out. Moreover, such a venture was not entirely new to me, for
I had once been over Gad Cliff in a basket, to get two peregrines' eggs;
yet none the less I felt ill at ease and fearful, when the bucket began
to sink into that dreadful depth, and the air to grow chilly as I went
down. They lowered me gently enough, so that I was able to take stock of
the way the wall was made, and found that for the most part it was cut
through solid chalk; but here and there, where the chalk failed or was
broken away, they had lined the walls with brick, patching them now on
this side, now on that, and now all round. By degrees the light, which
was dim even overground that rainy day, died out in the well, till all
was black as night but for my candle, and far overhead I could see the
well-mouth, white and round like a lustreless full-moon.

I kept an eye all the time on Elzevir's cord that hung down the
well-side, and when I saw it was coming to a finish, shouted to them to
stop, and they brought the bucket up near level with the end of it, so I
knew I was about eighty feet deep. Then I raised myself, standing up in
the bucket and holding by the rope, and began to look round, knowing not
all the while what I looked for, but thinking to see a hole in the wall,
or perhaps the diamond itself shining out of a cranny. But I could
perceive nothing; and what made it more difficult was, that the walls
here were lined completely with small flat bricks, and looked much the
same all round. I examined these bricks as closely as I might, and took
course by course, looking first at the north side where the plumb-line
hung, and afterwards turning round in the bucket till I was afraid of
getting giddy; but to little purpose. They could see my candle moving
round and round from the well-top, and knew no doubt what I was at, but
Master Turnkey grew impatient, and shouted down, 'What are you doing?
have you found nothing? can you see no treasure?'

'No,' I called back, 'I can see nothing,' and then, 'Are you sure, Master
Block, that you have measured the plummet true to eighty feet?'

I heard them talking together, but could not make out what they said, for
the bim-bom and echo in the well, till Elzevir shouted again, 'They say
this floor has been raised; you must try lower.'

Then the bucket began to move lower, slowly, and I crouched down in it
again, not wishing to look too much into the unfathomable, dark abyss
below. And all the while there rose gr