d
the man with the short memory.

"Then he has been here!" cried Captain Roby. "But where is he now?"

As if moved by one impulse, every one present turned sharply round to
look in the direction of the archway beyond which the sloping
continuation of the entrance-pit went on down to the running water. No
one spoke, but all thought horrors; and Lennox acted, for, snatching a
lantern from the nearest bearer, he ran as fast as the rugged floor
would let him, back to the archway, took hold of the tree-trunk, and
leaned over the horrible hole, swinging the light downward, while those
who watched him, looking weird and strange in the distance, heard him
shout loudly, and listened to hear, very faintly rising from far below,
a faintly uttered, hollow moan.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

FISHING WITH A ROPE.

"Forward!" cried Captain Roby loudly.

"Forward!" said a wonderfully exact echo from the pit, and the cavern
chamber seemed to burst into strange, echoing repetitions of the
confused trampling and rushing and thundering of feet, as, with the
dancing lanterns, the men sprang forward to render help.

"He's down here," cried Lennox in excitement. "Silence, all of you!"

Captain Roby looked annoyed at the way in which his subaltern officer
seemed to take the lead; but he said nothing then, only stood frowning,
while in the midst of a breathless silence Lennox leaned over the
dangerous-looking place and hailed again.

"Corporal! Are you down there?"

There was no response, and once more he hailed.

"Corporal May!"

This time there was a piteous moan.

"Oh! there's no doubt about it," cried Lennox. "Tie a lantern to the
rope and lower it down. Let's see where he is."

"Thank you, Mr Lennox," said Roby coldly. "I will give the necessary
orders."

"I beg pardon, sir," said Lennox, drawing back; but as he glanced aside
he saw that the sergeant was busy with the end of the rope, fastening it
to the handle of one of the lanterns, and the man who had slipped it off
his shoulder was rapidly uncoiling the ring.

"Anybody got a flask?" said Dickenson. "We might send him down a
reviver with the light."

But there was no reply, flasks being rarities at Groenfontein, and such
as there were did not contain a drop. By this time the lantern was
ready, and Sergeant James glanced at the captain, who signed to him to
lower away.

Directly after, the descending lantern was lighting up the sides of the
gulf, which were n