Part 68 (1/2)

”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 Dina.s.s.”

”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 Dina.s.s and he might have flown at him, and Dina.s.s 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 fis.h.i.+ng-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 Dina.s.s was forgotten.

There were busy days, too, in the mine, stolen from those pa.s.sed 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 crus.h.i.+ng, was.h.i.+ng, 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 pa.s.sages 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 s.h.i.+ning black surface; but knowledge had robbed it of its horrors.