way among the men,
barking, snarling and growling savagely, for the only occupant of the
skep was Dinass.

"Hullo!" cried Vores, as the man stepped out, muddy and wet, with his
cheeks reddened by the minerals which had discoloured his hands, and
looking as if he had rubbed his face from time to time.

"Hullo, to you," he said sourly; and he sat down at once upon a rough
bench, with the water slowly dripping from his legs and boots.

"Where are the young guv'nors? Lie down, dog!"

"Young guv'nors?" said Dinass, looking wonderingly round as he slowly
took the lanthorn from where it swung from his waist by a strap.

"Yes, where are they?" cried Vores.

"How should I know?" growled Dinass. "Aren't they up here?"

"Here? No; we haven't seen them since they went down with you," cried
Vores.

"More aren't I, hardly; I thought they'd come up again."

"Come up again!" cried the miner, as a low murmur arose from the men
around. "You don't mean to say that you've come up and left them two
poor boys in the lurch!"

"Lurch be hanged!" cried Dinass, fiercely, and now subsiding with a
groin, as it he were in pain. "It's them left me in the lurch. They
started a game on me; I saw 'em whispering together, but I didn't think
it meant anything till we'd got some ways in, and my candle wanted a bit
o' snuffing to make it burn; so I kneels down and opens the lanthorn,
and it took a bit o' time, for I wetted my thumb and finger to snuff it,
and the wick spluttered after, and the light went out. Course I had my
box o' matches, but it took ever so long to light the damp wick. At
last, though, I got it to burn, but it went out again; and I turns to
them, where they was waiting for me when I see 'em last. `Give's a
fresh candle, sir,' I says, `for this here one won't burn.' But there
was no answer. So I spoke louder, never thinking they was playing me
any larks, but there was no answer; and I shouted, and there was no
answer; and last of all I regularly got the horrors on me, for I was all
alone."

"Well?" said Vores, scornfully, "what then?"

"Oh, then I begun wandering about in the dark banks and lanes, shouting
and hollering, and going half mad. It's a horrid place, and I must have
gone about for miles before I found my way back to the sumph, and nearly
fell into it. But haven't they come up again?"

"No," said Vores, who had stepped up and opened the lanthorn as the man
went on talking. "But how was it, when you