or two."

He stooped down, keeping his foot on the bar the while, took hold of the
rope, and hauled it up a little way.

"There you are, my lad; and now look sharp. I want you out of this
unked place."

There was no answer, and Josh waited listening.

"Haven't you got her?" he shouted.

"No; I can't reach. I'm on the other side," came up.

"Oh, I see!" said Josh; and stooping down so as to keep the rope tight
to the iron bar, he crept round to the opposite side of the shaft-hole,
and held the rope close to the edge.

"There you are, lad," he said. "Got her?"

No answer.

"Have you got her?"

"N-no! I can't reach."

Josh Helston uttered a low whistle, and the skin of his forehead was
full of wrinkles and puckers.

"Look out, then!" he shouted; "I'll make her sway. Look out and catch
her as she comes to you."

He altered his position and began swinging the rope to and fro, so that
as he looked down the void he could see that it struck first one side
and then the other of the rocky hole; but there was no sudden tug from
below, and he snouted down again:

"Haven't you got her, lad?"

"N-no," came up hoarsely; "I can't reach."

Josh Helston wiped the perspiration from his forehead, and uttered the
low whistle once again.

Then an idea struck him.

"Wait a bit, lad," he cried; "I'll make her come."

He began to haul the rope up again rapidly, fathom after fathom, till it
began to come up wet; and soon after there was the end, which he took,
and after looking round for a suitable piece he pounced upon a squarish
piece of granite, which he secured to the rope by an ingenious hitch or
two, such as are used by fishermen to make fast a killick--the name they
give to the stone they use for anchoring a lobster-pot, or the end of a
fishing-line in the sea.

This done he began to lower it rapidly down.

"Here's a stone!" he shouted; "say when she's level with where you are."

There was no answer, but there was the harsh grating noise made by the
descending stone as it kept chipping up against the granite wall; and
Will sat about two yards from the mouth of the gallery, dripping with
cold perspiration, clinging almost convulsively to the rough wall
against which he leaned, and waiting for the stone to be swung so low
that Josh could give it a regular pendulum motion, and pretty well land
it in the gallery.

It seemed darker than ever, and to Will it was as if some horrible
sensation of dread was cre