best of machinery for raising the ore, a
+man-engine for the work-people's ascent and descent, a battery of stamps
+to keep up an incessant rattle as the heavily-laden piles crushed the
+pieces of quartz, and in addition a solid-looking building with its
+furnaces for smelting the tin.
+
+They were busy days there, and Gwyn and his companion found little time
+for their old pursuits--egging, rabbiting and fishing--save occasionally
+when, by way of a change, they would spend an evening on the rocky point
+which formed one of the protecting arms of Ydoll Cove, trying with pike
+rods, large winches and plenty of line, for the bass which played in
+silvery shoals in the swift race formed at the point by the meeting of
+two currents, and often having a little exciting sport in landing the
+swift-swimming, perch-finned fish.
+
+For the fishing was too good off that part of the Cornish coast to be
+neglected, and the Colonel made allusions to the old proverb about all
+work and no play making Jack a dull boy.
+
+One afternoon Gwyn loosened Grip for a run, to the dog's great delight,
+and, after seeking out Joe, who had been at home for days attending on
+his father, who was troubled with one of his old fits--Joe called them
+fits of the Jungle demon--the boys went down to the mine, Grip trotting
+behind them, save when some rustle to right or left attracted him for a
+frantic hunt to discover the cause.
+
+At the mine Tom Dinass was found, looking very sour and grim, for he was
+still not the best of friends with his fellow-workmen; but as he was one
+of the most steady in his devotion to his work he stood well with the
+owners.
+
+Gwyn caught sight of him first, and Dinass saw him at the same moment,
+but, instead of coming forward, he pretended to have something to do
+elsewhere, and went off into the smelting-house.
+
+"What has he gone off like that for?" said Gwyn; and the boys followed
+just in time to hear some blows being struck in the gloomy place where a
+fierce fire was roaring and sending thin pencils of light through cracks
+in the furnace door.
+
+The next minute some pieces of hard burned clay crumbled beneath the
+blows, and there was a dazzling stream of molten metal poured out, to
+run along channels made in the floor to form flat, squarish ingots of
+tin, and display the colours of the rainbow, intensified to a brilliancy
+that was almost more than the eye could bear.
+
+"Please father when he hears of the casting," said Joe.  "So much money
+has been laid out that he likes to hear of anything that will bring a
+return."
+
+"Well, there's plenty of return coming in now," said Gwyn.  "We've got
+one of the richest mines in Cornwall.  Here, Tom Dinass!  What's he mean
+by sneaking away?  Here, Tom Dinass!"
+
+"Want me, sir?" said the man, looking from one to the other suspiciously
+as he came up, his face shining in the wonderful glow shed by the molten
+tin.
+
+"Yes, of course.  Didn't you see us coming to you before?"
+
+"Me, sir?  No, I didn't know as you wanted me," and he seemed to draw
+himself up for defence.
+
+"Well, we do," said Gwyn.  "We want to have out the seine to-night; the
+tide will fit, and there have been mullet about."
+
+"Oh, that's it, sir," said the man, who seemed much relieved.  "Here,
+keep off with you," he growled, "my legs aren't roast meat."
+
+"Come here, Grip!" cried Gwyn.  "To heel, sir!  I wish you two would be
+better friends."
+
+"'Taren't my fault, sir; it's Grip.  He's always nasty again' me."
+
+"Well, never mind the dog.  What time will you be off duty to-night?"
+
+"Five, sir."
+
+"That will do.  See that the net is ready.  I'll speak to the others.
+We'll be down there at five--no, half-past, because of tea."
+
+"I'll be there, sir," said Dinass; and the boys went off, with the man
+watching them till the door swung close after them.  "Nay, my legs
+aren't roast meat, but," he continued, as he glanced towards the molten
+metal still glowing, "it would soon be roast dog if I had my chance."
+
+Meanwhile the boys went on to continue their preparations, and then
+hurried home for their meal; then for the first time Gwyn thought of
+Grip, and whistled to him to come and be tied up, but the dog did not
+come.
+
+"Smelt a rabbit somewhere," said Gwyn, and thought no more about the
+dog.
+
+In due time Dinass appeared down by the sandy cove, and after the long
+seine had been carefully laid in the stern of the boat, and the end
+lines left in charge of a couple of miners on one of the points, the
+boat was rowed straight out, with Gwyn paying out the net with its lead
+line and cork line running over a roller in the stern.  Then at a
+certain distance the boat was steered so as to turn round to the right,
+and rowed in a curve, with the net still being paid out, till the rocks
+on the other side by the race were reached, and the sandy cove shut in
+by a wall of net, kept stretched by the leads at the bottom and the line
+of corks at the top.
+
+At this point the boys landed with their trousers tucked up to the
+highest extent, jackets off, and arms bare as their legs, to start
+inland dragging the lines, the men on the other point starting at the
+same time, and bringing the dot-like row of corks to a rounder curve as
+the strain on the ropes grew heavier.
+
+Tom Dinass now started for the point at the head of the cove to run the
+boat well ashore, and then go to the help of the boys as they toiled
+steadily on, stepping cautiously over the rocks, which were slippery
+with reddish-yellow fucus, till the broken part gave place to the heavy,
+well-rounded boulders which rattled and rumbled over one another in
+times of storms.  Then the boulders gave place to shingle, which was
+rather better for the fishers, and lastly to the fine level sand over
+which the seine was to be dragged.
+
+But this took some time and no little labour, for it was slow, hard
+work, full of the excitement of speculation; for the net, after
+enclosing so wide an area, might come in full of fish, or with nothing
+but long heavy strands of floating weed torn by the waves from the rocks
+perhaps miles away.
+
+Experience and hints given by the blue-shirted bronzed fishers of the
+cove had taught the boys when was the best time for shooting the seine,
+however, so they generally were pretty successful; and as the net was
+drawn inland the bobbing of the line of corks and sundry flashes told
+that fish of some kind had been enclosed, when the excitement began.
+
+It was a bright scene that summer's evening, when the sea was empurpled
+by the reflections of the gorgeous western sky, the smoke from the
+smelting-house looking like a golden feather.
+
+But neither Gwyn nor Joe had eyes for the beauties of Nature which
+surrounded the nook where their fathers had made their home, for the
+excitement of the seine drawing was gaining in intensity.
+
+Dinass, after running up the boat by the help of a couple of the men who
+had strolled down to see, was hurrying to pass the boys and wade out
+with an oar over his shoulder behind the line of corks, ready to splash
+and beat the water should there, by any chance, be a shoal of mullet
+within--no unlikely event, for these fish swam up with the tide to feed
+upon the scraps and odds and ends which came from the village down the
+little streamlet.  And often enough their habit was, when enclosed, to
+play follow-my-leader, and leap the cork line and get out again to sea.
+
+It was well that the precaution was taken, for upon this occasion a
+little shoal had been drawn in, to swim about peaceably enough for a
+time; but when the water shallowed, and their leader found that the wall
+of net was in its way, a frantic rush was made, and Dinass brought down
+his oar with a tremendous splash, making them dart in another direction;
+but there the top and bottom of the net were drawing together, forming a
+bag into which the shoal passed, and their effort to shoot out of the
+water was frustrated.
+
+Again they appeared at the surface, but the splashing of the oar checked
+them; and this happened over and over, till their chance was gone, and,
+mingled with the other fish enclosed, they swam wildly about, seeking
+now for a hole or a way beneath the line of leads.
+
+The fish sought in vain; and as the ends of the net were drawn in more
+and more, Dinass waded behind about the centre of the great bag, taking
+hold of the cork line and helping it along till the sandy beach was
+neared, and relieving some of the strain, till slowly and steadily the
+seine was drawn right up with its load, after cleanly sweeping up
+everything which had been enclosed, this being a great deal more than
+was wanted.
+
+For the contents of the net were curious; and as the cork line was drawn
+back flat on the sands, there was plenty of work for the men to pick off
+the net the masses of tangled fucus and bladder-wrack which had come up
+with the tide.  Jelly-fish--great transparent discs with their
+strangely-coloured tentacles--were there by the dozen; pieces of
+floating wood, scraps of rope and canvas, and a couple of the curious
+squids with their suckers and staring eyes.
+
+All these were thrown off rapidly upon the sands right and left, and
+then the baskets were brought into play for the gathering of the spoil,
+while, scurrying away over net and sand, and making rapidly for the
+water, dozens of small crabs kept escaping from among the flapping fish,
+strangely grotesque in their actions, as they ran along sidewise,
+flourishing their pincers threateningly aloft.
+
+In its small way it proved to be a fortunate haul, including as it did
+the whole of the little shoal of grey mullet, some three dozen, in their
+silvery scale armour, and running some three or four pounds weight each.
+Then there was nearly a score of the vermilion-and-orange-dyed red
+mullet, brilliant little fellows; a few small-sized mackerel; a few
+gurnard, a basketful of little flat fish, and a number of small fry,
+which had to be dealt with gingerly, for among them were several of the
+poisonous little weevels, whose sharp back fins and spines make
+dangerous wounds.
+
+At last all were gathered up; and after giving orders for the seine to
+be carefully shaken clear and spread out to dry upon the downs, the two
+lads proceeded to select a sufficiency of the red and grey mullet for
+home use, and a brace for Sam Hardock, and then made a distribution of
+the rest, the men from the mine having gathered to look on and receive.
+Gwyn and Joe took a handle each of their rough basket, and began to
+trudge up the cliff path, stopping about half-way to look down at the
+people below.
+
+"I say, how Tom Dinass enjoys a job of this kind," said Gwyn, as he
+turned over their captives in the basket, and noted how rapidly their
+lovely colours began to fade.
+
+"Yes, better than mining," said Joe, thoughtfully.  "I say, why is he so
+precious fond of hunting about among the rocks at low-water?"
+
+"I don't know.  Is he?"
+
+"Yes.  I've watched him from my window several times.  I can just look
+over that rocky stretch that's laid bare by the tide."
+
+"Why, you can't see much from there," said Gwyn.
+
+"Yes I can.  I've got father's field-glass up, and I can see him quite
+plain.  I saw him yesterday morning just at daylight.  I'd been in
+father's room to give him his medicine, for his fever has been
+threatening to come back."
+
+"Trying to find a lobster or a crab or two."
+
+"People don't go lobstering with a hammer."
+
+"Expected to find a conger, then, and wanted the hammer to knock it
+down."
+
+Joe laughed.
+
+"You've got to hit a conger before you can knock it down.  Not easy with
+a hammer."
+
+"Well, what was he doing?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know, unless he was chipping the stones to try whether a
+vein of tin runs up there."
+
+"Well, it may," said Gwyn, thoughtfully.  "Why shouldn't it?"
+
+"I don't know why it shouldn't, but it isn't likely."
+
+"Why not, when the mine runs right under there."
+
+"What?  Nonsense!"
+
+"It does.  I was down that part with Sam Hardock one day when the wind
+was blowing hard, and Sam could hear the waves beat and the big boulders
+rumble tumbling after as they fell back."
+
+"How horrid!" said Joe, looking at his companion with his face drawn in
+accord with his words.  "Why didn't you tell me?"
+
+"Forgot all about it afterwards; never remembered it once till you began
+to talk like this."
+
+"But how strange!" said Joe.
+
+"Oh, I don't see why it should be strange.  The old folks found a rich
+vein, and when they did they followed it up wherever it went; and
+that's, of course, why it's such a rambling old place.  But that's what
+old Dinass is after.  He thinks that if he can find a new vein, he'll
+get a reward."
+
+"What a game if he finds one running out through the rocks!"
+
+"I don't see how it's going to be a game."
+
+"Don't you?  Why, to find that he has discovered what already belongs to
+us; for of course the foreshore's ours, and even if it wasn't he
+couldn't go digging down there for ore."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, for one thing, the waves wouldn't let him; and for another, we
+shouldn't allow him to dig a hole down into our mine.  There, come on,
+and let's take them some fish; and I want to get on my dry clothes.
+What are you thinking about?"
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"I said what are you thinking about?"
+
+"Tom Dinass."
+
+"Not a very pleasant subject either.  I get to like him less and less,
+and it's my opinion that if he gets half a chance he'll be doing
+something."
+
+"Hallo!"
+
+"Oh, here you are, Master Gwyn."
+
+"Yes; what's the matter, Sam?"
+
+"You'll know quite soon enough, sir.  Come on up to the mine.  Harry
+Vores has just gone back there.  It was him brought me the news."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.
+
+GRIP'S BAD LUCK.
+
+"Why don't you speak?" cried Gwyn, angrily.  "Has there been an
+accident?  Surely father hasn't gone down!"
+
+"Oh, the Colonel's all right, sir," said Hardock, genially.  "The
+gov'nor hasn't gone and lost himself."
+
+"But there has been an accident, Sam," cried Joe.
+
+"Nor the Major aren't gone down neither, sir," said the man.  "Here, let
+me carry that fish basket.  Didn't remember me with a couple o' mullet,
+did you?"
+
+"Yes, two of those are for you, Sam; but do speak out?  What is wrong?"
+
+"Something as you won't like, sir.  Your dog Grip's gone down the mine."
+
+"What for?  Thinks we're there?  Well, that's nothing; he'll soon find
+his way up.  Why did they let him go down?"
+
+"Couldn't help it, sir," said the man, slowly.
+
+"What--he would go?  I did miss him, Joe, when I went home.  I remember
+now, we didn't see him after we went to the mine.  He must have missed
+us, and then thought we had gone down."
+
+"Sets one thinking of being lost and his coming after us," said Joe,
+slowly.  "Well, he can't lose his way."
+
+"But how do you know he went down, Sam?" asked Gwyn, as they approached
+the mine.
+
+"Harry Vores heerd him."
+
+"What, barking?"
+
+"'Owlin'."
+
+"Oh, at the bottom of the shaft.  Dull because no one was down.  Then
+why did you suggest that there was an accident?  You gave me quite a
+turn."
+
+"'Cause there was an accident, sir," said Hardock, quietly; and he led
+the way into the great shed over the pit mouth, where all was very
+still.
+
+Gwyn saw at a glance that something serious had happened to the dog,
+which was lying on a roughly-made bed composed of a miner's flannel coat
+placed on the floor, beside which Harry Vores was kneeling; and as soon
+as the dog heard steps he raised his head, turned his eyes pitifully
+upon his master, and uttered a doleful howl.
+
+"Why, Grip, old chap, what have you been doing?" cried Gwyn, excitedly.
+
+"Don't torment him, sir," said Vores; "he's badly hurt."
+
+"Where?  Oh, Grip!  Grip!" cried Gwyn, as he laid his hand on the dog's
+head, while the poor beast whined dolefully, and made an effort to lick
+the hand that caressed him, as he gazed up at his master as if asking
+for sympathy and help.
+
+"Both his fore-legs are broken, sir, and I'm afraid he's got nipped
+across the loins as well."
+
+"Nay, nay, nay, Harry," growled Hardock; "not him.  If he had been he
+wouldn't have yowled till you heerd him."
+
+"Nipped?" said Gwyn.  "Then it wasn't a fall?"
+
+"Nay, sir; Harry Vores and me thinks he must ha' missed you, and thought
+you'd gone down the mine, and waited his chance and jumped on to the
+up-and-down to go down himself."
+
+"Oh, but the dog wouldn't have had sense enough to do that."
+
+"I dunno, sir.  Grip's got a wonderful lot o' sense of his own!  'Member
+how he found you two young gents in the mine!  Well, he's seen how the
+men step on and off the up-and-down, and he'd know how to do it.  He
+must, you know."
+
+"But some of the men would know," said Gwyn.
+
+"Dessay they do, sir, but they're all off work now, and we don't know
+who did.  Well, he must have had a hunt for you, and not smelling you,
+come back to the foot o' the shaft, and began to mount last thing, till
+he were close to the top, and then made a slip and got nipped.  That's
+how we think it was--eh, Harry?"
+
+"Yes, sir; that's all I can make of it," said Vores.  "I was coming by
+here when the men were all up, and the engine was stopped, and I heard a
+yowling, and last of all made out that it was down the shaft here; and I
+fetched Master Hardock and we got the engine started, and I went and
+found the poor dog four steps down, just ready to lick my hand, but he
+couldn't wag his tail, and that's what makes me think he's nipped."
+
+But just then Grip moved his tail feebly, a mere ghost of a wag.
+
+"There!" cried Hardock, triumphantly; "see that?  Why, if he'd been
+caught across the lines he'd have never wagged his tail again."
+
+"Poor old Grip," said Gwyn, tenderly; "that must have been it.  He tried
+too much.  Caught while coming up.  Here, let's look at your paw."
+
+The boy tenderly took hold of the dog's right paw, and he whined with
+pain, but made no resistance, only looked appealingly at his masters to
+let them examine the left leg.
+
+"Oh, there's no doubt about it, Joe; both legs have been crushed."
+
+Joe drew a low, hissing breath through his teeth.
+
+"It's 'most a wonder as both legs warn't chopped right off," said Vores.
+"Better for him, pore chap, if they had been."
+
+"Hadn't we better put him out of his misery, sir?" said Hardock.
+
+"Out of his misery!" cried Gwyn, indignantly.  "I should like to put you
+out of your misery."
+
+"Nay, you don't mean that, sir," said the captain, with a chuckle.
+
+"Kill my dog!" cried Gwyn.
+
+"You'll take his legs right off, won't you, sir, with a sharp knife?"
+said Vores.
+
+"No, I won't," cried Gwyn, fiercely.
+
+"Better for him, sir," said Vores.  "They'd heal up then."
+
+"But you can't give a dog a pair of wooden legs, matey," said Hardock,
+solemnly.  "If you cuts off his front legs, you'd have to cut off his
+hind-legs to match.  Well, he'd only be like one o' them turnspitty dogs
+then; and it always seems to me a turnspitty to let such cripply things
+live."
+
+"We must take him home, Joe," said Gwyn, who did not seem to heed the
+words uttered by the men.
+
+"Yes," said Joe.  "Poor old chap!" and he bent down to softly stroke the
+dog's head.
+
+"Better do it here, Master Gwyn," said Hardock.  "We'll take him into
+the engine-house to the wood block.  I know where the chopper's kept."
+
+"What!" cried Gwyn, in horror.  "Oh, you wretch!"
+
+"Nay, sir, not me.  It's the kindest thing you can do to him.  You
+needn't come.  Harry Vores'll hold him to the block, and I'll take off
+all four legs clean at one stroke and make a neat job of it, so as the
+wounds can heal."
+
+Gwyn leaped to his feet, seized the basket from where it had been placed
+upon the floor, tilted it upside down, so that the fish flew out over to
+one side of the shed, and turned sharply to Joe,--"Catch hold!" he said,
+as he let the great basket down; and setting the example, he took hold
+of one end of the flannel couch on which poor Grip lay.  Joe took the
+other, and together they lifted the dog carefully into the basket, where
+he subsided without a whine, his eyes seeming to say,--
+
+"Master knows best."
+
+"I'll carry him to the house, Mr Gwyn, sir," said Vores.
+
+"No, thank you," said the boy, shortly; "we can manage."
+
+"Didn't mean to offend you, sir," said the man, apologetically.  "Wanted
+to do what was best."
+
+"Ay, sir, that we did," said Hardock.  "I'm afeard if you get binding up
+his legs, they'll go all mortificatory and drop off; and a clear cut's
+better than that, for if his legs mortify like, he'll die.  If they're
+ampitated, he'll bleed a bit, but he'll soon get well."
+
+"Thank you both," said Gwyn, quietly.  "I know you did not mean harm,
+but we can manage to get him right, I think.  Come along, Joe."
+
+They lifted the basket, one at each end, swinging the dog between them,
+and started off, Grip whining softly, but not attempting to move.
+
+"Shall we bring on the fish, sir?" shouted Hardock.
+
+"Bother the fish!" cried Gwyn.  "No; take it yourselves."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY.
+
+A BIT OF SURGERY.
+
+"Oh, Gwyn, my dear boy," cried Mrs Pendarve, who was picking flowers
+for the supper-table as the boys came up to the gate, "what is the
+matter?"
+
+"Grip's legs broken," said the boy, abruptly.  "Where's father?"
+
+"In the vinery, my dear.  What are you going to do?  Let me see if--"
+
+"No, no, mother, we'll manage," said Gwyn; "come along, Joe."
+
+They hurried down the garden, and up to where the sloping glass
+structure stood against the wall, from out of which came the sound of
+the Colonel's manly voice, as he trolled out a warlike ditty in French,
+with a chorus of "Marchons!  Marchons!" and at every word grapeshot fell
+to the ground, for the Colonel, in spite of the suggestions of war, was
+peacefully engaged, being seated on the top of a pair of steps thinning
+out the grapes which hung from the roof.
+
+"Here, father, quick!" cried Gwyn, as they entered the vinery.
+
+"Eh?  Hullo!  What's the matter?"
+
+"Grip's been on the man-engine and got his fore-legs crushed."
+
+"Dear me!  Poor old dog!" said the Colonel, descending from the ladder
+and sticking his long scissors like a dagger through the bottom
+button-hole of his coat.  "Then we must play the part of surgeon, my
+boy.  Not the first time, Joe.  Clap the lid on the tank."
+
+The wooden cover was placed upon the galvanised-iron soft-water tank,
+and poor Grip, who looked wistfully up in the Colonel's eyes, was lifted
+out and laid carefully upon the top, while the Colonel took off his coat
+and turned up his sleeves in the most business-like manner.
+
+"I remember out at Bongay Wandoon, boys, after a sharp fight with a lot
+of fanatical Ghazis, who came up as I was alone with my company, we had
+ten poor fellows cut and hacked about and no surgeon within a couple of
+hundred miles, which meant up there in the mountains at least a week
+before we could get help.  It was all so unexpected, no fighting being
+supposed to be possible, that I was regularly taken by surprise when the
+wretches had been driven off, and I found myself there with the ten poor
+fellows on my hands.  I was only a young captain then, and I felt
+regularly knocked over; but, fortunately, I'd a good sergeant, and we
+went over to my lieutenant, who had been one of the first to go down.
+But he wouldn't have a cut touched till the men had been seen to.  I'm
+afraid my surgery was a very bungling affair, but the sergeant and I did
+our best, and we didn't lose a patient.  Our surgeon made sad fun of it
+all when he saw what we had done, and he snarled and found fault, and
+abused me to his heart's content; but some time after he came and begged
+my pardon, and shook hands, and asked me to let him show me all he could
+in case I should ever be in such a fix again.  Consequently, I often
+used to go and help him when we had men cut down.  I liked learning, and
+it pleased the men, too, and taught me skill.  Poor old dog, then; no
+snapping.  The poor fellow's legs are regularly crushed, as if he had
+been hit with an iron bar used like a scythe."
+
+"Crushed in the man-engine, father," said Gwyn.
+
+"Ah, yes, that must have done it.  Well, Gwyn, my boy, a doctor would
+say here in a case like this--`amputation.  I can't save the limbs.'"
+
+"Oh, father, it is so horrible!"
+
+"Yes, my boy, but you want to save the poor fellow's life."
+
+"Can't anything be done, sir?" said Joe.
+
+"Humph!  Well, we might try," said the Colonel, as he tenderly
+manipulated the dog's legs, the animal only whining softly, and seeming
+to understand that he was being properly treated.  "Yes, we will try.
+Here, Joe Jollivet, go and ask Mrs Pendarve to give you about
+half-a-dozen yards of linen for a bandage, and bring back a big needle
+and thick thread."
+
+"Yes, sir," and Joe hurried out; but soon poked his head in again.
+"Don't get it all done, sir, till I've come back.  I want to see."
+
+"Can't till you come, boy.  Off with you.  Now, Gwyn, fill the
+watering-pot.  I'll lift the lid of the tank."
+
+The pot was filled and the dog placed back again.
+
+"Now fetch that bag of plaster-of-Paris from the tool-house," said the
+Colonel.
+
+This was soon done, and a portion of the white cement poured out into a
+flower-pot.
+
+"Is that good healing stuff, father?" asked Gwyn.
+
+"No, but it will help.  Wait a bit, and you'll see," said the Colonel;
+and he once more softly felt the dog's crushed and splintered legs,
+shaking his head gravely the while.
+
+"Don't you think you can save his legs, father?" asked Gwyn.
+
+"I'm very much in doubt, my boy," said the Colonel, knitting his brows;
+but dogs have so much healthy life in them, and heal up so rapidly, that
+we'll try.  Now, then, how long is that boy going to be with those
+bandages?  Oh, here he is.
+
+Gwyn opened the door, and Joe hurried in.
+
+"Hah! that will do," said the Colonel; and cutting off two pieces a yard
+long, he thrust them into the watering-pot, soaked them, wrung them out,
+and then rolled both in the flower-pot amongst the plaster-of-Paris.
+
+Then washing his hands, he took one of the injured legs, laid the broken
+bones in as good order as he could; and as Gwyn held the bandage ready,
+the leg was placed in it and bound round and round and drawn tight, the
+dog not so much as uttering a whimper, while after a few turns, the limp
+lump seemed to grow firmer.  Then the bandaging was continued till all
+the wet linen was used, when the Colonel well covered the moist material
+with dry plaster, which was rapidly absorbed; and taking a piece of the
+dry bandage, thoroughly bound up the limb, threaded the big needle, and
+sewed the end of the linen firmly, and then the dog was turned right
+over for the other leg to be attacked.
+
+"Well, he is a good, patient beast," said Gwyn, proudly.  "But you don't
+think he's dying, do you, father?" he added anxiously.
+
+"Speak to him, and try," said the Colonel.
+
+Gwyn spoke, and the dog responded by tapping the cistern lid with his
+tail very softly, and then whined piteously, for the Colonel in placing
+the splintered bones as straight as he could was inflicting a great deal
+of pain.
+
+"Can't help it, Canis, my friend," said the Colonel.  "If you are to get
+better I want it to be with straight legs, and not to have you a
+miserable odd-legged cripple.  There, I shall soon be done.  That
+bandage is too dry, Gwyn; moisten it again.  Wring it out.  That's
+right; now dip it in the plaster."
+
+"What's that for, sir?" said Joe, who was looking on eagerly.
+
+"What do you think?" replied the Colonel.  "Now, Gwyn, right under, and
+hold it like a hammock while I lay the leg in.  I'm obliged to hold it
+firmly to keep the bones in their places.  Now, right over and tighten
+it.  That's it.  Round again.  Now go on.  Round and round.  Well done.
+Now I'll finish.  Well," he continued, as he took the ends of the
+bandage and braced the dog's leg firmly, "why do I use this nasty white
+plaster, Joe?"
+
+"Because it will set hard and stiff round the broken leg."
+
+"Good boy," said the Colonel, smiling, "take him up; Gwyn didn't see
+that."
+
+"Yes I did, father; but I didn't like to bother you and speak."
+
+"Then stop where you are, boy.  Keep down, Joe; he behaved the better of
+the two.  You are both right; the plaster and the linen will mould
+themselves as they dry to the shape of the dog's legs, and if we can
+keep him from trying to walk and breaking the moulds, Nature may do the
+rest.  At all events, we will try.  When the linen is firm, I'll bind
+splints of wood to them as well, so as to strengthen the plaster, though
+it is naturally very firm."
+
+"It will be a job to keep him quiet, father," said Gwyn.
+
+"I'm afraid so, my boy.  Not, however, till the plaster sets; that
+cannot take very long, and we shall have to hold him down if it's
+necessary; but I don't think it will be.  Poor fellow, he'll very likely
+go to sleep."
+
+As he spoke, the Colonel was busily employed finishing the bandaging,
+and when this was done he stood thinking, while the dog lay quiet
+enough, blinking at those who had been operating upon him.
+
+"We might secure his legs somehow," said the Colonel, thoughtfully; "for
+all our success depends upon the next hour."
+
+But Grip solved the difficulty by stretching himself out on one side
+with his bandaged legs together, and, closing his eyes, went off fast
+asleep, with the boys watching him--the Colonel having gone into the
+house, for it had turned too dark for him to go on grape-thinning long
+before the canine surgery was at an end.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY ONE.
+
+A MAN'S PURSUITS.
+
+The boys watched beside the dog till past ten o'clock, when the Colonel
+came in and examined the bandages.
+
+"Set quite hard," he said, "and he's sleeping fast enough.  Nature
+always seems kind to injured animals.  They curl up and go to sleep till
+they're better."
+
+"Then you think he'll get better, sir?" said Joe.
+
+"Can't say, my boy; but you had better be off home to bed."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Joe.  "Coming part of the way with me, Gwyn?"
+
+Gwyn glanced at his father before saying yes, for he expected to hear an
+objection.
+
+But the Colonel's attention was fixed upon the dog.
+
+"Let him sleep," he said; "he'll be all right here till morning."
+
+"But if he stirs, he may fall off the cistern and hurt himself again,
+father."
+
+"No fear, my boy.  I don't suppose he will attempt to move all night.
+There, off with you, Gwyn, if you are going part of the way."
+
+The boys followed the Colonel out of the vinery, the door was shut, and
+the ascending lane leading to the Major's house was soon reached, and
+then the rugged down.
+
+"Precious dark," said Gwyn; but there was no answer.  "Sleep, Jolly?"
+said Gwyn, after a few moments.
+
+"Eh?  No; I was thinking.  I say, though, how precious dark it is;" for
+they could not see a dozen yards.
+
+"Yes, but what were you thinking about?"
+
+"The dog."
+
+"Oh, yes, of course, so was I; but what about him?" said Gwyn, sharply.
+
+"How he got hurt?"
+
+"Chopped in the man-engine.  You heard."
+
+"Yes, but I don't believe it."
+
+"Here's a miserable unbeliever," said Gwyn, mockingly.  "How did he get
+hurt, then?"
+
+"Someone did it."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!  It isn't likely.  The machine did it, same as it would
+you or me if we weren't careful."
+
+"But that wasn't how poor old Grip was hurt."
+
+"How then?"
+
+"I feel sure he was hurt with an iron bar."
+
+"Why, who would hurt him in that brutal way?"
+
+"Someone who hated him."
+
+"Gammon!"
+
+"Very well--gammon, then.  But when did we see him last?"
+
+"Last?  Last?  Oh, I know; when we went to the smelting-house to find
+Tom Dinass."
+
+"Well, we left him behind there.  The door must have swung-to and shut
+him in."
+
+"Then you think Tom Dinass did it."
+
+"Yes, I do."
+
+"Then I say it's all prejudice.  Tom's turning out a thoroughly good
+fellow.  See how willing he was over the fishing, and how he helped us
+this evening.  You're always picking holes in Tom Dinass's coat.  What's
+that?"
+
+A peculiar loud sneeze rang out suddenly from across the rough moorland
+to their right, where the blocks of granite lay thick.
+
+"Tom Dinass," said Joe, in a whisper; and he stepped quickly behind a
+block of stone, Gwyn involuntarily following him.  "That's his way of
+sneezing," whispered Joe.  "What's he doing over here to-night?"
+
+The boys stood there perfectly silent; and directly after there was a
+faint rustling, and the figure of a man was seen upon the higher ground
+against the skyline for a minute or so, as he passed them, crossing
+their track, and apparently making for the cliffs.
+
+Their view was indistinct, but the man seemed to be carrying something
+over his shoulder.  Then he was gone.
+
+"Going congering," said Gwyn.  "He's making for the way down the rocks,
+so as to get to the point."
+
+"He wouldn't go congering to-night," said Joe.  "We gave him as much
+fish as he'd want."
+
+"Going for the sport of the thing."
+
+"Down that dangerous way in the dark?"
+
+"I daresay he knows it all right, and it saves him from going round by
+the fishermen's cottages--half-a-mile or more."
+
+"'Tisn't that," said Joe.
+
+"What an obstinate old mule you are, Jolly," cried Gwyn, impatiently;
+"you don't like Tom Dinass, and everything he does makes you
+suspicious."
+
+"Well, do you like him?"
+
+"No; but I don't always go pecking at him and accusing him of smashing
+dogs' legs with iron stoking-bars.  It wouldn't be a man who would do
+that; he'd be a regular monster."
+
+"Let's go and see what he's after," said Joe.
+
+"What, late like this in the dark?"
+
+"Yes; you're not afraid are you?  I want to know what he's about.  I'm
+sure he's doing something queer."
+
+"I'm not afraid to go anywhere where you go," said Gwyn, stoutly; "but
+of all the suspicious old women that ever were, you're getting about the
+worst."
+
+"Come along, then."
+
+"All right," said Gwyn; "but if he finds us watching him throwing out a
+conger-line, he'll break our legs with an iron bar and pitch us off the
+cliff."
+
+"Yes, you may laugh," said Joe, thoughtfully, "but I'm sure Tom Dinass
+is playing some game."
+
+"Let's go and play with him, then.  Only make haste, because I must get
+back."
+
+Joe led the way cautiously off to their left, in and out among the
+stones and patches of furze and bramble, till they neared the edge of
+the cliff, when they went more and more cautiously, till a jagged piece
+of crag stood up, showing where the precipice began; and to the left of
+this was the rather perilous way by which an active man could get down
+to the mass of tumbled rocks at the cliff foot, and from there walk
+right out on the western point which sheltered the cove from the fierce
+wind and waves.
+
+"All nonsense, Jolly," whispered Gwyn after they had stood for a few
+moments gazing down at where the waves broke softly with a
+phosphorescent light.  "I won't go."
+
+But as the boy spoke there was a loud clink from far below, as if an
+iron bar had struck against a stone, and the lad's heart began to beat
+hard with excitement.
+
+Then all was silent again for nearly five minutes, and the darkness, the
+faint, pale, lambent light shed by the waves, and the silence, produced
+a strange shrinking sensation that was almost painful.
+
+"Shall we go down?" said Joe, in a whisper.
+
+"And break our necks?  No, thank you.  There, come back, he has only
+gone to set a line for conger."
+
+"Hist!" whispered Joe, for at that moment, plainly heard, there came up
+to where they stood a peculiar thumping sound, as of a mason working
+with a tamping-iron upon stone.
+
+"Now," whispered Joe.  "What does he mean by that?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY TWO.
+
+MINING MATTERS.
+
+The boys stayed there some time listening to the clinking sound, and
+then, feeling obliged to go, they hurried away.
+
+"Tell you what," said Gwyn, as they parted at last, "we'll wait till he
+has gone down the mine to-morrow morning, and then either go by the
+cliff or round by the cove head, and see what he has been about.  I say
+it's a conger-line, and we may find one on."
+
+"Perhaps so," said Joe, thoughtfully.  "Ydoll, old chap, I don't like
+Tom Dinass."
+
+"Nor I, neither.  But what's the matter now?"
+
+"I'm afraid he broke poor Grip's legs."
+
+"What?  Nonsense!  He wouldn't be such a brute.  No man would."
+
+"Well, I hope not; but I can't help thinking sometimes that he did.  You
+see, the smelting-house door might have swung-to and shut him in with
+Dinass and he might have flown at him, and Dinass might have struck at
+him with one of the stoking-irons and broken his legs, and then been
+afraid and thrown him down the mine."
+
+"And pigs might fly, but they're very unlikely birds."
+
+"Well, we shall see," said Joe; and he hurried home to find his father
+asleep, while Gwyn, before going in, went on tiptoe to the vinery and
+crept in, to hear the dog snoring.  Satisfied with this, he walked round
+the house fully prepared to receive a scolding for being so long, and
+feeling disposed to take refuge in the excuse that he had been to see
+the dog; but no lights were visible, everyone having retired to rest,
+the leaving of doors unfastened not being considered a matter of much
+moment at that secluded place.
+
+So Gwyn crept to bed unheard, and had no need to make a shuffling
+excuse, and slept late the next morning, to find at breakfast time his
+father had been out to the dog.
+
+"How is he?  Oh, better than I expected to find him?  He is not disposed
+to eat, only to sleep--and the best thing for him.  The bandages are as
+hard as stone.  Storm coming, I think, my dear."
+
+"We must not complain," said Mrs Pendarve.  "We have had lovely
+weather."
+
+"I don't complain, and should not unless the waves washed up into the
+mine, and gave us a week's pumping; but we should want monsters for
+that."
+
+The Colonel was right, for there was nearly a month's bad weather,
+during which the waves came thundering in all along the coast, and no
+fishing-boats went out; and as no opportunity occurred for getting down
+to the point, which was a wild chaos of foam, the strange behaviour of
+Tom Dinass was forgotten.
+
+There were busy days, too, in the mine, stolen from those passed in
+superintending the tremendous output of tin ore.  The men worked below
+and above, and the Colonel and Major shook hands as they congratulated
+themselves upon their adventure, it being evident now that a year of
+such prosperity would nearly, if not quite, recoup them for their outlay
+in machinery, they having started without the terribly expensive task of
+sinking the mine through the rock.  All that they had had to do was to
+pump out the first excavation, and then begin raising rich tin ore for
+crushing, washing, and smelting.
+
+The stolen days were devoted to making explorations and mapping out the
+mine.  There were no more goings astray, for gallery after gallery was
+marked in paint or whitewash with arrows, so that by degrees most of the
+intricacies, which formed a gigantic network, were followed and marked,
+and in these explorations abundant proof was given of the enormous
+wealth waiting to be quarried out.
+
+There was no wonder felt now that those who had gone down first should
+have lost themselves.
+
+"Wonder to me is, Mr Gwyn," said Hardock one day, "that we any on us
+come up again alive."
+
+So they kept on exploring, and, well furnished with lights, the lads
+found the great hall with its pillars of quartz veined with tin, and
+strange passages going in different directions, far less horrible now.
+There was the gallery which dipped down too, one which they found their
+way to now from both ends.  It looked gloomy and strange, with the
+whispering sounds of falling water and the reflections from the candles
+on the shining black surface; but knowledge had robbed it of its
+horrors.
+
+"Go through it again?" said Gwyn, as they stood looking along it; "to be
+sure I would, only I don't want to get wet through for nothing.  When we
+did wade through, Sam, one was always expecting to put one's foot in a
+shaft or in a well, and go down, never to come up again."
+
+"Ay, that would make you feel squirmy, sir."
+
+"It did," said Gwyn, laughing.  "But, I say, wasn't Grip a splendid old
+fellow? and how he knew!  Fancy his swimming right along here!"
+
+"Ay, he is a dog," said Sam.  "How is he, sir?"
+
+"Oh, he'll soon be out again; but father wants to keep him chained up
+till his bones are properly grown together."
+
+"He'll have to run dot and go one, I suppose, sir?"
+
+"What, lame?" cried Gwyn.  "Very little, I think.  We can't tell yet,
+because his legs are stiff with so much bandaging.  I say, Sam, you fall
+down the shaft and break your legs, and we'll put 'em in plaster for
+you."
+
+"No thank ye, sir," said the man, grinning, as he stopped to snuff his
+candle with Nature's own snuffers.  "I never had no taste for breaking
+bones.  Now, then, we'll go round by a bit I come to one day, if you
+don't mind a long walk back.  Take us another two hours, but the floor's
+even, and I want to have a look at it."
+
+"What sort of a place is it?" said Gwyn; "anything worth seeing?"
+
+"Not much to see, sir, only it's one of the spots where the old miners
+left off after going along to the west.  Strikes me it's quite the end
+that way.  And I want to make sure that we've found one end of the old
+pit."
+
+"Does the place seem worn out?" said Joe, who had been listening in
+silence.
+
+"That's it, sir.  Lode seems to have grown a bit narrower, and run up
+edge-wise like."
+
+"Why, we went there," said Joe, eagerly.  "Don't you remember, Ydoll?"
+
+"Yes, I remember now.  I'd forgotten it, though.  I say!  Hark; you can
+hear quite a murmuring if you put your ear against the wall."
+
+"Yes, sir, you can hear it plainly enough in several places."
+
+"Don't you remember, Ydoll, how we heard it when we were wet?"
+
+"Now you talk about it, I do, of course," said Gwyn; "but, somehow,
+being down here as we were, I seemed to be stunned, and it has always
+been hard work to recollect all we went through.  I'd forgotten lots of
+these galleries and pools and roofs, just as one forgets a dream, while,
+going through them again, they all seem to come back fresh and I know
+them as well as can be.  But what makes this faint rumbling, Sam?  Is it
+one of the little trucks rumbling along in the distance?"
+
+"No, sir," said Hardock, with a chuckle.  "What do you say it is, Master
+Joe?"
+
+The lad listened in silence for a few moments, and then said slowly,--
+
+"Well, if I didn't know that it was impossible, I should say that we
+were listening to the waves breaking on the shore."
+
+"It aren't impossible, sir, and that's what you're doing," said Hardock;
+and the boys started as if to make for the foot of the shaft.
+
+"What's the matter," said Hardock, chuckling.  "'Fraid of its bursting
+through?"
+
+"I don't know--yes," said Gwyn.  "What's to prevent it?"
+
+"Solid rock overhead, sir.  It's lasted long enough, so I don't see much
+to fear."
+
+"But it sounds so horrible," cried Joe, who suddenly found that the
+gallery in which they were standing felt suffocatingly hot.
+
+"Oh, it's nothing when you're used to it.  There's other mines bein'
+worked right under the sea.  There's no danger so long as we don't cut a
+hole through to let the water in; and we sha'n't do that."
+
+"But how thick is the rock over our heads?"
+
+"Can't say, sir, but thick enough."
+
+"But is it just over our heads here?"
+
+"Well, I should say it warn't, sir; but I can't quite tell, because it's
+so deceiving.  I've tried over and over to make it out, but one time it
+sounds loudest along there, another time in one of the other galleries.
+It's just as it happens.  Sound's a very curious thing, as I've often
+noticed down a mine, for I've listened to the men driving holes in the
+rock to load for a blast, and it's quite wonderful how you hear it
+sometimes in a gallery ever so far off, and how little when you're close
+to.  Come along.  No fear of the water coming in, or I'd soon say let's
+get to grass."
+
+The boys did not feel much relieved, but they would not show their
+anxiety, and followed the mining captain with the pulsation of their
+hearts feeling a good deal heavier; and they went on for nearly an hour
+before they reached the spot familiar to them, one which recalled the
+difficulty they had had with Grip when he ran up the passage, and stood
+barking at the end, as if eager to show them that it was a _cul-de-sac_.
+
+Hardock went right to the end, and spent some time examining the place
+before speaking.
+
+Then he began to point out the marks made by picks, hammers, and
+chisels, some of which were so high up that he declared that the miners
+must have had short ladders or platforms.
+
+"Ladders, I should say," he muttered; "and the mining must have been
+stopped for some reason, because the lode aren't broken off.  There's
+plenty of ore up there if we wanted it, and maybe we shall some day, but
+not just yet.  There's enough to be got to make your fathers rich men
+without going very far from the shaft foot; and all this shows me that
+it must have been very, very long ago, when people only got out the
+richest of the stuff, and left those who came after 'em to scrape all
+the rest.  There, I think that will do for to-day."
+
+The boys thought so, too, though they left this part rather reluctantly,
+for it was cooler, but the idea of going along through galleries which
+extended beneath the sea was anything but reassuring.
+
+That evening the Major came over to the cottage with his son, and the
+long visit of the boys underground during the day formed one of the
+topics chatted over, the Major seeming quite concerned.
+
+"I had no idea of this," he said.  "Highly dangerous.  You had not been
+told, Pendarve, of course."
+
+"No," said the Colonel, smiling, "I had not been told; but I shrewdly
+suspected that this was the case, especially after hearing the faint
+murmuring sound in places."
+
+"But we shall be having some catastrophe," cried the Major--"the water
+breaking in."
+
+The Colonel smiled.
+
+"I don't think we need fear that.  The galleries are all arch-roofed and
+cut through the solid rock, and, as far as I have seen, there has not
+been a single place where the curves have failed.  If they have not
+broken in from the pressure of the millions of tons of rock overhead,
+why should they from the pressure of the water?"
+
+"Oh, but a leak might commence from filtration, and gradually increase
+in size," said the Major.
+
+"Possibly, my dear boy," replied the Colonel; "but water works slowly
+through stone, and for the next hundred years I don't think any leakage
+could take place that we should not master with our pumping gear.  Oh,
+absurd!  There is no danger.  Just try and think out how long this mine
+has been worked.  I am quite ready to believe that it was left us by the
+ancient Britons who supplied the Phoenicians."
+
+"May be, we cannot tell," said the Major, warmly; "but you cannot deny
+that we found the mine full of water."
+
+"No, and I grant that if we leave it alone for a hundred years it will
+be full again."
+
+"From the sea?"
+
+"No; from filtration through the rock.  The water we pumped out was
+fresh, not salt.  There, my dear Jollivet, pray don't raise a bugbear
+that might scare the men and make them nervous.  They are bad enough
+with what they fancy about goblins and evil spirits haunting the mine.
+Even Hardock can't quite divest himself of the idea that there is danger
+from gentry of that kind.  Don't introduce water-sprites as well."
+
+The subject dropped; but that night, impressed as they had been by what
+they had heard, and partly from partaking too liberally of a late
+supper, both Gwyn and Joe had dreams about the sea breaking into and
+flooding the mine, Gwyn dreaming in addition that he behaved in a very
+gallant way.  For he seemed to find the hole through which the water
+passed in, and stopped it by thrusting in his arm, which stuck fast,
+and, try how he would, he could not extricate it, but stood there with
+the water gradually stifling him, and preventing him from calling aloud
+for help.
+
+The heat and darkness at last rescued him from his perilous position--
+that is to say, he awoke to find himself lying upon his back with his
+face beneath the clothes; and these being thrown off, he saw that the
+morning sunshine was flooding the bedroom, and the memory of the
+troublous dream rapidly died away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY THREE.
+
+AFTER A LAPSE.
+
+"That makes the fourth," said Colonel Pendarve, tossing a letter across
+to his son in the office one morning when the mine was in full work;
+"four proposals from Mr Dix, and I have had three at intervals from
+that other legal luminary, Brownson.  Seven applications to buy the mine
+in two years, Gwyn.  Yes, it will be two years next week since we began
+mining, and in those two years you and Joe Jollivet have grown to be
+almost men--quite men in some respects, though you don't shave yet."
+
+"Yes, I do, father," said Gwyn, smiling.
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated the Colonel, "then it's an utter waste of time.
+There, answer that letter and say emphatically No."
+
+The Colonel left the office, and Gwyn read the letter.
+
+"Look here, Joe," he said; and Joe Jollivet, who had climbed up to six
+feet in the past two years, slowly rose from his table at the other side
+of the office, unfolding himself, as it were, like a carpenter's
+double-hinged rule, and crossed to where Gwyn was seated with his table
+covered with correspondence.
+
+Joe read the letter, and threw it back.
+
+"Well," he said, "it's a pity they don't sell it; but it's the old
+story: father says `No,' as he has started mining and it pays, he shall
+go on, so that I may succeed him."
+
+"And Colonel Pendarve, ex-officer of cavalry and now half-proprietor of
+Ydoll Mine, says precisely the same on behalf of his fine, noble,
+handsome son Gwyn.  Look here, Joe, why don't you drop it, and swell out
+the other way?"
+
+"Going to begin that poor stuff again?" said Joe, sourly.
+
+"You make me.  I declare I believe you've grown another inch in the
+night.  What a jolly old cucumber you are!  You'll have to go on your
+knees next time you go down the mine."
+
+"You answer your letter, and then I want to talk to you."
+
+"What about?"
+
+"I'll tell you directly you've written your letter.  Get one piece of
+business out of your way at a time."
+
+"Dear me; how methodical we are," said Gwyn; but he began writing his
+answer, while, instead of going back to his table, Joe crossed to the
+hearthrug, where Grip was lying curled up asleep, and bending down
+slowly he patted the dog's head and rubbed his ears, receiving an
+intelligent look in return, while the curly feathery tail rapped the
+rug.
+
+"There you are, Mr Lawyer Dix, Esquire," said Gwyn, after dashing off
+the reply; "now, don't bother us any more, for we are not going to
+sell--Hi!  Grip, old man, rabbits!"
+
+The dog sprang to his feet uttered a sharp bark, and ran to the door
+before realising that it meant nothing; and then, without the sign of a
+limp, walked slowly back and lay down growling.
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed Gwyn; "says `You're not going to humbug me again like
+that,' as plain as a dog can speak."
+
+"Well, it's too bad," said Joe.  "Think of the boy who cried `wolf.'
+Some day when you want him he won't come."
+
+"Oh, yes, he will; Grip knows me.  Come here, old man."
+
+The dog sprang to him, rose on his hind-legs, and put his fore-paws on
+his master's hands.
+
+"Only a game, was it, Grippy?  You understand your master, don't you?"
+
+The dog gave a joyous bark.
+
+"There; says he does."
+
+"Don't fool about, I want to talk to you," said Joe, sternly.
+
+"All right, old lively.  How was the governor this morning?  You look as
+if you'd taken some of his physic by mistake.  Now, Grip, how are your
+poor legs?"
+
+"_Ahow-w-ow_!" howled the dog, throwing up his muzzle and making a most
+dismal sound.
+
+"Feel the change in the weather?"
+
+A bark.
+
+"Do you, now?  But they are quite strong again, aren't they?"
+
+"_How-how-ow-ow_" yelped the dog.
+
+"Here, what made you begin talking about that?"
+
+"What?  His broken legs?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Pride, I suppose, in our cure.  Or nonsense, just to tease the dog.  He
+always begins to howl when I talk about his legs.  Don't you, Grip?
+Poor old cripple, then."
+
+"Ahow!" yelped the dog.
+
+"Why did you ask?"
+
+"Because it seemed curious.  I say, Gwyn, I believe I did that man an
+injustice."
+
+"What man an injustice?" said Gwyn, who was pretending to tie the dog's
+long silky ears in a knot across his eyes.
+
+"Tom Dinass."
+
+The dog bounded from where he stood on his hind-legs resting on his
+master's knees, and burst into a furious fit of barking.
+
+"Hark at him!" cried Gwyn.  "Talk about dogs being intelligent animals?
+It's wonderful.  He never liked the fellow.  Hi!  Tom Dinass there.  Did
+he break your legs, Grip?"
+
+The dog barked furiously, and ended with a savage growl.
+
+"Just like we are," said Gwyn, "like some people, and hate others.  I
+begin to think you were right, Joe, and he did do it."
+
+"Oh, no--impossible!"
+
+"Well, it doesn't matter.  He's gone."
+
+"No, he has not," said Joe, quietly.  "He has been hanging about here
+ever since he left six months ago."
+
+"What!  I've never seen him."
+
+"I have, and he has spoken to me over and over again."
+
+"Why, you never told me."
+
+"No, but I thought a good deal about it."
+
+"What did he say to you?"
+
+"That it was very hard for a man who had done his best for the mine to
+be turned away all of a sudden just because Sam Hardock and the fellows
+hated him."
+
+"He wouldn't have been turned away for that.  But as father said, when a
+man strikes his superior officer he must be punished, or there would be
+no discipline in a corps."
+
+"I daresay Sam Hardock exasperated him first."
+
+"Well, you often exasperate me, Jolly, but I don't take up a miner's
+hammer and knock you down."
+
+"No," said Joe, thinking in a pensive way; "you're a good patient
+fellow.  But he said it was very hard for a man to be thrown out of work
+for six months for getting in a bit of temper."
+
+"Bit of temper, indeed!  I should think it was!  I tell you it was
+murderous!  Why don't he go and get taken on at some other mine?  There
+are plenty in Cornwall, and he's a good workman.  Let him go where he
+isn't known, and not hang about here."
+
+"He says he has tried, and he wants to come back."
+
+"And you and me to put up a petition for him!"
+
+"Yes, that's it."
+
+"Then we just won't--will we, Grip?  We don't want any Tom Dinass here,
+do we?"
+
+The dog growled furiously.
+
+"Don't set the dog against him, Ydoll.  I did accuse him of having done
+that, but he looked at me in a horrified way, and said I couldn't know
+what I was saying, to charge him with such a thing.  He said he'd sooner
+cut his hand off than injure a dog like that."
+
+"And we don't believe him, do we, Grip?  Why, you've quite changed your
+colours, Jolly.  You used to be all against him, and now you're all for,
+and it's I who go against him."
+
+"But you don't want to be unjust, Ydoll?"
+
+"Not a bit of it.  I'm going to be always as just as Justice.  There,
+let's get to work again.  I've a lot of letters to write."
+
+"One minute, Ydoll.  I want you to oblige me in something."
+
+"If it's to borrow tuppence, I can't."
+
+"Don't be stupid.  I've spoken to father about Tom Dinass."
+
+The dog growled furiously.
+
+"There, you've set him off.  Quiet, sir!" cried Gwyn.
+
+"It's your doing.  You worry the dog into barking like that.  But look
+here; father said he did not like to see men idle, and that Dinass had
+been well punished, and he would consent if the Colonel agreed.  So I
+want you to help me."
+
+"I can't, Jolly, really."
+
+"Yes you can, and you must," said Joe, glancing uneasily towards the
+door.  "For I told him he might come and see the Colonel; and if we ask
+him, I'm sure he'll give way.  Say you'll help me."
+
+"I can't, old man."
+
+"Yes, you can, and will.  Let's be forgiving.  I told him he might come
+and see you and talk to you as he did to me, and it's just his time.
+Yes; there he is."
+
+For there was a step at the outside, and Joe went quickly to the door.
+
+"Come in, Tom," said Joe.
+
+The man, looking very much tattered and very humble, came in, hat in
+hand.
+
+"Mornin', sir," he said softly.  Then his eyes seemed to lash fire, and
+with a savage look he threw out his arms, for with one furious growl the
+dog leaped at him, and fastened upon the roll of cotton neckerchief
+which was wrapped about his throat.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.
+
+TOM DINASS SHOWS HIS TEETH.
+
+Gwyn sprang from his seat, dashed at the dog, and caught him by the
+collar.
+
+"Grip!  Down!" he roared.  "Let go--let--go!"
+
+He dragged at the furious beast, while Dinass wrenched himself away.
+Then there was a struggle, and Gwyn roared out,--
+
+"Open the door, Joe.  Quick!  I can't hold him."
+
+The door was flung open, and, with the dog fighting desperately to get
+free, Gwyn hung on to the collar, passed quickly, and dragged the dog
+after him right out of the office; then swung him round and round,
+turning himself as on a pivot, let go, and the animal went flying,
+while, before he could regain his feet, Gwyn had darted inside and
+banged-to the door, standing against it panting.
+
+"I don't think you need want to come back here, Master Tom Dinass," he
+cried.
+
+_Bang_!
+
+The dog had dashed himself at the door, and now stood barking furiously
+till his master ran to the window and opened it.
+
+"Go home, sir!" he roared; but the dog barked and bayed at him, raised
+his feet to the sill, and would have sprung in, had not Gwyn nearly
+closed the sash.  "Go home, sir!" he shouted again; and after a few more
+furiously given orders, the dog's anger burned less fiercely.  He began
+to whine as if protesting, and finally, on receiving a blow from a
+walking cane thrust through the long slit between sash and window-sill,
+he uttered a piteous yelp, lowered his tail, and went off home.
+
+"Don't seem to take to me somehow, Mr Gwyn, sir," said the man.  "The
+chaps used to set him again' me."
+
+"Are you hurt?"
+
+"No, I aren't hurt, but I wonder he didn't get it.  Puts a man's monkey
+up and makes him forget whose dorg it is."
+
+"Look here, Tom Dinass," said Gwyn, quickly.  "Did you ever forget whose
+dog he was, and ill-use him?"
+
+"Me, Mr Gwyn, sir?  Now is it likely?" protested the man.
+
+"Yes; very likely; he flew at you.  Did you hurt him that time when he
+was found down the man-engine?"
+
+"Why, that's what Mr Joe Jollivet said, sir, ever so long ago, and I
+telled him I'd sooner have cut off my right-hand.  'Taren't likely as
+I'd do such a thing to a good young master's dog."
+
+"Now, no cant, sir, because I don't believe in it.  Look here, you'd
+better go somewhere else and get work."
+
+"Can't, sir," said the man, bluntly; "and as for the dog, if you'll let
+me come back and tell him it's friends he'll soon get used to me again.
+I seem to belong to this mine, and I couldn't be happy nowheres else.
+Don't say you won't speak for a poor fellow, Mr Gwyn, sir.  You know I
+always did my work, and I was always ready to row or pull at the net or
+do anything you young gen'lemen wanted me to do.  It's hard; sir--it is
+hard not to have a good word said for a poor man out o' work.  I know I
+hit at Sam Hardock, but any man would after the way he come at me."
+
+"We're not going to argue that," said Gwyn, firmly; "perhaps there were
+faults on both sides; but I must say that I think you had better get
+work somewhere else."
+
+"No good to try, sir.  Some o' the mines aren't paying, and some on
+'em's not working at all.  Ydoll's in full fettle, and you want more
+men.  Ask the guv'nors to take me on again, sir."
+
+"Yes, do, Gwyn," said Joe.  "It must be very hard for a man to want
+work, and find that no one will give him a job."
+
+"Hard, sir?  That aren't the word for it.  Makes a man feel as if he'd
+like to jump off the cliff, so as to be out of his misery.  Do ask 'em,
+sir, and I'll never forget it.  If I did wrong, I've paid dear for it.
+But no one can say I didn't work hard to do good to the mine."
+
+"Well, I'll ask my father when he comes back to the office."
+
+"Won't you ask him now, sir?"
+
+"I don't know where he is.  And as for you, I should advise you not to
+go near my dog; I don't want to hear that he has bitten you."
+
+"Oh, he won't bite me, sir, if you tell him not.  We shall soon make
+friends.  Do ask soon, and let me stop about to hear, and get out of my
+misery."
+
+"You will not have to stop long, Tom Dinass," said Gwyn, as a step
+outside was heard--the regular martial tread of the old soldier, who
+seemed to be so much out of place amongst all the mining business.
+
+"Yes; here comes the Colonel," said Joe, quickly; and he went and opened
+the door to admit the stiff, upright, old officer.
+
+"Thank you, Jollivet," he said.  "Hallo!  What does this man want?"
+
+"He has come with his humble petition, father, backed up by Joe Jollivet
+and by me, for him to be taken on again at the mine."
+
+"No," said the Colonel, frowning; "it's impossible, my boy."
+
+"Beg pardon, sir, don't say that," said the man.
+
+"I have said it, my man," said the Colonel, firmly.
+
+"But you'll think better of it, sir.  I'll work hard for you."
+
+"No," said the Colonel; "you had a fair chance here for doing well, and
+you failed.  The men would be ready to strike if I took you on again."
+
+"Oh, but you've no call to listen to what a lot of men says."
+
+"I am bound to in a certain way, my man.  You made yourself universally
+unpopular among them, and all that culminated in your savage assault
+upon the captain.  Why, my good fellow, many a man has gone into penal
+servitude for less than that."
+
+"Yes, sir, I know I hit him; but they was all again' me."
+
+"I cannot go into that," said the Colonel.
+
+"Give him a trial, father," said Gwyn, in answer to Joe's appealing
+look.
+
+"Do, sir.  I've been out o' work a long time, and it's precious hard."
+
+"Go right away, and try somewhere else, my lad."
+
+"I have, sir," said Dinass, imploringly.  "I served you well, sir, and I
+will again."
+
+"I have no fault to find with your working, my man, but I cannot
+re-engage you."
+
+"Do, sir; it's for your good.  Do take me on, sir.  I want to do what's
+right.  It is for your good, sir, indeed."
+
+The Colonel shook his head.
+
+"No; I cannot alter my decision, my man," said the Colonel.  "Do as I
+said: go right away and get work; but I know it is hard upon a man to be
+out of work and penniless.  You are a good hand, and ought not to be
+without a job for long, so in remembrance of what you did--"
+
+"You'll take me on, sir?  I tell you it's for your good."
+
+"No," said the Colonel, sternly.  "Gwyn, give this man a sovereign for
+his present necessities, and for the next few weeks, while he is seeking
+work, he can apply here for help, and you can pay him a pound a week.
+That will do."
+
+"Better do what I said, sir," said Dinass, with a grim look, "I warn
+you."
+
+"I said that will do, sir," cried the Colonel, firmly.  "Gwyn, my boy,
+pay him and let him go."
+
+Joe's chin dropped upon his chest, and he rested his hand upon the back
+of the nearest chair.
+
+Then he started and looked at the door wonderingly, for, scowling
+savagely, Tom Dinass stuck on his hat very much sidewise, and, without
+pausing to receive the money, strode out of the place and went right
+away.
+
+"Specimen of sturdy British independence," said the Colonel, sternly.
+"I'm sorry, but he is not a man to have about the place.  He is
+dangerous; and when it comes to covert threats of what he would do if
+not engaged, one feels that help is out of the question.  Be the better
+for me if I engage him--means all the worse for me if I do not.  There,
+it is not worth troubling about; but if he comes back for the money,
+when he has cooled down, let him have it."
+
+"Yes, father," said Gwyn, and he went on with his letters, but somehow,
+from time to time the thought of the man's fierce manner came back to
+him, and he could not help thinking how unpleasant a man Dinass could be
+if he set himself up for an enemy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY FIVE.
+
+CRYSTAL, BUT NOT CLEAR.
+
+Tom Dinass did not come back for the money Colonel Pendarve had ordered
+to be paid him, but he started off the very next day, as if he had
+shaken the Ydoll dust from off his feet, and made for the Plymouth road.
+
+The news was brought to Sam Hardock at the mine by Harry Vores, and Sam
+chuckled and rubbed his hands as he went and told the two lads.
+
+"Gone, and jolly go with him, Mr Gwyn, sir.  We're well quit of him.  I
+was going to warn you to keep Grip always with you, for I have heared
+say that he swore he'd have that dog's life; but perhaps it was all
+bounce.  Anyhow he's gone, and I'm sure I for one shall feel a bit
+relieved to be without him."
+
+Gwyn said very little, but he thought a great deal for a few minutes
+about how much better it would have been if Sam Hardock had treated
+Dinass with a little more amiability.  He quite forgot all about the
+matter for three days, and then he had fresh news, for Sam Hardock came
+to him chuckling again.
+
+"It's all right, sir," he said.
+
+"What is--the pumping?"
+
+"Tchah!--that's all right, of course, sir; I mean about Tom Dinass.
+Harry Vores' wife has just come back from staying at Plymouth, and she
+saw Tom Dinass there.  He won't come back here.  Do you know, sir, I've
+got a sort o' suspicion that he broke Grip's legs."
+
+"Eh!  Why do you think that?" said Gwyn, starting.  "Did anybody suggest
+such a thing?"
+
+"No, sir; but he always hated the dog, and he might have done it, you
+know."
+
+"Oh, yes, and so might you," said Gwyn, testily.
+
+"Me, sir?"
+
+"Yes, or anybody else.  Let it rest, Sam.  Grip's legs are quite well
+again."
+
+"That's what you may call snubbing a chap," said Hardock to himself as
+he went away.  "Well, he needn't have been quite so chuff with a man; I
+only meant--Well, I am blessed!"
+
+Sam Hardock said "blessed," but he looked and felt as if it were the
+very opposite; and he hurried back to the office where Gwyn had just
+been joined by Joe, who had been back home to see how his father was
+getting on, for he was suffering from another of his fits.
+
+Hardock thrust his head in at the door, and without preface groaned
+out,--
+
+"You'd better go and chain that there dog up, sir," and he nodded to
+where the animal he alluded to had made himself comfortable on the rug.
+
+"Grip?  Why?" said Gwyn.
+
+"He's back again, sir."
+
+"Who is?" said Gwyn, though he felt that he knew.
+
+"Tom Dinass, sir.  Talk about bad shillings coming back--why, he's worse
+than a bad sixpence."
+
+"Then it was him I saw crossing the moor toward the Druid Stones," said
+Joe.
+
+"Then why didn't you say so?" cried Gwyn, sourly.
+
+"Because I wasn't sure."
+
+"Never sure of anything, since you've grown so tall," grumbled Gwyn.
+"No, I sha'n't chain up Grip; and I tell him what it is--I'm not going
+to interfere if the dog goes at him again, for he must have done
+something bad, or Grip wouldn't be so fierce."
+
+The dog pricked up his ears on hearing his name, and gave the rug a few
+taps with his tail.
+
+"He never so much as growls at any of the other men.  Pretty state of
+things if one can't have one's dog about because some man hates him.
+Pooh!  I know, Joe."
+
+"Know what?"
+
+"He hasn't got a job yet, and he's coming for the money father said he
+was to have till he got an engagement."
+
+"Did the guv'nor say that, sir?" cried Hardock.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then Tom Dinass won't never get no engagements, but set up for a
+gentleman, and I think I shall do the same, for work and me aren't the
+best of friends."
+
+"Get out!" said Gwyn, laughing; "why, you're never happy unless you are
+at work--is he, Joe?"
+
+"No, he's a regular nuisance.  Always wanting to do something else, and
+stop late in the mine wasting the candles."
+
+"What a shame, Mr Joe!" said Hardock, grinning.
+
+"It's quite true, Sam," cried Gwyn.  "Done all that painting up of
+arrows on the walls near the water gallery?"
+
+"Not quite, sir; I'm going to have a good long day at it on Friday."
+
+"Friday's an unlucky day," said Joe.
+
+"Not it, sir, when you want to get a job done.  And I say, Mr Gwyn,
+come down with me.  There's a long drift you've never seen yet, where
+there's some cracks and hollows chock full of the finest crystals I ever
+see."
+
+"Crystals?" cried Gwyn.
+
+"In a new gallery?" said Joe, excitedly.
+
+"Well, you may call it a new gallery if you like, sir," said Sam, with a
+chuckle; "I calls it the oldest drift I was ever in."
+
+"I should like to see that," said Joe.
+
+"Come down then, sir, but aren't it a bit strange that you've taken to
+like going down of late."
+
+"No; I like going down now, for it's all strange and interesting in the
+unexplored parts, when one can go down comfortably and not feel afraid
+of being lost."
+
+"Nay, but you might be still, sir," said the captain, wagging his head.
+"There's a sight of bits yet that would puzzle you, just as they would
+me.  I have got a deal marked with directions, though, sir, and I
+sha'n't be quite at rest till I've done all.  Then you gents'll come
+down on Friday?"
+
+"Yes," said Gwyn, "and I'll bring a basket and hammer and chisel.  Are
+they fine crystals?"
+
+"Just the finest I've ever seen, sir; some of 'em's quite of a
+golden-black colour like peat water."
+
+"But I don't want to come down all that way and find that someone has
+been and chipped them off."
+
+"Chipped 'em off, sir, when I gave orders that they weren't to be
+touched!" said the captain, fiercely.  "There aren't a man as would dare
+to do it 'cept Tom Dinass, and he's gone.  Leastwise, he was gone, and
+has come back.  They're all right, sir; and I tell you what, if I were
+you gen'lemen, I'd bring down a basket o' something to eat, for you'll
+be down most of the day, and it wouldn't be amiss if you brought some o'
+that rhubarb and magneshy wire to light up in the crystal bit, for the
+roof runs up wonderful high--it's natural and never been cut like.
+Regular cave."
+
+"We'll come, Sam.  This is going to be interesting, Joe.  We won't
+forget the rhubarb wire neither."
+
+"That's right, sir.  What do you say to d'rectly after breakfast--say
+nine o'clock, if it's not too soon for you, Friday--day after
+to-morrow?"
+
+"We'll be there, Sam.  All right down below?"
+
+"Never more regular, sir.  She's dry as a bone, and the stuff they're
+getting's richer than ever.  Only to think of it!  What a job I had to
+get the Colonel to start!  I say, Mr Gwyn, sir, when he's made his
+fortune, and you've made yours, I shall expect a pension like the
+guv'nor's giving Tom Dinass."
+
+"All right, Sam.  I'll see that you have it."
+
+"Thankye, sir," said the mining captain, in all seriousness, and he left
+the office.
+
+No sooner was he gone than Gwyn turned to his companion.
+
+"I say, Joe," he said; "you'd better not come."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"You've grown too much lately; you'll be taking all the skin off the top
+of your head, and grow bald before your time."
+
+"Get out!" said Joe, good-humouredly; "didn't you hear him say that the
+roof was too high to see with a candle?"
+
+"Oh, of course," cried Gwyn.  "Then you'd better come.  There must be
+about room enough in a place like that."
+
+Joe laughed merrily; and then with a serious look,--
+
+"I say, though," he cried, "I really would keep Grip tied up for a bit."
+
+"I sha'n't, not for all the Tom Dinasses between here and Van Diemen's
+Land.  I will keep him with me, though; I don't want my lord to be
+bitten.  Wonder whether that fellow will come soon for his money.  We'll
+shut Grip in the inner office, for we don't want another scene."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY SIX.
+
+A DOG'S OPINION.
+
+But Tom Dinass did not go to the office for his promised money, neither
+was he seen by anyone; and Gwyn began to doubt the truth of the report
+till it was confirmed by Harry Vores, who stated that his "Missus" saw
+the man go into a lawyer's office, and that there was the name on the
+brass plate, "Dix."
+
+This recalled the visit they had had from a man of that name.
+
+"Perhaps he is dealing with mines, and can give people work," thought
+Gwyn; and then the matter passed out of his mind.
+
+Friday morning came, and directly after breakfast the two young fellows
+met, Gwyn provided with a basket of provender, his hammer, chisel and
+some magnesium ribbon, while Joe had brought an extra-powerful oil
+lanthorn.
+
+"Ready?"
+
+"Yes; I've told father I shall be late," said Joe.
+
+"So have I, and my mother, too.  Seen anything of Tom Dinass?  No?"
+
+"But--oh, I say!"
+
+"Well, say it," cried Gwyn.
+
+"What about Grip?"
+
+"Quite well, thank you for your kind inquiries, but he says he feels the
+cold a little in his legs."
+
+"Don't fool," said Joe, testily.  "You're not going to leave the dog?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Tom Dinass."
+
+Gwyn whistled.
+
+"Soon put that right," he said.  "We'll take him with us.  He'll enjoy
+the run."
+
+There was no doubt about that, for the dog was frantic with delight, and
+as soon as he was unchained he raced before them to the mouth of the
+pit, as readily as if he understood where they were going.
+
+Sam Hardock was waiting, and he rubbed his nose on seeing the dog.
+
+"I did advise you, sir, to keep him chained up while there's danger
+about," he grumbled.
+
+"Won't be any danger down below, Sam," said Gwyn cheerily.
+
+"What?  Eh?  You mean to take him with us?  Oh, I see.  But won't he get
+chopped going down?"
+
+"Not if I carry him."
+
+"Nay, sir," said the man, seriously, "you mustn't venture on that."
+
+"Well, I'm going to take him down," said Gwyn.
+
+"I know," said Joe, eagerly; "send him down in the skep."
+
+"Ay, ye might do that, sir," said Hardock, nodding.  "Would he stop,
+sir?"
+
+"If I tell him," said Gwyn; and, an empty skep being hooked on just
+then, the engineer grinned as Gwyn went to it and bade the dog jump in.
+
+Grip obeyed on the instant, and then, as his master did not follow, he
+whined, and made as if to leap out.
+
+"Lie down, sir.  Going down.  Wait for us at the bottom."
+
+The dog couched, and the engineer asked if he'd stay.
+
+"Oh, yes, he'll stay," said Gwyn.  Then, obeying a sudden impulse, he
+took his basket, and placed it beside the dog at the bottom of the iron
+skep.  "Watch it, Grip!" he cried, and the dog growled.  "He wouldn't
+leave that."
+
+"Till every morsel's devoured," said Joe.  Then click went the break, a
+bell rang, and the skep descended, while the little party stepped one by
+one on to the man-engine, and began to descend by jumps and steps off,
+lower and lower, till in due time the bottom was reached, where Grip sat
+watching the basket just inside the great archway, the skep he had
+descended in having been placed on wheels, and run off into the depths
+of the mine, while a full one had taken its place and gone up.
+
+Then the party started off with their candles and the big lamp, first
+along by the tram line, after Sam Hardock had peered into a big, empty
+sumph, and then on and on, past where many men were busy chipping,
+hammering, and tamping the rock to force out masses of ore, while,
+before they had gone half-a-mile, there was a tremendous volley of
+echoes, which seemed as if they would never cease, and the party
+received what almost seemed a blow, so heavy was the concussion.
+
+But neither Gwyn nor Joe started, and the dog, who had gone ahead,
+merely came trotting back to look at his master, and then bounded off
+again into the darkness, as if certain that there was a cat somewhere
+ahead which ought to be hunted out of the mine.
+
+Familiarity had bred contempt; and fully aware that the noise was only
+the firing of a shot to dislodge some of the ore for shovelling into the
+iron skeps, they went on without a word.
+
+They must have been a couple of miles from the shaft, every turn of the
+way being marked with a whitewash arrow, when Hardock stopped to trim
+his light, and his example was followed by his companions, the result of
+their halting being that Grip came trotting back out of the darkness to
+look up inquiringly, and then, satisfied with his examination, he
+bounded off again to find that imaginary cat.  He soon came rushing
+back, though, on finding that he was not followed; for, after turning to
+give his companions a meaning nod, Hardock suddenly turned down a narrow
+opening which joined the gallery they were following at a sharp angle,
+and then went on, nearly doubling back over the ground they had
+traversed before.  Then came a series of zigzags, and these were so
+confusing that at the end of a few hundred yards neither Gwyn nor Joe
+could have told the direction in which they were going.
+
+"Never been here before, gen'lemen?" said Hardock, with a grin.
+
+"No; this is quite fresh," said Gwyn, consulting a pocket compass.
+"Leads west then."
+
+"Sometimes, sir; but it jiggers about all sorts of ways.  Ah, there's a
+deal of the mine yet that we haven't seen."
+
+"Rises a little, too," said Joe.
+
+"Yes, sir; slopes up just a little--easy grajent, as the big engineers
+call it."
+
+"But you said it was natural, and not cut out by following a vein," said
+Gwyn.  "There are chisel-marks all along here."
+
+"Hav'n't got to the place I mean yet, sir.  Good half-mile on."
+
+"And farther from the shaft?"
+
+"Well, no, sir, because it bears away to the right, and I've found a
+road round to beyond that big centre place with the bits that support
+the roof."
+
+"Well, go on then," said Gwyn; "one gets tired of always going along
+these passages."
+
+"Oughtn't to, sir, with all these signs of branches of tin lode--I
+don't."
+
+"But one can have too much tin, Sam," said Joe, laughing; and they went
+steadily on along the narrow passage, which grew more straight, till
+there was only just room for them to walk in single file.
+
+"Been getting thin here, gen'lemen," said Hardock; "sign the ore was
+getting to an end.  Look, there's where it branched off, and there, and
+there, going off to nothing like the roots of a tree.  Now, just about a
+hundred yards farther, and you'll see a difference."
+
+But it proved to be quite three hundred, and the way had grown painfully
+narrow and stiflingly hot; when all at once Grip began to bark loudly,
+and the noise, instead of sounding smothered and dull, echoed as if he
+were in a spacious place.
+
+So it proved, for the narrow passage suddenly ceased and the party
+stepped out into a wide chasm, whose walls and roof were invisible, and
+the air felt comparatively cool and pleasant.
+
+"There you are, Mr Gwyn, sir," said Hardock, as he stood holding up his
+light, but vainly, for it showed nothing beyond the halo which it shed.
+"I call this a bit o' nature, sir.  You won't find any marks on the
+walls here."
+
+"I can't even see the walls," said Joe.  "Here, Grip, where are you?"
+
+The dog barked in answer some distance away, and then came scampering
+back.
+
+"Oh, here's one side, sir," said Hardock, taking a few steps to his
+left, and once more holding up his light against a rugged mass of
+granite veined with white quartz, and glistening as if studded with
+gems.
+
+"How beautiful!" cried Joe.
+
+"Let's throw a light on the subject," said Gwyn, merrily.  "Open your
+lanthorn, Joe;" and as this was done he lit the end of a piece of
+magnesium ribbon, which burned with a brilliant white light and sent up
+a cloud of white fumes to rise slowly above their heads.
+
+The light brightened the place for a minute, and in that brief interval
+the two friends feasted their eyes upon the crystal-hung roof and walls
+of the lovely grotto, whose sides rose to about forty feet above their
+heads, and then joined in a correct curve that was nearly as regular as
+if it had been the work of some human architect.  A hundred feet away
+the roof sank till it was only two or three yards above the irregular
+floor, and the place narrowed in proportion, while where they stood the
+walls were some fifty feet apart.
+
+Then the ribbon gave one flash, and was dropped on the floor, to be
+succeeded by a black darkness, out of which the lanthorns shed what
+seemed to be three dim sparks.
+
+"What do you think of it, gen'lemen?" said Hardock, from out of the
+black darkness.
+
+"Grand!  Lovely!  Beautiful!  I never saw anything like it," cried Gwyn.
+
+"Why, it must be the most valuable part of the mine," cried Joe.
+
+Hardock chuckled.
+
+"It's just the part, sir, as is worth nothing except for show," he said.
+"It's very pretty, but there isn't an ounce o' tin to a ton o' working
+here, sir, and--"
+
+His words were checked by a faintly-heard muffled roar, which was
+followed by a puff of moist air and the customary whispering sound of
+echoes; but before they had died away Grip set up his ears, passed right
+away into the darkness, and barked with all his might.
+
+"Quiet, sir!" cried Gwyn; but the dog barked the louder.
+
+"Kick him, Ydoll; it's deafening," cried Joe.
+
+"Didn't that shot sound rather rum to you?" said Hardock.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," replied Gwyn, who was slow to take alarm.  "Sounded
+like a shot and the echoes."
+
+"Nay; that's what it didn't sound like," said Hardock, scratching his
+head.  "It was sharper and shorter like, and we didn't ought to hear it
+like that all this distance away."
+
+"Isn't the roof of the mine fallen in, is it?" said Gwyn, maliciously,
+as he watched the effect of his words on his companions.  "You, Grip, if
+you don't be quiet, I'll rub your head against the rough wall."
+
+"Nay, this roof'll never fall in, sir," said Hardock, thoughtfully.
+"More it's pushed the tighter it grows."
+
+"Well, let's get some of the crystals," said Gwyn; "though it does seem
+a pity to break the walls of such a lovely place.  But we must have
+some.  Be quiet, Grip!"
+
+"Let's have some lunch first," said Joe.
+
+"Nay, gen'lemen," said Hardock, whose face looked clay-coloured in the
+feeble light.  "I don't think we'll stop for no crystals, nor no lunch,
+to-day, for, I don't want to scare you, but I feel sure that there's
+something very wrong."
+
+"Wrong!  What can be wrong?" cried Gwyn, quickly.
+
+"That's more than I can say, sir," replied the man; "but we've just
+heard something as we didn't ought to hear; and if you've any doubt
+about it, look at that dog."
+
+"You're not alarmed at the barking of a dog?" cried Gwyn,
+contemptuously.
+
+"No, no, not a bit; but dogs have a way of knowing things that beats us.
+He's barking at something he knows is wrong, and it's that which makes
+me feel scared though I don't know what it is."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN.
+
+FOR LIFE.
+
+"What nonsense!" cried Gwyn, laughing.  "Don't you be scared by trifles,
+Joe.  There's nothing wrong, is there, Grip?"
+
+The dog threw up his head, gazed pleadingly at his master, and then made
+for the farther opening.
+
+"No, no, not that way," cried Joe.
+
+"Yes, sir, we'll try that way please; it works round by the wet drive,
+and the big pillared hall, as you called it."
+
+"But look here, Sam, are you serious?" said Joe; "or are you making this
+fuss to frighten us?"
+
+"You never knowed me try to do such a thing as that, sir," said the man,
+sternly.  "P'raps I'm wrong, and I hope I am; but all the same I should
+be glad for us to get to the foot of the shaft again."
+
+"Why not go to where the men are at work?" suggested Gwyn; "they'd
+know."
+
+"We shall take them in our way, sir; and we won't lose any time please."
+
+"I should like to light up the place once more before we go."
+
+"No, no, sir.  You can do that when you come again."
+
+"Very well," said Gwyn, who did not feel in the least alarmed, but who
+could see the great drops standing on the mining captain's face.  "Lead
+on, then.  Where's Grip?"
+
+The dog was gone.
+
+"Here!  Hi!  Grip!  Grip!" cried Gwyn.
+
+There was a faint bark from a distance, and Gwyn called again, but there
+was no further response.
+
+"He knows it's wrong, sir," said Hardock, solemnly, "so let's hurry
+after him."
+
+"Go on, then," said Joe; and Gwyn reluctantly followed them through the
+grotto, and then along a natural crack in the rock, which was painful
+for walking, being all on a slope.  But this soon came to an end, and
+they found themselves in another grotto, but with a low-arched roof and
+wanting in the crystallisations of the first.
+
+"You have been all along here, Sam?" said Gwyn, suddenly.
+
+For answer Hardock took a few steps forward, and held up his lanthorn to
+display a roughly-brushed white arrow on the wall pointing forward.
+
+"You can always tell where we've been now, sir," said the man.  "This
+bends in and out for nearly a quarter of a mile; now it's caverns, now
+it's cracks, and then we come again upon old workings which lead off by
+what I call one of the mine endings.  After that we get to the big hall,
+and that low wet gallery; I know my way right through now."
+
+"But it's all a scare," said Gwyn, banteringly.
+
+"I hope so, sir, but I feel unked like, and as if something's very
+wrong."
+
+"Think of old Grip playing the sneak," said Joe, as they finally cleared
+the grotto-like cracks, and came upon flooring better for walking.
+
+"Nay, sir, he's no sneak.  He's only gone to see what's the matter."
+
+"Without a light?" cried Gwyn.
+
+"He wants no light, sir.  His eyes are not like ours.  Would you mind
+walking a little faster?"
+
+"No; lead on, and we'll keep up.  But how long will it take us to get to
+the foot of the shaft?"
+
+"Two hours, sir."
+
+"So long as that?"
+
+"Every minute of it, sir--if we get there at all," said the man to
+himself.  And now they walked on at a good steady rate, only pausing
+once to trim their lights, and at last came to a turn familiar to both
+the lads, for it was the beginning of the passage where they had had the
+scare from having to pass through water, but at the end farthest from
+that which they had come by in the early part of the day.
+
+"Won't go through here, Sam?" said Gwyn.
+
+"Much the nighest, sir; but we don't want to be soaked.  Would you mind
+going a little way down here?"
+
+"Not I," said Gwyn; and the man led on, Joe following without a word.
+
+"Don't look like that, Jolly," whispered Gwyn.  "I suppose everyone gets
+scared at some time in a place like this.  It's Sam's turn now.  Hallo!"
+
+"Can't go any farther, sir," said Hardock, huskily.  "The water's right
+up to here, and farther on it must reach the roof."
+
+Gwyn needed no telling, for the reflection of their lights was glancing
+from the floor, and he knew perfectly well that no water ought to be
+there.
+
+A chill ran through him--a sensation such as he would have experienced
+had he suddenly plunged neck deep in the icy water, and he turned a look
+full of agony at Joe, who caught at his arm.
+
+"The sea has broken in--the sea has broken in!" he cried; and quick as
+lightning Gwyn bent down, scooped up some of the black-looking water,
+and held it to his lips.
+
+It was unmistakably brackish.
+
+"It can't have broke in, my lads--it can't," cried Hardock.  "Come on,
+and let's go round by the pillar place and get to the men as quick as we
+can.  There must be some spring burst out; but they'll set the pumps at
+work as soon as they know, and soon pull it down again.  Come on."
+
+With their hearts beating heavily from excitement, the two lads followed
+the captain as he hurried back along the gallery to the spot where they
+had turned down; and then, as fast as they could go, they made for the
+pillared hall, expecting to find some of the men close by; but when they
+reached it, there being no sign of water, there was not a soul visible.
+There was proof, though, that it was not long since there were men
+there, for the ends of two candles were still burning where they had
+been stuck against the wall; tools were lying here and there, and a
+couple of half-filled skeps were standing on the low four-wheeled trucks
+waiting to be run along the little tramway to the shaft.
+
+No one said so, but each saw for certain that there must have been a
+sudden alarm, and the men had fled.
+
+"Come on," said Hardock, hoarsely; but his heart was sinking, and Gwyn
+knew that there was a gradual descent toward the bottom of the shaft.
+But they walked rapidly on for fully half-an-hour before they came to
+the first trace of water, and it was startling when they did.
+
+The gallery they were in entered the next--a lower one--at right-angles;
+and as they reached that end dry-footed, their lights gleamed from the
+face of running water which was gliding rapidly by in a regular stream
+of a few inches deep.
+
+It was Joe who stooped quickly down now to scoop up some of the water
+and taste it, which he did in silence.
+
+"Salt?" cried Gwyn, sharply.
+
+There was no reply, and the lad followed his companion's example and
+tasted the water.
+
+"Salt, sir?" said Hardock.
+
+"As the sea," said Gwyn, with a groan.  "Hah! good dog then.  Here,
+here, here!  Grip, Grip, Grip!"
+
+For there had been a faint barking in the distance, but the noise
+ceased.
+
+"Can we go round any way?" said Gwyn.
+
+"No, sir; we must face it," said Hardock; "and as quick as we can, for
+it gets lower and lower, and the water sets this way fast, so it must be
+rising.  Ready, sir?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then come on."
+
+Hardock stepped down into the rapid stream, which was ankle-deep, the
+others followed, and they splashed rapidly along, to hear the barking
+again directly; and soon after Grip, who must have been swimming, came
+bounding and splashing along, barking joyously to meet them again, and
+barking more loudly as he found that his master was making for the way
+from which he had come.
+
+"Can't help it, old fellow.  When it gets too bad for you, I must carry
+you," muttered Gwyn, as they hurried along; their progress gradually
+becoming more painful, for the water soon became knee-deep, and the
+stream harder to stem.
+
+But they toiled on till it was up to their waists, and so swift that it
+began to threaten to sweep them away; so, after a few minutes'
+progression in this way, with the water growing yet deeper, Hardock
+stopped at a corner round which the water came with a rush.
+
+"It's downhill here, gen'lemen, all the way to the shaft, and even if we
+could face it, the water must be five-foot deep in another ten minutes,
+and round the next turn it'll be six, and beyond that the passage must
+be full."
+
+"Then we must swim to the foot of the shaft," said Gwyn, excitedly.
+
+"A shoal of seals couldn't do it, sir," said the man, gruffly.  "Come
+back, sir!" he roared, for, as if to prove his words, the dog made a
+sudden dash, freed himself from Gwyn's grasp, and plunged forward to
+swim, but was swept back directly, and would have been borne right away
+if Gwyn had not snatched at his thick coat as he passed, and held him.
+
+"But we must make for the shaft," cried Joe, passionately.
+
+"We can't sir!  It's suicide!  We couldn't swim, and just a bit farther
+on, I tell you, the place must be full to the roof.  Why, there must be
+eight or ten foot o' water in the shaft."
+
+"Then are we lost?" cried Joe.
+
+"A fellow's never lost as long as he can make a fight for it," said
+Gwyn, sharply.  "Now, then, Sam, what's to be done--go back?"
+
+"Yes, sir, fast as we can, and make for the highest part of the mine."
+
+"Where is that?"
+
+"The water will show us," said Hardock.  "I pray it may only be a bit of
+an underground pool burst to flood us; and they'll pump and master it
+before it does us any harm."
+
+"No, no," groaned Joe; "we've heard it beating overhead before, and the
+sea has burst in.  We're lost--we're lost!"
+
+"Then if the sea has bursted in," cried Hardock, fiercely, "it's that
+fellow Tom Dinass's doing.  He's a spite against us all, and it's to
+flood and ruin the mine."
+
+"Don't be unreasonable, Sam," began Gwyn, but he stopped short, for,
+like a flash, came the recollection of their seeing the man go down
+towards the point at low-water, where they had heard him hammering in
+the dark.  Did that mean anything?  Was it a preparation for blowing in
+the rock over one of the passages that ran beneath the sea?
+
+It seemed to be impossible as he thought it, but there was the fact of
+the flood rising and driving them onward, the waters pressing behind
+them as they waded on, but getting shallower very slowly, till, by
+degrees, they were wading knee-deep and after a time Grip could be set
+down.  But that the waters were rising fast they had ample proof, for
+whenever they stopped, the stream was rushing by them onward, as if
+hastening to fill up every gallery in the mine.
+
+"The water will show us the highest part," Hardock had said; and they
+went on and on deeper and farther into the recesses of the place, but
+with the swift stream seeming to chase them, refusing to be left behind,
+but ever writhing about and leaping at their legs as if to drag them
+down.
+
+Grip splashed along beside or in front, whenever they were in a shallow
+enough part, and swam when he could not find bottom; but at last he
+began to show signs of weariness by getting close up to his master, and
+whining.
+
+"Catch hold of my lanthorn, Joe," cried Gwyn.
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"What I should do for you if you felt that you could go no farther; what
+you would do for me.  We've brought him down here to be safe from Tom
+Dinass, and thrown him into the danger we wanted to avoid.  Here, come
+on, Grip, old chap."
+
+To the surprise of his companions, Gwyn knelt down in the water, turning
+his back to the dog and bending as low as he could, when the intelligent
+beast, perhaps from memories of old games they had had together, swam
+close up and began to scramble up on his master's shoulders.
+
+Then Gwyn caught at the dog's fore-legs, dragged them over, and rose to
+his feet, carrying the dog pick-a-pack fashion, Grip settling down
+quietly enough and straining his muzzle over as far as he could reach.
+
+Hardock said nothing, but tramped on again, taking the lead with one
+lanthorn, Joe bringing up the rear with the others, having one in each
+hand, while the light was reflected brightly from the surface of the
+water.
+
+At first the mining captain seemed to be working with a purpose in view;
+but, after being compelled to turn back times out of number through
+finding the water deepening in the different passages he followed, he
+grew bewildered, and at last came to a standstill knee-deep in a part
+that was wider than ordinary.
+
+"I think this part will do," he said, looking helplessly from one to the
+other.
+
+"Not for long, Sam."
+
+"Yes, sir," said the captain, feebly; "the water isn't rising here."
+
+"It must be pouring into the mine like a cataract.  Look how it's
+rushing along here, and I can feel it creeping slowly up my legs."
+
+"Yes, sir, I'm afraid you are right.  I've been thinking for some time
+that we couldn't do any more."
+
+"Whereabouts are we now?"
+
+"I'm not quite sure, sir; but if we go on a bit farther you'll find one
+of my arrows on the wall."
+
+"Come on, then," cried Gwyn, "you lead again with the light.  No, Grip,
+old chap, I can carry you,"--for the dog had made a bit of a struggle to
+get down.  He subsided, though, directly, nestling his muzzle close to
+his master's cheek, and they went on, splash, splash, through the water
+till they reached one of the turnings.
+
+"Don't seem to be any arrow here, sir," said Hardock, holding up his
+light.  "Can't have been washed out, because the water hasn't been high
+enough."
+
+"But you said you had put an arrow at every turn," cried Gwyn.
+
+"Every turning I come to, sir; but I'm sure now; I was in a bit of a
+doubt before--I haven't been along here.  It's all fresh."
+
+"Turn back then," said Gwyn.
+
+"But the water's running this way, sir, and it must be shallower farther
+on."
+
+"How do we know that?" cried Gwyn; "this stream may be rushing on to
+fill deeper places."  And as if to prove the truth of his theory, the
+water ran gurgling, swirling, and eddying about their legs, but
+evidently rising.
+
+"Yes, sir, how do we know that?" said the man, who was rapidly growing
+more dazed and helpless.  "I don't kinder feel to know what's best to be
+done with the water coming on like that.  No pumping would ever get the
+better of this, and--and--"
+
+He said no more, but leaned his arm against the side and rested his head
+upon it.
+
+"Oh, come, that won't do, Sam," cried Gwyn; "we must help one another."
+
+"Yes, sir, of course; but wouldn't one of you two young gents like to
+take the lead?  You, Mr Joe Jollivet--you haven't had a turn, and
+you've got two lights."
+
+"What's the use of me trying to lead?" said Joe, bitterly, "I feel as
+helpless as you do--just as if I could sit down and cry like a great
+girl."
+
+"Needn't do that, Jolly," said Gwyn, bitterly; "there's salt water
+enough here.  I'm sure it's three inches deeper than it was.  Hark!"
+
+They stood fast, listening to the strange murmuring noise that came
+whispering along.
+
+"It's the water running," said Joe, in awestricken tones.
+
+"Yes, it's the water dripping, and running along by the walls.  Why,
+there must be hundreds of streams."
+
+"And you're standing talking like that," cried Joe, angrily.  "We know
+all about the streams.  Do something."
+
+Gwyn stood frowning for a few moments.
+
+"You lead on now," he said, "and try again.  I'll come close behind
+you."
+
+"But it gets deeper this way."
+
+"Perhaps only for a short distance, and then it may rise.  Go on."
+
+Joe started at once, for he felt, as if he must obey, but before they
+had gone a hundred yards the water had risen to Gwyn's waist.
+
+"Back again," he said; "it gets deeper and deeper."
+
+"Then it's all over with us, gen'lemen," said Hardock.  "Tom Dinass has
+got his revenge against us, and it's time to begin saying our prayers."
+
+"Time to begin saying our prayers!" cried Gwyn, angrily.  "I've been
+saying mine ever since we knew the worst.  It's time we began to work,
+and try our best to save our lives.  Now, Joe, on again the other way,
+and take the first turning off to the left."
+
+Joe obeyed, and they struggled back amidst the whispering and gurgling
+sounds which came from out of the darkness, before and behind; while
+now, to fully prove what was wrong, they noticed the peculiar odour of
+the sea-water when impregnated with seaweed in a state of decay, and
+directly after Gwyn had called attention to the fact Joe uttered a cry.
+
+"What is it?" said Gwyn anxiously.  "Don't drown the lights."
+
+"Something--an eel, I think--clinging round my leg."
+
+"Eel wouldn't cling round your leg; he'd hold on by his teeth.  See what
+it is."
+
+"Long strands of bladder-wrack," said Joe, after cautiously raising one
+leg from the water.
+
+"No mistake about the sea bursting in," said Gwyn.  "Why, of course, it
+has done so before.  Don't you remember finding sand and sea-shells in
+some of the passages?"
+
+No one spoke; and finding that the efforts he had, at no little cost to
+himself, made to divert his companions' attention from their terrible
+danger were vain, he too remained nearly always silent, listening
+shudderingly to the wash, wash of the water as they tramped through it,
+and he thought of the time coming when it would rise higher and higher
+still.
+
+Gwyn could think no more in that way, for the horror that attacked him
+at the thought that it meant they must all soon die.  Once the idea came
+to him that he was watching his companions struggling vainly in the
+black water; but, making a desperate effort, he forced himself to think
+only of the task they had in hand, and just then he shouted to Joe to
+turn off to the left, for another opening appeared, and the lad was
+going past it with his head bent down.
+
+Joe turned off mechanically, his long, lank figure looking strange in
+the extreme; and as he swung the lanthorns in each hand, grotesque
+shadows of his tall body were thrown on the wall on either side, and
+sometimes over the gleaming water which rushed by them, swift in places
+as a mill-race.
+
+And still the water grew deeper, and no more arrows pointed faintly from
+the wall.  The water was more than waist-deep now, and the chill feeling
+of despair was growing rapidly upon all.  The lads did not speak, though
+they felt their position keenly enough, but Hardock uttered a groan from
+time to time, and at last stopped short.
+
+"Don't do that," cried Gwyn, flashing into anger for a moment; but the
+man's piteous reply disarmed him, and he felt as despairing.
+
+"Must, sir--I must," groaned the man; "I can't do any more.  You've been
+very kind to me, Master Gwyn, and I'd like to shake hands with you
+first, and say good-bye.  There--there's nothing for it but to give up,
+and let the water carry you away, as it keeps trying to do.  We've done
+all that man can do; there's no hope of getting out of the mine, so
+let's get out of our misery at once."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT.
+
+IN DIRE PERIL.
+
+For a few moments, in his misery and despair, Gwyn felt disposed to
+succumb, and he looked piteously at Joe, who stood drooping and bent,
+with the bottoms of the lanthorns touching the water.  Then the natural
+spirit that was in him came to the front, and with an angry shout he
+cried,--
+
+"Here, you, sir, keep those lights up out of the water.  Don't want us
+to be in the dark, do you?"
+
+There is so much influence in one person's vitality, and the way in
+which an order is given, that Joe started as if he had had an electric
+current passed through him.  He stood as straight up as he could for the
+roof, and looked sharply at Gwyn, as if for orders.
+
+At the same time the dog began to bark, and struggled to get free.
+
+"Oh, very well," said Gwyn, letting go of the dog's legs; "but you'll
+soon want to get back."
+
+Down went Grip with a tremendous splash, and disappeared; but he rose
+again directly, and began to swim away with the stream and was soon out
+of sight.
+
+"Oh, Joe, Joe, what have I done!" cried Gwyn.  "He'll be drowned--he'll
+be drowned!"
+
+"Ay, sir, and so shall we before an hour's gone by," said Hardock,
+gloomily.
+
+"I can't help it--I must save him," cried Gwyn; and snatching one of the
+lanthorns from Joe, he waded off after the swimming dog.
+
+"We can't stop here by ourselves, Sam," cried Joe.  "Come along."
+
+Hardock uttered a groan.
+
+"I don't want to die, Master Joe Jollivet--I don't want to die," he said
+pitifully.
+
+"Well, who does?" cried Joe, angrily.  "What's my father going to do
+without me when he's ill.  Come on.  They'll be finding the way out, and
+leaving us here."
+
+"Nay, Master Gwyn wouldn't do that," groaned Hardock.  "He'd come back
+for us."
+
+Gwyn's pursuit of the dog had done one thing; it had started his
+companions into action, and they, too, waded with the stream pressing
+them along, till away in the distance they caught sight of the light
+Gwyn bore, shining like a faint spark in the darkness or reflected in a
+pale shimmering ray from the hurrying water.
+
+For how long they neither of them knew, they followed on till Gwyn's
+light became stationary; and just then Hardock raised his, and uttered
+an exclamation.
+
+"I know where we are now," he cried, as he raised his lanthorn and
+pointed to one of his white arrows.  "It looks different with the place
+half full of water, but we're close to that dead end that runs up."
+
+Just then they heard the barking of the dog.
+
+"And that's where he has got to," continued Hardock.  "How did he come
+to think of going there?"
+
+"Ahoy--oy--oy--oy!" came halloaing from Gwyn, who had long been aware
+from their lights that his companions were following him.
+
+They answered, and dragged their weary way along, for the water still
+deepened, and in his impatience Gwyn came back to meet them.
+
+"Come along quickly," he cried; "the dog has gone into that short
+gallery which rises up.  Did you hear him barking?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Just as if he had found a rabbit.  He leaped up on the dry part at
+once, and if we follow there is plenty of room for us as well."
+
+"Beyond the water?" panted Joe.
+
+"Yes.  At the far end."
+
+Trembling with eagerness, they splashed through the now familiar way,
+conscious of the fact that a current of air was setting in the same
+direction--a foul hot wind, evidently caused by the water filling up the
+lower portions of the mine, and driving out the air; but no one
+mentioned it then.
+
+The entrance of the place they sought was reached, and they were
+waist-deep, the water sweeping and swirling by with such force that, as
+Gwyn entered, lanthorn in hand, and Joe was about to follow, a little
+wave like an imitation of the bore which rushes up some rivers, came
+sweeping along and nearly took him off his feet, while Hardock, with a
+cry to his companions to look out, clung to the corner.
+
+Gwyn turned in time to see Joe tottering, and caught at his arm, giving
+him a sharp snatch which dragged him in through the low archway where
+the water, though deep, was eddying round like a whirlpool.  Then
+together they extended their hands to Hardock and he was dragged in.
+
+"Runs along there now like a mill-race," panted the man.  "How did you
+manage, Mr Gwyn?"
+
+"It was only going steadily when I followed Grip, and he swam in easy
+enough."
+
+"Must be coming in faster," groaned Hardock.  "Oh, my lads, my lads, say
+your prayers now, and put in a word for me; for I haven't been the man I
+ought to have been, and I know it now we're shut up in this gashly
+place."
+
+"Don't, don't talk like that," cried Gwyn, wildly.
+
+"I must, my lad, for the water's rising faster, and in a few minutes we
+shall be drowned."
+
+"Then come on with the stream and let's find a higher place," cried Joe.
+
+"Nay, we aren't got strength enough to go on.  Better stay where we
+are."
+
+"Hi!  Grip!  Grip!  Grip!" cried Gwyn, holding up the lanthorn and
+wading farther in, but there was no answering bark.
+
+"Come along, Sam," said Joe, hoarsely, as he opened his lanthorn door to
+let the water he had got in, drain out.  "Here, look, it's shallower
+where he is."
+
+"Ay, it do rise, you see," groaned Hardock, who was now completely
+unmanned.
+
+"Come on!" shouted Gwyn; "it isn't up to my knees here."
+
+They followed till, toward the dead end where the old miners had ceased
+working in the far back past, the lode had narrowed and run up into a
+flattened crevice, up which Gwyn began to clamber.
+
+"Follow me," he said; "I'm quite clear of the water.  It's a natural
+crack.  There has been no picking here, and it comes up at a steep
+slope."
+
+He climbed on, the others following him; and he called to the dog again,
+but there was still no reply.
+
+"Are you clear of the water?" he cried.
+
+"Yes, sir, four foot above it," said Hardock, who came last, "but it's
+rising fast."
+
+"I say," cried Gwyn, wildly, "is there a way out here?"
+
+"Nay, sir, this is only a blind lead.  What is it up where you are?"
+
+"Like a flattened-out hole with the rock all covered with tiny crystals.
+There must be a way up to the surface here; don't you feel how the wind
+comes by us?"
+
+"Yes; my light flickers, but it burns dull," said Joe.
+
+"Ay, and it will come sharper yet," said Hardock; "the water's driving
+it all before it.  Don't you feel how hot it is?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Maybe it'll suffocate us before the water comes."
+
+"Grip!  Grip!  Grip!" shouted Gwyn; and then, after waiting, he made his
+companions' hearts beat by crying back to them loudly, "I don't care,
+there is a way out here."
+
+"Can't be, sir."
+
+"But Grip has gone through."
+
+"Nay, sir, he's wedged himself up, and he's dead, as we shall soon be."
+
+"Oh, Joe, Joe!" roared Gwyn, passionately; "kick out behind at that
+miserable, croaking old woman.  There is a way out, for I can feel the
+hot air rushing up by me."
+
+"Ah!" groaned Hardock, "it's very well for you young gents up there; but
+I'm at the bottom, and the water's creeping up after me.  To think after
+all these years o' mining I should live to be drowned in a crack like
+this!"
+
+Just then a loud rustling and scrambling noise was heard.
+
+"What is it, Ydoll?  What are you doing?"
+
+"There's a big stone here, wedged across the slope, or I could get
+higher.  It's loose, and I think I can--hah!"
+
+The lad uttered an exultant shout, for with a loud rattle the flat block
+gave way, and came rattling and sliding down.
+
+"Got it!" cried Gwyn.  "I'm passing it under me.  Come close, Joe, and
+catch hold, as it reaches my feet."
+
+Joe climbed a little higher, by forcing his knees against the wall of
+the crack facing him, and, reaching up, he got hold of the block and
+lowered it, till, fearing that if he let go, it might injure Hardock, he
+bade him come higher and pass it beneath him.
+
+"Nay, nay, let me be," groaned Hardock; "it's all over now.  I'm spent."
+
+"Let it fall on him to rouse him up," shouted Gwyn.--"You, Sam, lay hold
+of that stone."
+
+The man roused himself, and, climbing higher over the ragged, sharp,
+prickly crystals, reached up and took hold of the stone, passed it under
+him, and it fell away down for a few feet, and then there was a sullen
+splash.
+
+The light showed Gwyn plainly enough that they were in a spot where a
+vein of some mineral, probably soapstone, had in the course of ages
+dissolved away; and, convinced that the dog had found his way to some
+higher cavern, and in the hope that he might find room enough to force
+his way after, he scrambled and climbed upward, foot by foot, pausing
+every now and then to shout back to his companions to follow.
+
+There was plenty of room to right and left; the difficulty was to find
+the widest parts of the crack, whose sides were exactly alike, as if the
+bed-rock had once split apart, and pressure, if applied, would have made
+them join together exactly again.  And this engendered the gruesome
+thought that if that happened now they would be crushed out flat.
+
+There was plenty of air, too, for it rushed by now in a strong current
+which made the flame of the candle in the lanthorn he pushed on before
+him flutter and threaten to go out.  For the air was terribly impure, as
+shown by the dim blue flame of the candles, and so enervating that the
+perspiration streamed from the lad's face, and a strange, dull, sleepy
+feeling came over him, which he tried desperately to keep off.
+
+Roughly speaking, the crack ascended at an angle of about fifty degrees,
+turning and zigzagging after the fashion of a flash of lightning, the
+greatest difficulty being to pass the angles.
+
+But Gwyn toiled on, finding that the great thing he dreaded--the
+closing-in of the sides--did not occur, but trembling in the narrowest
+parts on account of one who was to follow.
+
+"Joe will easily manage it," he said to himself; "but Sam will stick."
+
+"Time enough to think of that," he muttered, "if he does."
+
+"Can you get higher?" panted Joe, after they had been creeping slowly
+along for some time.
+
+"Yes, yes; but there's an awkward turn just here.  All right, it's wider
+on my left.  Hurrah!  I've got into quite a big part.  Come on!"
+
+Joe climbed on, pushing his lanthorn before him, till it was suddenly
+taken and drawn up, when, looking above him with a start, he saw his
+friend's face looking down upon him, surrounded by a pale, bluish glow
+of light.
+
+"Want a hand?" cried Gwyn.
+
+"No; I can do it," was the reply, and Joe climbed beyond an angle to
+find himself in a sloping, flattened cave, whose roof was about four
+feet above his head; how far it extended the darkness beyond the
+lanthorn concealed.
+
+"Come on, Sam," cried Gwyn, as he looked down the slope he had ascended
+expecting to see the man's face just below; but it was not visible, and,
+saving the hissing of the hot wind and the strange gurgling of rushing
+water, there was not a sound.
+
+"He's dead!" cried Joe, wildly.
+
+"No, no; don't say that," whispered Gwyn.  "It's too horrible just when
+we are going to escape;" and, without pausing, he lowered himself over
+the angle of the rock and began to descend.
+
+"Hold the light over," he said.  "Ah, mind, or you'll have it out."
+
+For the candle flickered in the steady draught which came rushing up
+from below, and it had to be drawn partly back for shelter.
+
+"Sam!" cried Gwyn, as he descended; but there was no reply, and the
+dread grew within the lad's breast as he went on down into the darkness.
+
+"I shall be obliged to come back for the light," he shouted.  "I can see
+nothing down here.  How far is he back?"
+
+"I don't know," said Joe, despairingly.  "I thought he was close behind
+me.  Shall I come down with the lanthorn?"
+
+"Yes, you must, part of the way--to help me.  No, I can just touch his
+lanthorn with my foot--here he is!"
+
+"All right?" faltered Joe.
+
+"I think so," replied Gwyn, slowly.  "Here, Sam Hardock, what's the
+matter?--why don't you come on?"
+
+"It's of no good," said the man, feebly; "I'm done, I tell you.  Why
+can't you let me die in peace?"
+
+"Because you've got to help us out of this place?"
+
+"I?  Help you?"
+
+"Yes; it's your duty.  You've no right to lie like that, giving up
+everything."
+
+"I'm so weak and sleepy," protested the man.
+
+"So was I, but I fought it all down.  Now then, climb up to where he
+is."
+
+"I--I can't, Mr Gwyn; and, besides, it's too narrow for me."
+
+"How do you know till you try?  Come: up with you at once."
+
+"Must I, Mr Gwyn, sir?"
+
+"Yes, of course; so get up and try."
+
+Sam Hardock groaned, and began to creep slowly up the steep slope, Gwyn
+leading the way; but at the end of a minute the man subsided.
+
+"It's of no use, sir; I can't do it.  I haven't the strength of a rat."
+
+"Keep on; it will come," cried Gwyn.  "Keep on, sir, and try.  You must
+get to the top, where Joe Jollivet is."
+
+"No, no; let me die in quiet."
+
+"Very well; when I have got you into a good dry place.  You can't die in
+peace with the cold black water creeping over you."
+
+"N-no," said Hardock, with a shiver.
+
+"Come on, then, at once," cried Gwyn; and, unable to resist the
+imperious way in which he was ordered, the poor fellow began to struggle
+up the narrow rift, while Gwyn, keeping his fears to himself, trembled
+lest the place should prove too strait.
+
+Twice over Hardock came to a stand; but at a word from Gwyn he made
+fresh efforts, the way in which the lad showed him the road encouraging
+him somewhat; till at last, panting and exhausted, he dragged himself
+beyond the last angle, and rolled over upon the stony slope where Joe
+had been holding his lanthorn over the dark passage, and looking down.
+
+"We can go no farther till he's rested," whispered Gwyn.
+
+"No; but look how the water's rising.  How long will it be before it
+reaches up to here?"
+
+Gwyn shook his head, and listened to the murmur of the rising flood,
+which sounded soft and distant; but the rush of wind grew louder,
+sweeping up the cavity with the loud whistling sound of a tempest.
+
+Gwyn rose to his knees, trimmed his light, and said less breathlessly
+now,--
+
+"Let Sam rest a bit, while we try and find how Grip went."
+
+And he held up the light and shaded his eyes.
+
+There was no need of a painted white arrow to point the way, for the
+whistling wind could be felt now by extending a hand from where they lay
+in shelter; and as soon as Gwyn began to creep on all-fours towards the
+upper portion of the sloping cavity in which they lay, the fierce
+current of air pressed against him as the water had when he was wading a
+short time before.
+
+"Better keep the lanthorn back in shelter," said Gwyn, hastily; "it
+makes mine gutter down terribly."
+
+He handed Joe the ring, and once more went on to find the wide opening
+they had reached rapidly contract till once more it resembled the jagged
+passage through which they had forced themselves.
+
+The slope was greater, though, and the way soon became a chimney-like
+climb, changing directions again and again, while in the darkness the
+wind whistled and shrieked by him furiously, coming with so much force
+that it felt as if it was impelling him forward.
+
+And still he went on climbing along the tunnel-like place till further
+progress was checked by something in front; and with the wind now
+tearing by him with a roar, he felt above and below the obstacle,
+finding room to pass his arm beyond it readily; but further progress was
+impossible, the passage being completely choked by the block of stone
+which must have slid down from above.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY NINE.
+
+SAM HARDOCK AT HIS WORST.
+
+Gwyn tugged and strained at the block, hoping to dislodge it as he had
+the former one; but his efforts were vain, and at last, with his fingers
+sore and the perspiration streaming down his face, he backed down the
+steep chimney-like place, satisfied that Grip must have made his way
+through the narrow aperture beneath one corner of the block, where the
+wind rushed up, but perfectly convinced that without the aid of tools or
+gunpowder no human being could force a way, while the very idea of
+gunpowder suggested the explosion causing the tumbling down of the rock
+around to bury them alive.
+
+"Well," said Joe, looking up at him anxiously, with his face showing
+clearly by the open door of his lanthorn, "can we get farther?"
+
+Gwyn felt as if he could not reply, and remained silent.
+
+"You might as well tell me the worst."
+
+"I'm going to try again," said Gwyn, hoarsely, and he glanced at
+Hardock, who was lying prone on the rock with his face buried in his
+hands.  "The way's blocked up."
+
+"Then we shall have to lie here till the water comes gurgling up to fill
+this place and drown us, if we are not smothered before."
+
+"We can't be smothered in a place where there is so much air."
+
+"I don't know," said Joe, thoughtfully--his feeling of despair seeming
+to have deadened the agony he had felt; "I've been thinking it out while
+you were grovelling up there like a rat, and I think that the air will
+soon be all driven out of the mine by the water.  Ugh! hark at it now.
+How it comes bubbling and racing up there!  If you put your head over
+the edge of the rock there, it's fit to blow you away, and it smells
+horribly.  But can't you get any farther up?"
+
+"No, not a foot.  Go up and try yourself."
+
+"No," said Joe, slowly.  "A bit ago I felt as if I could do anything to
+get out of this horrible place; but now I'm fagged, like Sam Hardock
+there, and don't seem to mind much about it, except when I think of
+father."
+
+"Don't talk like that," cried Gwyn, passionately, "I can't bear it.
+Here, we must do something; it's so cowardly to lie down and die without
+trying to get out.  You go up there, and perhaps you will do better than
+I did."
+
+"No; you tried, and you're cleverer than I am."
+
+"No, I'm not.  You try.  You shall try," cried Gwyn, with energy.  "Go
+up at once.  Stop; let's put up a fresh candle."
+
+"It's of no use; you can't--I've been trying."
+
+"Joe!  Don't say there are no more candles."
+
+"Wasn't going to.  There's one, but the wick's soaked and it won't
+burn."
+
+Gwyn snatched at the candle, examined the blackened end and sodden wick,
+and then turned it upside down, holding the bottom end close to the
+flame of his own light and letting the grease drip away till fresh wick
+was exposed and gradually began to burn.
+
+"I should never have thought of doing that," said Joe, calmly, as he lay
+on his chest resting his chin upon his hands.
+
+"There," cried Gwyn, sticking up the fresh candle in the tin sconce, and
+waiting till the fat around it had congealed.  "Now you go on up, and
+see what you can do.  Keep the door side of the lanthorn away from the
+wind."
+
+"Must I go?" said Joe, dolefully.
+
+"Yes, if you want to see the poor Major again."
+
+"Ah!" sighed Joe, and taking the lanthorn, he crawled up to where Gwyn
+had been, while the latter searched eagerly round to try and find out
+some other opening.  But, saving that by which they had come, and up
+which the whistling, roaring and gurgling increased in intensity, and
+sounded as if some writhing mass of subterranean creatures were fighting
+their way through the dark passage to escape from the flood, there was
+not the smallest crack, and he turned again to where Joe was passing out
+of sight, his boot soles alone visible as he slowly crawled up the
+narrow chimney-like place.
+
+Then they disappeared, and Gwyn turned to where Hardock was lying on his
+face.
+
+"Sam," he said.
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"Sam!" he cried, angrily now; and the man slowly raised his face and
+gazed at him reproachfully.
+
+"Might let me die in peace," he groaned.
+
+"You rouse up, and try and help us," said Gwyn, firmly; and his will
+being the stronger, the man began to raise himself slowly into a sitting
+position, shuddering as he listened to the furious hurricane of sounds
+which came up the narrow rift.
+
+"It's only a noise, Sam," said Gwyn.  "I say, there has never been any
+mining done up here, has there?"
+
+"Never, sir.  It's all natural rock.  Look at the crystals."
+
+"That's what I thought.  But look up there at Joe."
+
+"Eh?  Where's Mr Joe Jollivet?"
+
+"Clambering up that hole where Grip must have gone.  He must have got up
+to the surface."
+
+Hardock shook his head.
+
+"Why not?" continued Gwyn, eagerly.  "The wind rushes up there."
+
+"Ay, but wind will go where even a mouse couldn't."
+
+"But if Grip hadn't got up there, he'd have come back."
+
+"If he could, sir--if he could.  But don't, don't ask me questions; I'm
+all mazed like, and can't think or do anything.  I only want to go to
+sleep, sir, out of it all, never to have any more of this horror and
+trouble."
+
+"Look here, Sam," continued Gwyn; "this noise of the wind coming up
+means the water filling up the passages and driving it out, doesn't it?"
+
+"I s'pose so, sir."
+
+"How long will it be before the mine is quite full of water?"
+
+"Who knows, sir?  Tends on how big the hole is.  Maybe hours, for it's a
+vasty place--miles of workings."
+
+"Then the water won't come up to us till the passages are all full."
+
+"No, sir, and maybe not come to us at all.  We may be too high."
+
+"Too high?  Of course.  If we're above sea-level now, it won't reach
+us."
+
+"No, sir.  You see the mouth of the mine's quite two hundred feet above
+sea-level, the workings are all below."
+
+"Then we may escape yet?"
+
+"Escape, sir?" said Hardock, despairingly.  "How?"
+
+"Grip has gone up to grass."
+
+"Ay, perhaps he has escaped," said Hardock, dismally.
+
+"And if he has, do you think he will not bring us help?  Why, it may
+come any time."
+
+"Yes, to the hole he got out of; and it'll take five years to dig down
+through the solid rock to get us out.  Nay, Master Gwyn, you may give it
+up.  We're as good as dead."
+
+A faint sound, half groan, half cry, arrested them; and Gwyn hurried to
+the crack up which Joe Jollivet had crawled.
+
+"What is it?  Can you get by?"
+
+"No, no," came back faintly, the words being half drowned by the noise
+of the wind; "stuck fast."
+
+"Oh, why did he grow so long and awkward!" muttered Gwyn.  "Here, Joe,
+turn round a bit and try and come back on your side."
+
+"Been trying hard, and I can't come back."
+
+Gwyn's heart sank, and he hesitated for a few moments, till the piteous
+word "Help!" reached his ears, when he crept into the hole, leaving his
+lanthorn burning outside, sheltered from the current of air which rushed
+to the outlet, and began to crawl up as fast as he could.
+
+"Help!" came again.
+
+"Coming.  You must turn."
+
+"Can't, I tell you.  Oh, Ydoll, old fellow, it's all over now I--ah!"
+
+Then there was a wild cry that petrified Gwyn, just as he was nearing
+the place where Joe had managed to wedge himself, for it might have
+meant anything.
+
+Then came relief, for Joe cried exultantly--
+
+"My arm wedged round the block of stone; I've got it out."
+
+It was Gwyn's turn to cry "Ah!" now, in the relief he felt; and for a
+few minutes he lay listening to the peculiar rustling noise beyond him,
+unable to stir.  But he was brought to himself by a kick on the crown of
+his head, and began to back away from his companion's feet as fast as he
+could, getting out at last to find Sam Hardock kneeling by the hole,
+lanthorn in hand, looking utterly despondent.
+
+"It's no good, my lad," he said, with a groan.  "What's the use o'
+punishing yourself in this way?  You ought to know when you're beat."
+
+"That's what Englishmen never know, Sam," cried Gwyn.
+
+"Ay, so they say, sir--so they say; but we are beat now."
+
+The appearance of Joe's boots put an end to their conversation; and a
+few minutes after he turned his face to them, looking ghastly in the
+feeble light of the lanthorns.
+
+"Thought I was going to die caught fast in there," he said, with a sob,
+"Oh, Ydoll, it was horrible.  You can't think how bad."
+
+"Lie down for a bit and rest," said Gwyn, gently, for the poor fellow
+was quite hysterical from what he had gone through; and without a word
+he obeyed, lying perfectly still save when a shudder shook him from head
+to foot, and he clung fast to Gwyn's hand.
+
+"Do you think you could do any good by trying?" said Gwyn at last.
+
+"Me, sir?" said Sam.  "No; I'm too big.  I should get stuck fast."
+
+"No, there's room enough.  He got himself fixed by wedging his arm in
+beyond the stone."
+
+"Yes, that was it," sighed Joe; and, to the surprise of both, Hardock
+picked up his lanthorn, crawled to the hole, thrust it in and followed,
+while the two lads lay listening to the rustling sounds he made, half
+drowned by the shrieking and whistling of the wind.
+
+In about a quarter-of-an-hour he backed out, drawing his light after
+him.
+
+"It's of no use, my lads," he said; "we may shake hands now, for we've
+done all that we can do.  I've been trying hard at that stone, but it's
+wedged in fast.  A shot o' powder might drive it out, but our hands
+aren't powder nor dinnymite neither, and we may give it up."
+
+No one spoke, and they lay there utterly exhausted in mind and body,
+hour after hour, while their clothes began slowly to dry upon their
+bodies.  The rush of wind and the gurgle of water went on as if it were
+boiling violently; and something like sleep overtook them, for they did
+not move.
+
+But from time to time Gwyn bent over one or the other of the lanthorns
+to see to the candles, his one great dread being now lest they should
+sink into a deep stupor, and come to, finding that they were in the
+dark.
+
+Then suddenly, after lying down for some time trying to imagine that it
+was all some terrible dream, there was a quick, short bark; and unable
+to bear this, the lad uttered a wild cry, and then, from the terrible
+tension being taken so suddenly from off his nerves, he burst into a
+hysterical fit of laughter.
+
+The next minute Grip was licking at his face, following it up by the
+same endearment bestowed upon the other two, and then bursting into a
+prolonged fit of barking.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY.
+
+NEWS FROM GRASS.
+
+"Ydoll!  Ydoll!  Look! look!" cried Joe, suddenly.  "Here, Grip!  Grip!
+Quick!"
+
+But Gwyn had seen and caught at the dog's collar as soon as Joe had
+shouted to him; and as rapidly as his trembling fingers would allow, he
+untied the string which bound a white packet to the ring in the dog's
+collar.
+
+It was a note written in pencil, the words large, and easy to see; but
+they seemed to sail round before the lad's eyes, and minutes had elapsed
+before he could read in his father's bold hand:--
+
+  "Try and keep a good heart.  Grip has shown us the way, and, please
+  God, we'll reach you before many hours have passed.  Tie a
+  handkerchief to the dog's collar if you get this, and are all well.
+  Send him back at once.
+
+  "Arthur Pendarve."
+
+A strange sobbing sound escaped from Gwyn's lips as with trembling hands
+he tied his pocket-handkerchief tightly to the dog's collar.
+
+"Now, Grip!" he cried in a husky voice which did not sound like his own;
+and the dog, who was standing panting, with his tongue out and curled up
+at the tip, uttered an eager bark.  "Home! home!" cried Gwyn; and the
+dog made for the hole, dashed in, and disappeared, while his master
+crept away into the darkness of the lowest part of the long, sloping
+grotto-like place, and half-an-hour must have passed before he joined
+the others and lay down close to the hole where Grip had disappeared.
+
+They had no idea of how the time passed, and they could not speak, for
+their hearts were too full.  Words did not come till they heard a fresh
+barking, and the dog came scuffling out of the opening into the light,
+this time with the Colonel's flask tied to his collar, and stood panting
+while it was untied.
+
+It was one of the large flat leather-covered bottles with a silver screw
+top and silver cup, which slipped on the bottom; and now, for the first
+time awaking to the fact that he was in a fainting condition, Gwyn
+slipped off the cup, unscrewed the top, and poured out some of the
+contents of the bottle, handing the vessel to Hardock, who shook his
+head.
+
+"Nay, sir," he said, "I'll wait till we get out; I'm a tot'ler."
+
+Gwyn handed the silver cup to Joe, who tasted it.
+
+"Eggs and milk," he cried, and drank the contents with avidity before
+returning the cup.
+
+"Now, Sam," said Gwyn, refilling it.
+
+"Ay, I don't mind that, sir," said Hardock; "and I was thinking I was a
+bit too particklar when it was sent to save our lives.  Hah!  That's
+good," he added, as he drained the last drop.  "Sorry I can't wash it
+out for you, sir.  Shall I go down to the water?"
+
+"No, no, I don't mind drinking after you," said Gwyn, as he tremblingly
+poured out his portion, which was less than the others had taken; and
+he, too, drank the most grateful draught he had ever had, while the dog,
+who had couched, placed his head on the lad's knee and looked up at him
+with all a dog's reverence and affection for his master.
+
+But there was no note this time.
+
+The flask was re-fastened to the dog's collar, and he was sent back; and
+then the prisoners lay listening to the rushing and gurgling of the air
+and water, wondering how long it would take to reach them, for Hardock
+had been down to find that it had ascended the cavity for some distance;
+but he expressed his belief that it would be hours before it would hurt
+them, and the consequence was that, heartened by the prospect of escape,
+utterly exhausted mentally and bodily as they were, Nature came to their
+aid, and they all dropped off into a deep sleep.
+
+Gwyn was the first to awaken many hours later, to find all in darkness,
+and fight alone through the strange feeling of confusion in which he
+was.  But once more Grip came to his help; for no sooner had his master
+begun to move than he burst out barking loudly.
+
+This woke the others, equally confused and startled at being in the
+darkness, while the noise of the wind roaring through the cavity sounded
+appalling.
+
+Gwyn's first effort to light a match was a failure, but the second,
+within the shelter of a lanthorn, succeeded, and a fresh candle was
+finally lit.
+
+By this they found that Grip was the bearer of another note, and in
+addition a packet, which upon being opened was found to contain a card
+and a pencil.
+
+The note was very brief, stating tersely that efforts were being made to
+enlarge the way through which the dog had come up, and asking for
+information regarding their state.
+
+This was furnished as well as the circumstances would allow, Joe holding
+the light, while, after placing the card on the smoothest place he could
+find, Gwyn wrote the answer--the principal point he emphasised being
+that they were safe so far; but the water was rising, and they had
+nearly come to the end of their candles.
+
+But even as he wrote there was a cheering sound heard through the
+whistling of the wind--a sharp, clear clink as of hammer and chisel upon
+stone.
+
+"Hark! do you hear?" cried Joe, wildly; "they are coming down to us.  Oh
+work, work hard, before the water rises."
+
+He shouted this in a wildly frantic way, and then watched eagerly while
+Gwyn tied the card in a handkerchief and secured it to the dog's collar,
+Grip going off directly, as if he quite understood the business now.
+
+This done, Joe and Hardock lay down close to the orifice and listened to
+the clinking of the hammers, trying the while to imagine what kind of
+passage existed beyond the wedge-like block of stone, and calculating
+how long it would be before they were rescued.  But that was all
+imagination, too, for there was nothing to base their calculations upon.
+
+Meanwhile Gwyn was more matter-of-fact; for he took the lanthorn and
+descended to where the water had risen, and there, clinging with one
+hand, he held the light down, to gaze with a feeling of awe at the
+bubbling surface, which was in a violent state of agitation, looking as
+if it were boiling.  Every now and then it was heaved up and then fell
+back with a splash.
+
+Gwyn's object in descending the sharp slope had been to make a mark upon
+the rock with his knife just at the level of the water, and then try and
+scratch other marks at about a foot apart, so as to descend again and
+see how much higher the water had risen.
+
+But this seemed to be impossible, for the level was always changing, the
+water running up several feet at times and then descending, playing up
+and down evidently as the pressure of the confined air increased or
+sank.
+
+Still he made some marks, and then returned to the others to join them
+in listening.
+
+But this proved weary work, for it was only now and then that they could
+hear the sound of the hammer, for the current of air seemed to bear it
+away; while, when by chance the sounds did reach their ears they were
+most tantalising, at one time seeming very near, and at others so faint
+that they felt that the work going on must be very distant.
+
+The dog came back with food and lights and stayed with them, now
+trotting to the opening to bark at the sounds; and at times standing at
+the edge of the lower cavity to bark fiercely at those from below, his
+ears and the thick wolf frill about his neck being blown about by the
+fierce current of air.
+
+And so the time went on, first one and then the other descending to find
+that the water was steadily rising, and after each examination there was
+a thrill of dread as the looker-on asked himself, Would they win the
+race?
+
+How long was it?  Was it night, now, or day?
+
+Questions, these, which they could not answer, and at last, with their
+miserable state of despondency increasing, they lay half-stupefied,
+listening for the help which, as the hours wore slowly by, seemed as if
+it would never come.
+
+The end was unexpected when it did arrive, after what, in its long-drawn
+agony, seemed like a week.  Gwyn had sent a message by the dog imploring
+for news, for he said the water was very close to them now, as it was
+lapping the top of the cavity, and every now and then brimming over and
+slowly filling the bottom of the sloping cavern.
+
+All at once, heard plainly above the rush of the air and apparently
+close at hand, there was the loud striking of hammers upon stone.
+
+Gwyn thrust his head into the opening at once, and shouted, his heart
+bounding as a hollow-sounding cheer came back from just the other side
+of the wedge.
+
+"Who is it?" cried Gwyn, with the despondency which had chilled him
+taking flight.
+
+"Vores," came back.  Then--"Look here, sir!  I can't break through this
+stone.  I've no room to move and strike a blow.  How far can you get
+away from it?"
+
+"About sixty feet," said Gwyn, after a few moments' thought.
+
+"Any place where you can shelter from flying stones?"
+
+"Oh, yes, several."
+
+"Then I'm going back for a cartridge, and I shall put it under the
+stone, light a slow fuse and get away.  It must be blasted."
+
+"But you'll blow the roof down and stop the way."
+
+"No fear of that, sir.  If I do, it will only be in pieces that we can
+get rid of this end, you that.  It must be done, there's no other
+chance."
+
+"Is there plenty of room out your way?"
+
+"Sometimes.  Here and there it's a close fit to get through.  I've been
+nearly fast more than once.  Now, then, I'm going."
+
+"Must you go?" said Gwyn, mournfully.
+
+"Yes, but I'll soon be back.  Keep a good heart, and we'll have you out
+now."
+
+"Is my father there?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and the Major, and your mother, too."
+
+Gwyn's emotion choked his utterance for a time.  Then he spoke, but no
+answer came, and the feeling of loneliness and despair that came over
+him was horrible.
+
+He backed out and repeated the conversation, Joe giving a faint cheer,
+and Hardock shaking his head.
+
+"He may bury us alive," he said, "but the smoke and damp can't hurt us,
+for this wind will sweep it all out at once.  How long will he be?"
+
+It seemed quite an hour before Gwyn, who had crept right up the hole
+till he could touch the stone, heard any sound, and then it came all at
+once, when he was beginning to lose all hope again.
+
+The sound was the tap of a hammer upon stone, so near that he felt the
+jar.
+
+"Mr Gwyn, sir," came from close by.
+
+"Yes, here."
+
+"I've got the cartridge, and I'm going to wedge it under the stone, but
+it's going to be a hard job to light the match in this strong wind.
+Now, you go back, and when you're all safe I'll do my work and get safe,
+too, for it will be like a great cannon going off at both ends at once.
+How long will it take you?"
+
+"Two minutes," said Gwyn.
+
+"I'll count two hundred, and then begin."
+
+Gwyn shuffled back, gave his news, and the trio of prisoners crept
+behind angles of the cavern, Gwyn taking the light; and then they waited
+what seemed to be an hour, with the conclusion growing that Vores had
+been unable to light the fuse, and had gone back.
+
+"Sam!" shouted Gwyn at last.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"You both stay where you are; I'm going to crawl up to the mouth of the
+hole, and speak to Vores."
+
+"Nay, stay where you are," cried Hardock.  "It may be an hour before the
+charge is fired.  We don't know what trouble he has to get it to--"
+
+A deafening roar broke Hardock's speech in two; and to Gwyn it seemed as
+if he had received a violent blow on both ears at once.  Then in a dull,
+distant way he heard pieces of stone rattling, and there was perfect
+silence; the wind had ceased to roar and whistle, and Gwyn began to
+struggle, for he felt as if a hand had suddenly clutched his throat, and
+he knew he was suffocating.
+
+The next moment there was a rush and roar again; the air that had been
+compressed and driven back rebounded, as it were, rushing through the
+open cavity, and Gwyn felt that he could breathe again.
+
+"Where are you?" cried Hardock; and now Gwyn realised that the explosion
+had put out the light.
+
+"Here.  Where's Joe Jollivet?"
+
+"I'm here," panted the lad.  "I couldn't breathe for a bit.  Think the
+block's blown away?"
+
+"I'm going to feel," replied Gwyn.  "Here!" he cried, excitedly, "the
+floor's covered with pieces of broken stone; but I can't find my way.
+Yes, all right; I can feel the way in."
+
+"Mind you don't get wedged in with the bits, my lad," cried Hardock,
+excitedly.  "Here, let me go first."
+
+"No," said Gwyn, "I--"
+
+His next words were not heard, for his head and shoulders were in the
+cavity and his voice was swept on before him ere he could say, as he
+intended, "I shall soon be back."
+
+But there was no risk of getting himself wedged, for the explosion had
+swept everything before it; and he crept on and on, till his heart gave
+a bound, for he realised that he must have passed the spot where the
+stone had wedged up the orifice, and the way to life and light was open.
+
+"Ahoy!" he shouted with all his might; and "Ahoy!" came from a distance,
+for the wind, which was whistling by him, drove the answer back.  But in
+another minute, as he extended his hand to feel his way along, he
+touched something warm in the darkness, and his hand was seized.
+
+That warm grasp, which meant so much to the lad, acted upon him like the
+discharging rod of the electrician upon a Leyden jar; in an instant his
+energy seemed to have left him, and he lay prone in the narrow way, only
+half-conscious of being very slowly dragged over rough stone for some
+time before the dizzy, helpless sensation passed off, and he struggled
+slightly.
+
+"Let go!" he cried.  "I must go back and tell them."
+
+"No, my lad, I'll do that," said a familiar voice.  "There's room to
+pass here.  Think you can go on crawling up now?"
+
+"Yes--yes, I'm all right.  Did I faint?"
+
+"I suppose so, sir.  Wait a moment."  There was a moment's pause, and
+then Gwyn heard the words bellowed out, "All clear!  Got to them!
+Coming now."
+
+There was a murmur at a distance, and then Vores spoke again,--
+
+"I'm coming by you now.  Are the others strong enough to crawl?"
+
+"Yes," said Gwyn, faintly, for his heart was beating strangely now just
+when he felt that he ought to be at his strongest and best.
+
+"You, there, Ydoll?" came loudly.
+
+"Yes; all right," cried Gwyn.  "Where's Sam Hardock?"
+
+"Crawling up after me," came more loudly.
+
+"Then I must go back," said Vores.  "P'raps I'd better lead, Mr Gwyn."
+
+"Yes, yes, go on, and we'll follow," said Gwyn, more faintly; and he
+felt the man pass him again, there being just room.
+
+"Must go very slowly," said Vores, "because there's no room to turn for
+another fifty yards or so.  Going backward takes time.  Now, then, come
+on, all on you."
+
+Once more Gwyn's dizzy feeling came back, but he struggled on, conscious
+that his rescuer's face was close to his--so close that at times their
+hands touched.  Then, after what seemed to be a long nightmare journey,
+the man's words sounded clearer on his ears.
+
+"It's wider here.  Goes zigzagging along with one or two close nips, and
+then we're out to the crack in the cliff."
+
+Gwyn did not reply.  He felt that if he spoke his words would be wild
+and incoherent, and that all his strength was required to crawl along
+this terrible crevice in the rock.  He was conscious of a hand touching
+his foot from time to time, and of hearing voices, and of passing over
+loose, small pieces of shattered rock which might have resulted from the
+explosion.
+
+At last, after what seemed to be a terrible distance, a voice said, "Out
+of the way, dog," and directly after a cold wet nose touched his brow,
+and there was a snuffing sound at his ear, followed by a joyous barking.
+Then gradually all grew more dense and dark in his brain, and the next
+thing he remembered was being touched by hands, and feeling the
+contraction of a rope about his chest followed by a burst of cheering
+which seemed to take place far away down in the mine; for the roaring
+and whistling of the wind had ceased, so that he could hear distinctly
+that hurrahing; and then he heard nothing, for, strong in spirit while
+the danger lasted, that energy was all used now, and of what took place
+Gwyn Pendarve knew no more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY ONE.
+
+IN THE LIGHT.
+
+"Yes, what is it?  Who's there?"
+
+"Oh, Gwyn, my boy, my boy!" came piteously; and two soft arms raised him
+from his pillow to hold him to a throbbing breast, while passionate lips
+pressed warm kisses on his face.
+
+"Mother!  You!  What's the matter?  Ah, I remember.  You there, father?
+Where's Joe?  Where's poor old Sam Hardock?"
+
+"Joe Jollivet's in the next room, sleeping soundly; Sam Hardock's at
+Harry Vores' cottage getting right fast."
+
+"And Tom Dinass?  Where is he?" cried Gwyn.
+
+"Dinass?  Great heavens!  Is he somewhere in the mine?"
+
+"No," said Gwyn, frowning.  "I only want to know where he is."
+
+"Never mind about him," said the Colonel.
+
+Gwyn nodded his head and became very thoughtful.
+
+"There, you had better lie in bed to-day, and the effects of your
+terrible experience will pass off.  We have suffered agonies since the
+alarm was given."
+
+"Did the lads all escape?"
+
+"Every man," said the Colonel; "but some of the last up were nearly
+drowned, for the water had risen to their necks at the foot of the shaft
+when they reached the man-engine."
+
+"Grip came and told you where we were?" said Gwyn, after a pause.
+
+"Yes, and led us to the opening up which he had come."
+
+"Where was it, father?"
+
+"In the face of the cliff--a mile away."
+
+"What, overlooking the sea?"
+
+"Yes, my boy, and the air was rushing out of it with tremendous force.
+It was a mere crack, and took a long time to open sufficiently for a man
+to pass in.  But there, don't talk about it.  We have passed through as
+terrible an experience as you, and it has nearly killed the Major."
+
+Gwyn passed the greater part of the next twenty-four hours in sleep, and
+then woke up, and was very little the worse.  He rose and went to Joe,
+who snatched at his hand, and then nearly broke down; but, mastering his
+emotion, he too insisted upon getting up; and soon after the two lads
+went on to the Major's, where the old officer was lying back in an
+easy-chair.
+
+"Hah!" he cried, as he grasped the boys' hands; "now I shall be able to
+get better.  This has nearly killed me, Joe, my boy; but I've been
+coming round ever since they found you."
+
+"Tell us how it all was, father," said Joe, as he sat holding the
+Major's hand in his.  "Colonel Pendarve always put me off when I asked
+him, and told me to wait."
+
+"I'm ready to do the same, my boy, for it has been very horrible.  But,
+thank heaven, only one life has been lost!"
+
+"Has one man been drowned?" cried Gwyn, excitedly.  "I thought everyone
+was saved."
+
+"One man is missing, Gwyn--that man Dinass.  They say he was hanging
+about the mine that day, and he has not been seen since, and I'm afraid
+he went down unnoticed.  Oh, dear; I wish we had not engaged in this
+wild scheme; but it is too late to repent, and the poor fellow will
+never be found."
+
+"Not when the mine is pumped out again, father?" said Joe.
+
+"Pumped out?  That will never be, my boy.  The water must have broken
+into one of the workings which ran beneath the sea, and unless the
+breach could be found and stopped it would be impossible."
+
+"Don't leave me for very long," said the Major, after they had sat with
+him some time; "but go for a bit--it will do you good."
+
+The two lads went straight away to the mine, where the engineer was busy
+cleaning portions of the machinery, but ready enough to leave off and
+talk to them.
+
+"Want to get my engines in good order, sir, so that they'll sell well,
+for they'll never be wanted again.  Nay, sir, that mine'll never be
+pumped out any more.  Sea's broke in somewhere beyond low-water mark.
+It's all over now."
+
+"Do you think Tom Dinass was below?" said Gwyn.
+
+"Yes, poor fellow.  He's a man I never liked; but there, he never liked
+me.  No one saw him go down, but he's never been seen since."
+
+They left the silent mine--only so short a time back a complete hive of
+industry--and went on to Harry Vores' cottage, where the owner was busy
+gardening, and Sam Hardock was seated in the doorway sunning himself,
+but ready to try and rise on seeing the two lads, though he sank back
+with a groan.
+
+"How are you, gen'lemen?  How are you?" he cried cheerily.  "Very glad
+to see you both about; I can't manage it yet.  Water's got in my legs;
+but the sun's drying it out, and as soon as I can walk I'm going to see
+about that bit of business.  You know."
+
+"There drop it, Sam, old man," said Vores, who had left his gardening to
+come up and shake hands.  "Glad to see you gentlemen.  Been down by the
+mine?  Looks sad, don't it, not to have the smoke rising and the stamps
+rattling?"
+
+"Don't you interrupt," said Hardock.  "I want to talk to the young
+masters about him.  Have you told the guv'nors what I said about Tom
+Dinass?"
+
+"'Course they haven't," said Vores.  "He's got a crotchet in his head,
+gentlemen, that poor Tom Dinass made a hole, and let in the sea-water."
+
+"Crotchet?  Ah, I know, and so do they.  I say he did it out o' spite."
+
+"How?" said Vores, with a grim smile at the visitors.
+
+"I don't say how," replied Hardock; "but if we knew we should find he
+sunk dinnymite somehow and fired it over one of the old workings."
+
+"Struck a match and held it under water, eh?"
+
+"Don't you talk about what you don't understand," said Hardock, sternly.
+"You ask the young gentlemen here if shots can't be fired under water
+with 'lectric shocks, or pulling a wire that will break bottles of acid
+and some kinds of salts."
+
+"Well, if Tom Dinass did that," said Vores, sharply, "I hope he blew
+himself up as well; but it's all a crank of yours, old man.  Tom Dinass
+never did that.  Let the poor fellow alone where he lies, somewhere at
+the bottom of the mine."
+
+"Ah, you'll see," said Hardock--"You give my dooty to your fathers,
+young gentlemen, and tell them I'd be glad to see them if they'd look in
+on me.  I'd come up to them, as in dooty bound, but my legs won't go.  I
+s'pose it's rheumatiz.  I want to hear what they'll say."
+
+"Do you think the mine can be pumped dry again, Sam?" said Gwyn,
+suddenly, "so as to get to work once more?"
+
+"Do I think I could dive down among the breakers with a ginger-beer cork
+and a bit o' wire, and stop up the hole?  No, I don't, sir.  That mine--
+the richest nearly in all Cornwall--is dead, and killed by one man out
+o' spite."
+
+Vores caught Gwyn's eye, gave him a peculiar look, and tapped his
+forehead; but Hardock caught the movement.
+
+"Oh no, I arn't, Harry Vores.  I'm no more cracked than you are; but I
+won't quarrel, for you and your wife have been very good to me, and you
+did a brave thing when you come down that hole and got us out."
+
+"Yah!" cried Vores, "such stuff.  Why, anyone would have done it.  You
+would for me.  There, I don't mean you're mad--only that you've got that
+crook in your mind about Tom Dinass.  Well, it's a blessing the poor
+fellow had neither wife nor child to break their hearts about him."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY TWO.
+
+THE GENERAL WIND-UP.
+
+The days wore on, and the Colonel and Major shook their heads at Sam
+Hardock when he made his accusation as to the cause of the catastrophe;
+while the captain went about afterward in an aggrieved way, for he could
+get no one to believe in his ideas.  The Colonel and his partner took
+the advice of an expert, and in a short time it was announced that no
+effort would be made to pump the mine dry, a few hours' trial by way of
+test proving that the water could not be lowered an inch.
+
+The work-people were all liberally paid off, and began to disperse,
+finding work at different mines; and after several consultations, the
+Colonel and his old brother officer being quite of the same mind, an
+interview was held with a well-known auctioneer, and the whole of the
+machinery was announced for sale.
+
+Just about this period, without saying anything at home, Gwyn and Joe,
+who had passed a good deal of time beneath the cliffs at low-water, to
+try and find out anything suggestive of an attempt being made to destroy
+the mine by an explosive--finding nothing, however, but a few places
+where the rocks had been chipped down by the point--determined to
+examine the spot from which they had escaped by the help of Vores.
+
+The latter being consulted, expressed his willingness to go, and Sam
+Hardock was asked to accompany them, but he shook his head.
+
+"No," he said, "my legs are all right again; but there aren't nothing to
+be got by it, and I should advise you all not to go."
+
+But another actor in the late adventures expressed his willingness to be
+of the party, and tore off at full speed one morning when, well provided
+with candles, matches and magnesium wire, they started off, following
+the edge of the cliff, till, about a mile west of the mine, Grip seemed
+to take a plunge into the sea and disappear.
+
+"Knows his way again," said Vores, laughing; and upon the spot where the
+dog had disappeared being reached, a way down for some forty or fifty
+feet was found, close by which a narrow opening, with the debris lying
+about as the pieces had been chipped, met the eye.
+
+On approaching this, Grip made his appearance, barking loudly, and then
+turned and went in again.
+
+"Will you go first, sir?" said Vores; and Gwyn led, candles being lit as
+soon as they were a little way in.
+
+They followed the descent for the most part on all-fours, and lastly by
+creeping and pushing the lanthorns on in front, till at last the long,
+low, sloping cavern was reached where so terrible a time had been
+passed.
+
+The floor was littered with broken stones, the result of the shot that
+was fired, and for a few moments Gwyn knelt there listening, expecting
+to hear the hiss and roar of the wind dislodged by the pressure of the
+water; but the only sound heard was the rustling and panting of those
+who were following; and as soon as Joe was out they went together to the
+descent into the mine.
+
+Here there was no way down farther than about twenty feet; then the
+water lay calm, smooth and black.
+
+"It was higher than this when we were here, Joe," exclaimed Gwyn.
+
+"Yes, right over the floor."
+
+"Pressed up by the confined air, perhaps, gentlemen," said Vores; and
+with this explanation they had to be content.
+
+"But about how high above the sea are we here, Vores?" said Gwyn.
+
+"No height at all, sir.  According to my calculation, as we came down,
+we are about sea-level, and the mine must be full."
+
+They returned, bringing a few crystals as mementoes of their adventure;
+and that evening, when the Major was at the Cove house, Gwyn was about
+to bring the specimens out and relate where they had been that day, when
+the servant announced the comma of two visitors, and Messrs. Dix and
+Brownson, the solicitors, who seemed to be now on the most friendly
+terms, were shown in.
+
+Their visit was soon explained.  They had seen the announcement, they
+said, of the sale, and they thought it, would be a pity to remove all
+the machinery, as it was in position for carrying out the working of the
+mine.
+
+Finally, they were there for the purpose of making the Colonel a liberal
+offer for the estate, house, mine, machinery, everything, as it stood.
+
+Mr Dix was the chief speaker; and when he had finished, and stood
+smilingly expectant that the Colonel would jump at the offer, he was
+somewhat taken aback by the reply,--
+
+"But I do not want to sell my estate.  This has been my home, sir, for
+years."
+
+"But as you wish to sell the machinery, my dear sir," said Mr Dix,
+"surely you would not mind parting with the mine now?"
+
+"Indeed, but I should," said the Colonel.
+
+"Then you will try and clear it, and commence work again?"
+
+"Never, sir," said the Colonel, emphatically.
+
+"Surely, then, you would not hinder others from adventuring upon what
+may prove a failure, but who are still willing to try?"
+
+"Indeed, but I would, sir," said the Colonel.  "The machinery will be
+sold for what it will fetch, and then I shall return to my old, calm,
+peaceful life."
+
+"But, my dear sir," began Mr Brownson.
+
+"Pray do not argue the matter, sir," said the Colonel, and at last the
+two solicitors went disappointed away.  But in the three weeks which
+elapsed before the auction, four more applications were made, still
+without result, and then came the sale, months of work, and at last the
+whole of the appliances of the mine that could be got at were swept
+away.
+
+It was about three months later that, one evening, the Major sat at a
+round table over which Colonel Pendarve presided, with divers books
+before him and a carefully-drawn-up balance-sheet, which he proceeded to
+read; Mrs Pendarve, Gwyn and Joe Jollivet being the other listeners.
+It was full of details, vouchers for all of which were in the books.
+
+But Major Jollivet stopped him.
+
+"Look here, Pendarve," he said; "the weather is going to change, or I
+have one of my fever fits coming on, so I don't want to be bothered.
+Look here, I joined you in this speculation, and it has turned out
+unfortunate.  I trust you in every way, and I know that everything you
+have done is for the best.  So just tell me in plain figures what is the
+amount of the deficit, and I will draw you a cheque for one-half.  If
+it's too big a pull, Joe, you will have to go to work, and I into a
+smaller house.  Now, then, please let me know the worst."
+
+"Glad you take it so well," said the Colonel, frowning, and coughing to
+clear his voice, while Mrs Pendarve looked very anxious, and the lads
+exchanged glances.
+
+"Ahem!" coughed the Colonel again.  "Well, sir, in spite of the very
+favourable returns made by the mine, our expenses in commencing, for
+machinery, and the months of barren preparation, we are only--"
+
+"Will you tell me the worst?" cried the Major, angrily.
+
+"I will," said the Colonel; "the worst is, that after all we have paid
+and received, we now have standing in the bank the sum of twelve hundred
+pounds odd, which, being divided by two, means just over six hundred
+pounds apiece."
+
+"Loss?" cried the Major.
+
+"Gain," said the Colonel.  "We worked the mine for the boys, so that
+money will just do for their preparation for the army, for they're
+fitter for soldiers than miners after all."
+
+The Major had risen to his feet, and stood with his lips trembling.
+
+"Am I dreaming?" he said.
+
+"No, my dear old friend; very wide awake."
+
+"Then I have not lost?"
+
+"No; gained enough to pay well for Joe's education, and I stand just the
+same.  Now, boys, a good training with an army coach, and then
+Sandhurst.  What do you say?"
+
+"Hurrah!" cried the boys in a breath; and when they repeated it their
+fathers joined in.
+
+About a month later Grip was loose in the garden, and seeing some one
+approach, Gwyn rushed at the dog, seized him by the collar, and chained
+him up before turning back to meet--Tom Dinass, who was coming up to the
+house.
+
+"You here--alive?" cried Gwyn.
+
+"Seems like it, sir," said the man, grinning.  "That there dorg's as
+nasty and savage as ever.  Guv'nor in?"
+
+"Yes, I'm here, sir," said the Colonel, who had seen the man approach.
+"Then you were not drowned in the mine?"
+
+"Oh, no, I warn't drowned in the mine."
+
+"Well, what is your business?"
+
+"Would you mind taking me in where we sha'n't be heard?"
+
+"No, sir; you can speak out here.  I don't suppose you have anything to
+say that my son may not hear."
+
+"Oh, very well, then, sir, it's this here.  Old Dix--Loyer Dix--sent me
+here, ever so long ago, to spy out and report on your mine, and I did;
+and both Dix and Loyer Brownson, as they're partners now, finding it a
+likely spec, wanted to buy it, but you wouldn't sell, and worked it
+yourself."
+
+"Well, sir, what of that?"
+
+"Oh, only that they were disappointed, and they became friends after,
+and sent me here to get took on and report everything."
+
+"Ah, I see," said the Colonel, quietly; "a spy in the camp."
+
+"Yes, sir," said the man, grinning.
+
+"And you reported everything to them?"
+
+"Yes, sir, o' course; they paid me to, and so I did."
+
+"And took our money, too!" said Gwyn, indignantly.
+
+"Oh, but I worked for that, Mr Gwyn, sir, and worked hard."
+
+"Exactly," said the Colonel, smiling; and seeing that it was apparently
+taken as a good joke, Dinass grinned widely.
+
+"Then they got more and more disappointed as they found out what a prize
+they'd let slip through their fingers; and at last got so wild that,
+when I went to report to 'em one Sunday, they asked me if I couldn't do
+something to spoil your game."
+
+"On a Sunday, eh?" said the Colonel.
+
+"Oh, yes, it was on a Sunday, sir.  So I said I'd try and think it out;
+and at last I did, and went and told 'em I thought I could let the water
+in and spoil the mine, and then they'd be able to buy it cheap."
+
+"And what did they say?"
+
+"Oh, they both coughed and rubbed their hands, and said it would be too
+shocking a thing to do, and that I should be bringing myself under the
+law, and all on in that way, pretending like to make me feel that they
+didn't want me to do it, but egging me on all the time."
+
+"Ah, I see," said the Colonel, while Gwyn's teeth gritted together with
+rage.
+
+"I wasn't going to shilly-shally, so I ast 'em downright if I should do
+it, and `Oh, dear no,' says they, they couldn't think of such a thing;
+and little Dix says, `Of course, as we promised, if we had succeeded in
+buying the mine for our company through your reports we should have
+given you the situation of captain of the working and a hundred pounds;
+but we couldn't think of encouraging such criminal ideas as those you
+'mulgated.  Let me see,' he says, `it was to be a hundred pounds, warn't
+it?'
+
+"`Yes,' I says, `it was.'
+
+"`Exactly,' he says, `but we haven't got the mine, so we wish you
+good-morning,' which was like renewing the offer in an underhanded way.
+So I come back and did it."
+
+"How?" burst in Gwyn.
+
+"Easy enough, sir.  Found out where the highest gallery ran, stuck a big
+tin o' stuff over it, and set it off with a little 'lectric machine on
+the rocks.  I knowed everybody would soon get out."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Gwyn.
+
+"Be quiet, my boy.  Very clever and ingenious, Mr Dinass; and we
+thought you were drowned."
+
+"Me, sir?  No, I knew a trick worth two of that."
+
+"But may I ask why you have come to me now after ruining our property?"
+
+"Why, because they've chucked me over, sir.  They say I insult them by
+thinking they would ever do such a thing.  That was when I went and
+asked 'em for my money.  Last thing was, when I told 'em it was their
+doing, and they set me at it, they said I were trying to blackmail 'em--
+that they never thought I meant such a thing, and that if I warn't off
+they'd hand me over to the police."
+
+"Exactly like them," said the Colonel.
+
+"Yes, sir, just like 'em.  I call it mean, and I told 'em so, and that
+if they threatened me I'd speak out and let people know the truth.  And
+I says at last, `I give you a month to think over it; and if you don't
+give me my hundred pounds then, I shall blow the whole business, and how
+do you like that?'"
+
+"And what did Mr Dix say?"
+
+"`Brownson,' he says, `send for a policeman at once.'"
+
+"Yes, just what he would say," said the Colonel, while Gwyn wished
+fervently he had not tied up Grip.
+
+"Yes, sir, that's what he said; but I give 'em rope, and I've been again
+and again; and last time they let me see that all the blame should be on
+me and none on them, for no one would believe that loyers like them
+could do wrong, while everyone would think bad of me.  Last of all they
+ordered me off, and after thinking it over a bit I've come to you, sir."
+
+"What for?" said the Colonel.
+
+"Why, for you to go to law with them for spoiling your mine.  You've
+only got to start it, and I'll come and swear to it all, and you can get
+them transported.  Don't you be afraid, sir; I'll come and speak out,
+and then--"
+
+"I'm to give you a hundred pounds, I suppose?"
+
+"Well, sir," said the man, grinning, "I must have it out o' some one.
+But don't you be afraid; I'll bring it home to 'em sharp.  Now what do
+you say?"
+
+"This," cried the Colonel; "I'm too old, and my son is too young, to
+horsewhip such a scoundrel as you are.  Be off my premises at once, sir;
+and if you dare to come here again, old as I am, or young as he is,
+we'll try."
+
+"What?" cried Dinass, in a bullying tone.
+
+"Gwyn, my boy," said the Colonel, calmly, "go and unloose Grip."
+
+The words acted like magic, and they never saw Tom Dinass again, for in
+consultation with his old partner and friend it was decided that nothing
+was to be gained by a prosecution.  The mining was over, they were as
+happy without it, and life was not long enough to punish scoundrels who
+had lost already in their nefarious game.
+
+"But, oh!" cried Gwyn, "I only wish he had stopped till I had let loose
+Grip."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Sappers and Miners, by George Manville Fenn
+
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