elf strangely from the shaft-walls.

"Say, my lad--below there!" came now from above.

"Ahoy!" answered Will, the call acting like an electric shock and
bringing him to himself.

"Where are you?" shouted Josh.

"Here, in a gallery of the old mine," replied Will.

"That's right!" came back. "I thought perhaps you had fallen."

"No, I'm all right," cried Will through the great granite speaking-tube;
and then he listened for some words of comfort from his companion.

"Below!" shouted Josh again.

"Hullo!"

"Say, my lad, the rope's gone down."

"Yes, I know."

"Well, what's to be done?" cried Josh.

Will turned cold. He had expected to get a few words of comfort from
his companion, and to hear that he was about to propose some plan for
his rescue, and all he seemed ready to do was to ask for advice.

"How came you to let the rope go?" cried Will, forcing himself into an
angry fit so as to keep from feeling alarmed at his position.

"Dunno! It kind o' went all of itself like," Josh shouted back.
"What's to be done? Can't jump down into the water and swim out by the
adit, can you?"

"No," cried Will angrily. "Here, go back and get a rope."

"Where?" shouted back Josh. "I say, I knowed you'd be getting into some
mess or another going down there."

Will was equable enough in temper, but a remark like this from the man
he had trusted with his life made him grind his teeth in a fit of anger,
and wish he were beside Josh for a moment, to give him a bit of his
mind.

"Go up to any of the fishermen, never mind where, and borrow a line."

"All right!"

"And, Josh."

"Hullo!"

"Don't make any fuss; don't alarm anybody. I don't want them to know at
home."

"But suppose we never get you out again?" shouted Josh, in a tone of
voice that startled a shag which was about to settle on a shelf of rock
hard by, and sent it hurrying away to sea.

Will stamped his foot at this, and mentally vowed that he would never
trust Josh again.

"Go and borrow a line," he cried, "and look sharp. I don't want any one
to know."

"All right!" cried Josh; and directly after Will knew that he was alone.

The place was not absolutely dark, for he could plainly make out the
edge of the gallery, seen as it were against a faint twilight that came
from above; and this was sufficient to guide him as to how far he dare
go towards the shaft if he wished to move.

For the first few minutes, though, he felt no disposition tha