for there wouldn't be
no witness on my trial, but the rope, and mebbe they'd give me that for
my share, and hang me. There, will yer be quiet if I let yer sit up?"

"Yes, yes," said the boy, with a groan of despair.

"And yer see as I can't do nothing more, and you can't neither."

"I--I don't know, Sam," groaned the boy, as he lay weak and panting on
his back in the purple-blossomed heath. "No, no, I can't see it. I
must do something to try and save him."

"But yer can't, lad," said the man, bitterly. "There arn't nothing to
be done. It's a gashly business; but it wouldn't make no better of it
if I let you chuck yourself away, too. There, now you're getting
sensible."

Joe lay with his eyes closed in the hot sunshine, glad of the darkness
to shut out the horror of the scene around him; for the bright blue sky,
with the soft-winged grey gulls floating round and round above their
heads, and the far-spreading silver and sapphire sea, were dominated by
the mouth of the horrible pit, from which with strained senses he kept
on expecting to hear the faint cries of his companion for help.

But all was very still, save the soft, low hum of the bees busily
probing the heath bells for honey in the beautiful, wild stretch of
granite moorland, and the black darkness was for the unhappy boy alone.

For the knowledge was forced upon him that he could do no more. He felt
that after the first minute Gwyn's position must have been hopeless, and
he lay there perfectly still now in his despair, when Hardock rose
slowly, and began to haul in the line, hand over hand, coiling it in
rings the while, which rings lay there in the hot sunshine, dry enough
till quite a hundred-and-fifty feet had been drawn on, and then it came
up dripping wet fully fifty feet more, the mining captain drawing it
tightly through his hands to get rid of the moisture.

"Bad job--bad job!" he groaned, "parted close to the end--close to the
end--close to the end--well, I'll be hanged!"

He began in a low, muttering way, quite to himself, and ended with a
loud ejaculation which made Joe sit up suddenly and stare.

"What is it?" he cried wildly. "Hear him?"

"Hear him? No, my lad, nor we aren't likely to. But look at that."

He held out the wet end of the rope, showing how it was neatly bound
with copper-wire to keep it from fraying out and unlaying.

"Well," said Joe, "what is it?"

"Can't yer see, boy?"

"The rope's end? Yes."

"Can't yer