roken in two.

"You have to mind your head here, sir," said the captain, with a quiet
smile; "'tis a good place to learn humility."

Oliver could scarce help laughing aloud as he gazed at his guide, for,
standing as he did with the candle close to his face, his cheeks, nose,
chin, forehead, and part of the brim of his hat and shoulders were
brought into brilliant light, while the rest of him was lost in the
profound darkness of the level behind, and the flame of his candle
rested above his head like the diadem of some aristocratic gnome.

"How far down have we come?" inquired Oliver.

"About eighty fathoms," said the captain; "we shall now go along this
level and get into the pump-shaft, by which we can descend to the
bottom. Take care of your feet and head as you go, for you'll be apt to
run against the rocks that hang down, and the winzes are dangerous."

"And pray what are winzes?" asked Oliver as he stumbled along in the
footsteps of his guide, over uneven ground covered with debris.--"Ah!
hallo! stop!"

"What's wrong?" said the captain, looking back, and holding up his
candle to Oliver's face.

"Candle gone again, captain; I've run my head on that rock. Lucky for
me that your mining hats are so thick and hard, for I gave it a butt
that might have done credit to an ox."

"I told you to mind your head," said Captain Dan, relighting the candle;
"you had better carry it in your hand in the levels, it will light your
path better. Look out now--here is a winze."

The captain pointed to a black yawning hole, about six or seven feet in
diameter, which was bridged across by a single plank.

"How deep does it go?" asked the youth, holding up his candle and
peering in; "I can't see the bottom."

"I dare say not," said the captain, "for the bottom is ten fathoms down,
at the next level."

"And are all the winzes bridged with a single plank in this way?"

"Why, no, some of 'em have two or three planks, but they're quite safe
if you go steady."

"And, pray, how many such winzes are there in the mine?" asked Oliver.

"Couldn't say exactly, without thinkin' a bit," replied the captain;
"but there are a great number of 'em--little short of a hundred, I
should say--for we have a good many miles of levels in Botallack, which
possesses an underground geography as carefully measured and mapped out
as that of the surface."

"And what would happen," asked Oliver, with an expression of
half-simulated anxiety, "if yo