though he drew himself up twice, he did not get well above the
opening till he managed to force one toe into the niche between a couple
of the stones of the wall, when, by a sharp effort, he drew himself so
far out of the hole that he was able to seat himself upon the edge, with
his legs dangling down.

"What a lot of trouble I am taking!" he said, laughing lightly, though
at the same time he felt discomposed. "I might just as well have
dropped, but as I am up here again I may as well take soundings."

His plan of taking soundings was to fish out his ball of worsted, and,
after a moment's thought, to tie it to the handle of the brown
water-jug, and this he lowered softly down the hole.

"It's deeper down than I thought for," he said to himself, as he let the
jug right down to the extent of the worsted thread, and then knelt down
and reached as far as he could, but still without result.

"Stop a moment," he said, pulling out his piece of line, "it's lucky I
didn't leave go. Why, that worsted's at least a dozen feet long."

As he spoke he tied the end of the worsted to his piece of cord, and let
the jug down lower still, to the extent of the cord as well, quite five
yards more.

"Phew!" he whistled, as, with the cord round his finger, he reached down
as far as he could; "I should have had a drop! and--hang it, there goes
the jug!"

For at that moment the string suddenly became light, the worsted having
parted; and as he knelt there, peering down into the darkness, the
perspiration started once more from his forehead, and a curious
sensation, as of a comb with teeth of ice passing through his hair,
affected him while he listened moment after moment, moment after moment,
till there came up a dull whispering splash from below, at a distance
that was perfectly horrifying after the risk that Hilary had run.

So overcome was he by his discovery that he shrank away from the opening
in the floor completely unnerved, and unable for a time to move. He
was, in fact, like one who had received a stunning blow, and only after
some minutes had elapsed was he able to mutter a few words of
thankfulness for his escape, as he now thoroughly realised that he had
uncovered an old well of tremendous depth.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

A STRANGE FISH IN THE NET.

Hilary's first act on recovering himself was to creep back cautiously to
the side, and lower down the stone over the open well, shivering still
as he realised more fully