t way, and
seating himself on the stony floor, with hundreds of loose fragments of
granite beneath him, he tried to be calm and cool, and to come to a
conclusion as to how he should escape.

If Josh came back soon with a rope it would be easy enough; and possibly
they might be able to rig up a grappling-iron or "creeper," as the
fishermen called it, for the line that was lost; but a little
consideration told him that in all probability the line had sunk before
now and was right at the bottom of the shaft.

Then he wondered how long Josh would be, and whether he would have much
difficulty in borrowing a rope.

If Josh said at once what was the matter, there would be a crowd up at
the head of the shaft directly with a score of lines; but he did not
wish for that. Even in his awkward, if not perilous, position he did
not want the village to be aware of his investigations. He had been
carrying them on in secret for some time, and he hoped when they were
made known to have something worth talking about.

How long Josh seemed, and how dark it was! Perhaps he was being asked
for at home, and he would be in disgrace.

That was not likely, though. He had chosen his time too well.

"I wonder how far it is down to the water?" he said at last; and feeling
about, his hand came in contact with a large thin piece of stone, as big
as an ordinary tile.

He hesitated for a moment or two, and then threw it from him with such
force that it struck the far side of the shaft and sent up a series of
echoes before, from far below, there came a dull sullen plash, with a
succession of whishing, lapping sounds, such as might have been given
out if some monster had come to the top and were swimming round,
disappointed by what had fallen not being food.

"It's all nonsense!" said Will. "I don't believe any fish or eel would
be living in an old shaft."

Some of the mining people were in the habit of saying that each
water-filled pit, deep, mysterious, and dark, held strange creatures, of
what kind no one knew, for individually they had never seen anything;
but "some one" had told them that there were such creatures, and "some
one else" had been "some one's" authority: for the lower orders of
Cornish folk, with all their honest simplicity and religious feeling,
are exceedingly superstitious, and much given to a belief in old women's
tales.

CHAPTER SIX.

A CASE OF LOST NERVE, AND THE HELP THAT CAME.

It must have been quite an