Part 45 (1/2)

”I'll go,” cried Dina.s.s. ”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 Dina.s.s. ”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 Dina.s.s. ”I aren't afraid, but I warn't engaged to do this sort of thing.”

”You'll go, then?”

”Are you deaf? Yersss!” roared Dina.s.s; and as the miner took his foot from the prostrate man's chest another moved to the doorway to guard against retreat.

But if Dina.s.s 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, s.n.a.t.c.hed 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 whis.h.i.+ng, dripping noise made itself heard, telling of water oozing from some seam.

”For we always are so jolly, oh! So jolly, oh!” sang Dina.s.s 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 Dina.s.s; ”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 pa.s.sed. And still down and down for what seemed to be an interminable length of time.

They knew that they must have pa.s.sed 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 Dina.s.s shouted boisterously,--

”Here we are; bottom. Give's hold o' one o' them lanthorns, or we shall be in the sumph.”

He s.n.a.t.c.hed 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, Dina.s.s 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 Dina.s.s 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.