wer and lower, with now his elbow chafing against the rough wall, now
his boots, but nothing to reward his search. There was a bright glitter
here, but it was only the large flakes of mica in the stone. Lower down
there was a sign of ore--of little black granules bedded in deep-red
stone, and before this he paused for a minute, for he knew that there
was here a vein of tin; but as far as he could tell it looked poor, and
not so good as some that miners had told him hardly paid for crushing.

"All right, Josh; lower away!" he cried; and his words went echoing up
to where the fisherman slowly allowed the strong line to glide through
his hands.

Some twenty feet lower Will shouted to his companion to halt, for there
was a broad band of glittering-yellow metallic stone crossing the
shaft-wall diagonally.

The lad's heart beat wildly for a few moments, but he calmed down as he
felt that had this been of any value the old adventurers would not have
passed it by.

"Only mundic," he said, as he inspected it more closely. "Lower away,
Josh!" and the band of sulphuret of iron was left behind.

Lower and lower, with the top of the shaft looking a comparatively small
square hole, and as the lad glanced up at it for a moment the first
symptom of fear that he had felt attacked him. For as he saw how frail
was the cord by which he hung, and realised that he was depending
entirely upon his companion's strength of arm, his brain swam, his eyes
closed, and he clung tightly with both hands to the rope.

The attack passed off directly.

"Josh thinks I'm a coward," he muttered, "and I suppose I am; but I
won't show it;" and shouting a cheery order to the fisherman to lower
away, the lad descended farther and farther, with the right of his
candle flashing now from the walls, which were wet and shining with the
oozings of the surrounding rock. This moisture had gone on coating the
walls in patches for many a long year, so that in these places it was
impossible without scraping for the keenest of eyes to detect even the
composition of the stones, and with a sigh of dissatisfaction the
searcher shouted to Josh to lower away.

"Here, you've gone down far enough," cried Josh. "I'm going to haul you
up now."

"No, no!" shouted Will, the excitement of being in antagonism with his
helpmate driving away the last particle of nervousness. "Lower away!"

Josh hesitated for a moment, and made a movement as if to rub his nose,
but his h