its
success," said Mr Rawlings, whom the good news seemed to affect more
than all the previous trials had done, for he looked quite pale, and
almost trembled with eagerness as he questioned the bearer of the
welcome tidings.

"No," said Ernest Wilton joyously, for he was very glad to be able to
communicate the intelligence to those who had succoured him in his own
distress, and now appealed to him for assistance. "There's a chance for
the mine yet; and you need not despair of having spent your toil in
vain."

"Bully for you!" exclaimed Seth Allport. "Didn't I say now--ask anybody
present if I didn't anyhow--that you'd brought us good luck?"

"I rejoice to hear you say so," said Mr Rawlings, a little more calmly,
although his whole fortune had been at stake, as it were; for if the
mine had turned out a failure he would have been ruined, and had to
begin the world over again. "It would have been hard that all our
labour should have gone for nothing."

"Well, my dear sir," said Ernest Wilton cheerfully, "you need not
complain now. It is not a case with you of `Love's labour lost,' as in
Shakespeare's play of that title."

STORY ONE, CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

COUNTERMINING.

"What do you think of doing?" asked Mr Rawlings, drawing a long breath
of relief on hearing Ernest Wilton's cheering words. "We have tried
almost everything to stop the flow of water and failed--Seth and I; and
although you appear so sanguine, I hardly see what can be done, myself."
And he sighed again, as if he were returning to his previous state of
despondency.

"Did you ever hear the old Irish saying that `there's more ways of
killing a pig besides hanging him?'" asked Ernest Wilton, instead of
answering the other's question at once.

"Yes," laughingly replied Mr Rawlings.

"Then," said the young engineer, "I am going to carry that precept into
practice regarding your mine."

"How?"

"You have tried pumping without avail, have you not?" said Ernest
Wilton.

"That's a fact," said Seth Allport, with the full power of his down-east
nasal intonation. "Yer couldn't hit nearer the mark than thaat, I
guess, sirree."

"And you could never get the water lower than fifty feet off the bottom
of the shaft?" pursued the young engineer, stating his case, "could
you?"

"No, not a foot lower," said Mr Rawlings.

"Then what think you of a countermine?"

"I don't quite understand you," said Mr Rawlings.

"Don't you?" said Ernest Wilton,