`We can't get down there.'

"`Dig down,' I says.

"`No, no,' says he. `If we do we shall smother them.'

"`That boy, then, you sot to look out--send him down.'

"`Go and bring him,' says the ganger; `and--oh, we have no rope. Bring
the reins; they're strong and new.'

"Five minutes after, the boy was up with us, and he said he'd go down if
we'd put the reins round him like a rope, and so we did, and after we'd
torn some furze away he got into the hole feet first, and wriggled
himself down till only his head was out.

"`Goes down all sidewise,' he says, `and then turns round.'

"`Will you go, my lad? The dog's down there, and we'll hold on to the
reins, and have you out in a minute, if you shout.'

"`And 'spose the sand falls?'

"`Why, we've got the reins to trace you by, and we'll dig you out in a
jiffy,' I says.

"`All right!' he says, and he shuffled himself down and went out of
sight, and he kept on saying, `all right! all right!' and then all at
once, quickly, `I've slipped,' he says, as if frightened. `There's no
bottom. I'm over a big hole.'

"Just then, my lad, the rein had tightened, but we held on.

"`Pull me up!' he says, and we pulled hard, and strained the reins a
good deal, and at last he come up, looking hot and scared.

"`I couldn't touch bottom,' he says, `and the dog began to bark loudly.'

"`I see,' says the ganger, `the dog slipped there, and can't get out.
We must have a rope; you, Ike, take the reins, and drive down to the
village and get a stout cart-rope. Bring two.'

"The landlord of the inn had just come up, and he said he'd got plenty,
and he'd go with me, and so he did, and in a quarter of an hour we'd
been down and driven back with two good strong new ropes.

"There was no more digging going on, it was no use; but while we'd been
gone they'd chopped away the furze, cutting through it with spades, so
that the hole, which was a big crack, was all clear.

"`Now, then,' says Old Brownsmith's brother, `go down again, my boy.
With this stout rope round we can take care of you,' but the boy shook
his head, he'd been too much scared last time.

"`Who'll go?' says the ganger. `A sovereign for the man who goes down
and fetches them up.'

"The chaps talked together, but no one moved.

"`It'll cave in,' says one of 'em.

"`You must cut a way down, Ike,' says the ganger. `I'm too stout, or
I'd go down myself.'

"`Nay,' I says, `if they're down there, and you get diggin