ersation,
it is necessary to explain that the indefatigable miner, David
Trevarrow, whom we have already introduced in his submarine workshop,
had, according to his plan, changed his ground, and transferred his
labour to a more hopeful part of the mine.

For some time previous the men had been at work on a lode which was very
promising, but they were compelled to cease following it, because it
approached the workings of an old part of the mine which was known to be
full of water. To tap this old part, or as the miners expressed it, to
"hole into this house of water," was, they were well aware, an
exceedingly dangerous operation. The part of the mine to which we
allude was not under the sea, but back a little from the shore, and was
not very deep at that time. The "adit"--or water-conducting--level by
which the spot was reached commenced at the cliffs, on a level with the
seashore, and ran into the interior until it reached the old mine, about
a quarter of a mile inland. Here was situated the "house," which was
neither more nor less than a number of old shafts and levels filled with
water. As they had approached the old mine its near proximity was made
disagreeably evident by the quantity of moisture that oozed through the
crevices in the rocks--moisture which ere long took the form of a number
of tiny rills--and at last began to spirt out from roof and sides in
such a way that the miners became alarmed, and hesitated to continue to
work in a place where they ran the most imminent risk of being suddenly
drowned and swept into the sea, by the bursting of the rocks that still
withstood the immense pressure of the confined water.

It was at this point in the undertaking that David Trevarrow went to
examine the place, and made the discovery of a seam--a "keenly lode"--
which had such a promising appearance that the anxiety of the miners to
get rid of this obstructive "house" was redoubled.

It was at this point, too, that the council of which we write was held,
in order to settle who should have the undesirable privilege of
constituting the "forlorn hope" in their subterranean assault.

Maggot, who was known to be one of the boldest, and, at the same time,
one of the most utterly reckless, men in St. Just, was appealed to in
the emergency, and, as we have seen, offered to attack the enemy
single-handed, on condition that the miners should give him a "pitch" of
the good lode they had found--that is, give him the right