can't be anything to mind, I
know; it is only where they used to dig out the stone."

A sudden burst of barking took her attention to the dog, who came
bounding up the rugged steps right to her feet, looked at her with his
great intelligent eyes, and, before she could stop him, rushed down
again, where she could hear him scratching, and there was a sound which
she knew was caused by his moving a piece of stone such as she could see
lying at the side in broken fragments, and of the kind dug in thin
layers, and used in the neighbourhood instead of tiles.

"Oh, Grip, Grip! And you know you can't get at him. Come here."

"Ahoy!"

Celia was leaning over the rugged steps, gazing down into the darkness
beneath the ferns, when, in a faint, smothered, distant way, there came
this hail, making her nearly drop her basket as she started away from
the pit.

The hail was followed by a sharp burst of barking, and the dog came
bounding up again, to stand looking after her, barking again before once
more descending.

Slowly, and with her eyes dilated and strained, the girl crept back step
by step, as she withstood her desire to run away, for all at once the
thought had come that perhaps some shepherd or labourer had fallen down
to the bottom, and was perhaps lying here with a broken leg.

She had heard of such things, and it would be very terrible, but she
must know now, and then go for help.

In this spirit she once more reached the entrance to the old quarry, and
peered down, listening to the worrying sound made by the dog, who kept
rattling one piece of stone over another, every now and then giving a
short, snapping bark.

"Ahoy!" came again, as if from a distance, and a thrill ran through the
girl, bringing with it a glow of courage.

"It is some poor fellow fallen down;" and, placing her basket by the
side, she began to descend cautiously, with Grip rushing to meet her,
barking now joyously, and uttering whine after whine.

The descent was not difficult, and after the first few steps the feeling
of timidity began to wear off, and Celia descended more quickly till,
about fifty feet from the top, some distance under where the fringe of
ferns hung, and where it had seemed quite dark from above, but was
really a pleasant greenish twilight, she found beneath her feet a few
loose flat stones, part of a quantity lying before her in the archway
that seemed to lead straight on into the quarry.

But here, right at her feet,