Part 13 (1/2)

”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 pa.s.s all your life fis.h.i.+ng, 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 swis.h.i.+ng 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 pa.s.sage 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 b.u.t.tress, 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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.s 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?”