a good-sized creel in his hand, the hammer and crowbar being
in a belt under his jersey, like a pair of hidden weapons. "I'd go by
myself if I had the rope."

"And lanthorn," said Mike, raising his head from where he had been lying
hidden in a clump of heather.

"Hullo, then!" cried Vince joyously. "I didn't see you there. But, I
say: lanthorn and rope! I felt as if I must burst out laughing."

"Yes: wasn't it comic?"

"I felt that I must tell him--poor old chap!--and as if I was trying to
cheat him."

"Oh no, it wasn't that! We couldn't help him taking the wrong idea.
I'd have told him at once, only it seems to spoil the fun of the thing
if everybody knows. But come on."

"Wait a minute," said Vince, sitting on a stone. "I want to look all
round first without seeming to. Perhaps old Joe's watching us."

"If he is," said Mike sagely, "you won't see him, for he'll be squatted
down by some block of stone, or in a furze bush. He's a regular old
fox. Let's go on at once. But where's the lanthorn?"

"Never you mind about the lanthorn: where's the rope?"

"Lying on it. Now, where's the light?"

"In the creel here," was the reply. Then without further parley they
plunged into the wood, and, profiting by former experiences, made their
way more easily through it into the rocky chaos beyond; threaded their
way in and out among the blocks, till at last with very little
difficulty they found their bearings, and, after one or two misses in a
place where the similarity of the stones and tufts of furze and brambles
were most confusing, they reached the end of the opening, noted how the
old watercourse was completely covered in with bramble and fern, and
then stepped down at once, after a glance upward along the slope and
ridge, to stand the next minute sheltered from the wind and in the
semi-darkness.

CHAPTER TEN.

A VENTURESOME JOURNEY.

"Mind how you go," said Mike in a subdued voice, for the darkness and
reverberation following the kicking of a loose pebble impressed him.

"All right: it's only a stone. It was just down there that I slipped
to. Ahoy!"

He shouted softly, with one hand to his mouth, and his cry seemed to run
whispering away from them to echo far beneath their feet.

"I say, don't do that," said Mike excitedly.

"Why not? Nobody could hear."

"No; but it sounds so creepy and queer. Let's have a light."

It did sound "creepy and queer," for the sounds came from out of the