m, and then began stamping my icy feet in order to restore the
circulation. Was there no hope? Must we remain like condemned
criminals watching the angry water slowly rising till it claimed its
prey? Of escape there seemed no possible chance, but in the anguish of
our desolate condition I prayed fervently to God for fortitude and
consolation to support us in our last hours.

Making cups of our hands, we drank from the trickling water as we ate
our cheese. We had little to say to each other; even George seemed to
have abandoned hope, and to be nerving himself up, that when the time
came he might make a brave ending and encourage me to do the same.

"It seems months since I took you up at the Sportsman, Master Eden," he
said, after a long silence. "Ah me! you little expected you was
starting on such a queer journey."

He spoke in so kind and gentle a manner that I knew instinctively his
thoughts and regrets were more for me than for himself. Somehow his
tone, and the memories which his words awakened of the many times I had
clambered up beside him on those happy days when I had returned to the
home and dear ones I should never see again, broke me down; and rising
hastily, I went forward to the edge of the platform and stood there,
vainly endeavouring to stifle my sobs. I was but a boy, and am not
ashamed now to remember those emotions.

I must have stood like this for some time, when I heard George call me;
and looking round, I saw him standing gazing up at the roof of the
cavern above his head.

"Master Eden, come here a minute, sir," he said.

I turned on my heel and obeyed, wondering what he wanted.

"Look here, sir," he continued, as I reached his side. "D'you see that
hole up above there? I wonder how far it goes."

The roof of the cave was almost lost to view in sombre shadows; but as
I have already mentioned, our eyes had become sufficiently accustomed
to the gloom to make out the existence of a curious hole or fissure in
the rock, which resembled nothing so much as a wide old-fashioned
chimney, and this resemblance was strengthened by the fact that one
side of it was level with the end wall of the cavern. More than this
we could not tell, an oblong patch of blackness being all that could be
seen from where we stood.

"I believe it goes up some way," continued George. "I noticed that the
smoke from the fire all went up it, and didn't hang about in the roof
yonder; and last night I heard the win