Part 13 (2/2)
”Keep on calling out what it's like; and as soon as you get down, sing 'Bottom!' and then I'll come too.”
Scarlett nodded, and let himself slide slowly, to find, and call up to his companion, that the hole went down at a slope into the darkness, so that he was not swinging by the rope, but supporting himself thereby, as he glided down over the shaley earth of which the hill was composed, but only to come to a sudden stop as he found that the hole zigzagged back in the opposite direction at a similar angle to that by which he had descended.
”Are you right?” cried Fred from above.
”Yes.”
”Is it easy?”
”Yes, quite.”
”Then I shall come down now.”
”No, no,” cried Scarlett; ”the rope is not strong enough for two.”
”Make haste, then. I want to see what there is. Found anything good?”
”No,” said Scarlett, as he glided slowly down into the darkness, with his companion's words buzzing in his ears, just as if they were spoken close by, and listening as he descended to the peculiar, trickling, rus.h.i.+ng noise of the sc.r.a.ps of disintegrating slate which he dislodged in pa.s.sing, and which fell rapidly before him.
”Keep talking,” said Fred from above.
”There's nothing to talk about,” cried Scarlett. ”I'm only sliding down a slope, and--yes, now I'm hanging clear, and turning round. Hold the rope: it's twisting so.”
”I am holding it tight,” came back; ”but I can't help its turning round.
What's it like now?”
”Just like day beginning to break, and I can see something s.h.i.+ning down below.”
”Is it the water?”
”Yes, I suppose so. Shall I go down any lower?”
”Yes, of course.”
”It isn't water that's s.h.i.+ning,” said Scarlett, after turning slowly round two or three times, as he descended another twenty feet.
”What is it, then?--gold or silver?”
”It's only a reflection, I suppose; but I can't quite see.”
”Aren't you at the bottom yet?” cried Fred, impatiently.
”No.”
”Make haste, then.”
”Yes, I am at the bottom,” cried Scarlett, directly after, as his feet touched firm rock.
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