Part 7 (1/2)

”What's to be done? Can't jump down into the water and swim out by the adit, can you?”

”No,” cried Will angrily. ”Here, go back and get a rope.”

”Where?” shouted back Josh. ”I say, I knowed you'd be getting into some mess or another going down there.”

Will was equable enough in temper, but a remark like this from the man he had trusted with his life made him grind his teeth in a fit of anger, and wish he were beside Josh for a moment, to give him a bit of his mind.

”Go up to any of the fishermen, never mind where, and borrow a line.”

”All right!”

”And, Josh.”

”Hullo!”

”Don't make any fuss; don't alarm anybody. I don't want them to know at home.”

”But suppose we never get you out again?” shouted Josh, in a tone of voice that startled a s.h.a.g which was about to settle on a shelf of rock hard by, and sent it hurrying away to sea.

Will stamped his foot at this, and mentally vowed that he would never trust Josh again.

”Go and borrow a line,” he cried, ”and look sharp. I don't want any one to know.”

”All right!” cried Josh; and directly after Will knew that he was alone.

The place was not absolutely dark, for he could plainly make out the edge of the gallery, seen as it were against a faint twilight that came from above; and this was sufficient to guide him as to how far he dare go towards the shaft if he wished to move.

For the first few minutes, though, he felt no disposition that way, and seating himself on the stony floor, with hundreds of loose fragments of granite beneath him, he tried to be calm and cool, and to come to a conclusion as to how he should escape.

If Josh came back soon with a rope it would be easy enough; and possibly they might be able to rig up a grappling-iron or ”creeper,” as the fishermen called it, for the line that was lost; but a little consideration told him that in all probability the line had sunk before now and was right at the bottom of the shaft.

Then he wondered how long Josh would be, and whether he would have much difficulty in borrowing a rope.

If Josh said at once what was the matter, there would be a crowd up at the head of the shaft directly with a score of lines; but he did not wish for that. Even in his awkward, if not perilous, position he did not want the village to be aware of his investigations. He had been carrying them on in secret for some time, and he hoped when they were made known to have something worth talking about.

How long Josh seemed, and how dark it was! Perhaps he was being asked for at home, and he would be in disgrace.

That was not likely, though. He had chosen his time too well.

”I wonder how far it is down to the water?” he said at last; and feeling about, his hand came in contact with a large thin piece of stone, as big as an ordinary tile.

He hesitated for a moment or two, and then threw it from him with such force that it struck the far side of the shaft and sent up a series of echoes before, from far below, there came a dull sullen plash, with a succession of whis.h.i.+ng, lapping sounds, such as might have been given out if some monster had come to the top and were swimming round, disappointed by what had fallen not being food.

”It's all nonsense!” said Will. ”I don't believe any fish or eel would be living in an old shaft.”

Some of the mining people were in the habit of saying that each water-filled pit, deep, mysterious, and dark, held strange creatures, of what kind no one knew, for individually they had never seen anything; but ”some one” had told them that there were such creatures, and ”some one else” had been ”some one's” authority: for the lower orders of Cornish folk, with all their honest simplicity and religious feeling, are exceedingly superst.i.tious, and much given to a belief in old women's tales.

CHAPTER SIX.