ands were engaged, and he got over the difficulty by bending
down his head and applying the itching organ to the rope, after which he
shook his head fiercely, but went on lowering.

"He's getting too much for me a gashly sight, this boy," he growled.

There was ample line to lower Will right down to the surface of the
water, though he was unaware of the fact, as he swung gently to and fro,
eagerly scanning every clear space of the rock through which the shaft
had been cut; and where the wall was dry, in spite of the time that had
elapsed since the work was done the marks of the miners' picks and
hammers were as clear as if the blows had fallen only a few months
before. As the lad looked, too, he could, in his own disappointment,
realise how great must have been that of the adventurers whose capital
was being expended day after day cutting on and finding nothing but
grey, hard granite, with here and there bands of ruddy stone suggestive
of the presence of tin, but in such minute quantities that it would not
pay for the labour of lifting out and crushing the stone.

Granite, granite, nothing but granite; and now the rope seemed to cut
harshly into his legs, and a curious aching sensation set in, half
numbing the arm that clung to the rope, for the lad had been so deeply
interested in his search that he had not once altered his position.

"Look out, Josh!" he said, "I'm going to change hands."

"Here, I'm a-going to haul you up now," replied Josh, the great shaft
acting like a speaking-tube, so that conversation was easy enough.

"Not yet," shouted back Will; and as the rope seemed to glide down he
changed his position a little, taking the candle in the numbed hand, a
fresh grip with his right, and altering his seat so that the line did
not cut so harshly.

As he did so another slight touch of nervousness came over him; and in
spite of himself he began to glance at the knot he had made in the rope,
and then at the candle to see how much longer it would last, to find
that it was half burned down and that the length of time it would keep
burning must guide his descent. He was a little disheartened too, for
it had not entered much into his calculations that clever men must have
well examined that shaft when it was being cut, and that they would have
made the discovery if it was to be made.

In fact, the idea had come to him when climbing up the cliff in search
of sea-birds' eggs. He had reached this shelf and found