t night when we were blown off the shore.

I stood looking at the scene, with the bare sea beyond and the vast
cliff towering up a thousand feet on my left, and then began to descend
the rugged slope, making straight for the building which my father used
as his counting-house and office.

"Well, Sep," he said, smiling, "I'm glad to see you."

I noticed that he looked care-worn and anxious, and his aspect
reproached me, for I felt as if it was too bad of me to be making
holiday while he was working so hard.

"Can I help you, father?" I said.

"Help me! Yes, my boy, I hope so--a good deal; but I don't want to be
too hard upon you. Take a good look round for a few days, so as to rest
a little while, and then you shall come and help me here; for, Sep, an
affair like this is not without plenty of anxiety."

"Oh, father!" I said, "I shall have plenty of time for amusement; let's
see if I can't help you now."

He looked more and more pleased as he heard my words.

"No," he said, "not yet. You shall have a look round first for a few
days, and perhaps you may be able quietly to pick up the cause of
something that is troubling me a great deal."

"Troubling you, father!" I said.

"Yes, my lad, troubling me, for things are not going as I could wish.
'Tis just as if, as fast as I get a few steps forward, someone pulls me
back."

"But I thought the mine was very prosperous, father?" I said.

"So it is, my boy, and I am getting it better and better; but there is
always mischief being done, or else some accident occurs, and I can't
tell how."

"Do you suspect anybody?"

"Well, er--no!" he said emphatically. "But, there--never mind now. I'm
busy with some calculations; go and have a look round."

I left his office and had "a look round," the place seeming to have far
more interest for me than it had before. Men were busy wheeling broken
ore and taking it from one heap to another; the great pump was hard at
work sucking out water; and the wheel was winding up buckets of produce
from out of the deep shaft.

I went and had a look there and shrank back, it seemed so repulsive and
dark; but as I did so I saw one of the men smiling, and this made me
turn red.

"Look here," I said sharply, "can I go down there?"

"Oh, yes, if you like, master," he replied, staring at me wonderingly
now.

"Then I will," I said. "I'll have a look at the furnace first, and then
I'll go down."

"Ay, do," he said; "and you're j