Sappers and Miners Part 20

"Then I'm much obliged to him for taking the measures; but let's try for ourselves. You would like to see the depth tried, Jollivet."

"I? No, certainly not. Why should I?" cried the Major, testily.

"Because I presume you will take some interest in seeing me succeed if I go on with the venture."

"Oh! Well, yes, of course. Going to try now?"

"I am," replied the Colonel. "Will you boys let down the leaden sinker?

Be careful, mind. Will you hold the reel, Joe? and then Gwyn can count the knots as the line runs down."

"All right, sir," cried Joe; and the Major took his place by the wall to look on while, after stationing themselves, Gwyn counted three knots, so as to get a little loose line, then took tight hold and pitched the lead from him, letting the stout cord run between his finger and thumb, and counting aloud as it went down, stopping at thirty by tightening his grasp on the line.

"He's wrong, father; thirty fathoms, and there's no water yet."

"Try a little lower, boy."

The line began to run again, and there was a faint plash before half of another fathom had been reeled off.

"Not so very far out," said the Major, as Gwyn went on counting and the reel turned steadily on, Joe turning one finger into a brake, and checking the spool so that it would not give out the line too fast.

On went the counting, the words coming mechanically from Gwyn's lips as he thought all the while about his terrible fall, and wondered how deep down he had gone beneath the black water.

"Forty-seven--forty-eight--forty-nine--fifty," counted Gwyn.

"Bottom?" cried the Colonel.

"No, father; he must have let it catch on some ledge or piece that stuck out. Look, the lead's going steadily on. He said forty-nine: I've counted fifty, and there it goes--fifty-one--fifty-two," and to the surprise of all, the line ran out till another twenty fathoms had pa.s.sed off the reel.

"Seventy fathoms, father. That's bottom," said Gwyn, hauling up and letting the line run again with the same result.

"Hah, yes," said the Colonel; "and that means so many thousand gallons more water to be pumped out. But try again. Jerk the lead, and let it shoot down. Perhaps you have not quite sounded the bottom yet."

Gwyn obeyed, and the result was again the same.

"Seventy fathoms. Well, that is not deep compared to some of the mines; but it proves that there must have been profitable work going on for the people, whoever they were, to have gone on cutting through the hard stone. A tremendous task, Jollivet."

"Hang it, yes, I suppose so. Well, there is nothing more to be done or seen, is there?"

"Not at present. Only to reel up the line our visitor has been so obliging as to lend us."

"Wind away, Joe," cried Gwyn; "and I'll let the string pa.s.s through my fingers, so as to wring off some of the water."

The boys began to gather in the sounding-cord, and the Major stood peering down over the wall into the black depths and poking at a loose stone on the top of the wall with his cane.

"Seems rather childish," he said suddenly; "but should you mind, Pendarve, if I dislodged this stone and let it fall down the shaft?"

"Mind? Certainly not. Go on. Here, shall I do it?"

"No. I should prefer doing it myself," said the Major; and standing his cane against the wall, he took hold of the stone and stood it upon the edge.

"Stop!" cried the Colonel as he noted that the under part of the stone glistened, as granite will.

"What's the matter?"

"That piece of stone," said the Colonel, excitedly. "Why, man, look; it is rich in tin ore."

"That blackish-purple glittering stuff?"

"Yes; those are tin grains. But there, it does not matter. Throw it in. We can have it sent up again when the mine is pumped out. In with it."

The Major raised the stone with both hands face high and threw it from him, while all watched him, and then stood waiting for the heavy hollow-sounding splash which followed, with the lapping of the water against the sides.

"It is strange," said the Major, "what a peculiar fascination a place like this exercises over me, Pendarve. I feel just as if I could leap down into--"

As he spoke, he leaned over the low wall as if drawn toward the place, and his son turned ghastly white and uttered a faint cry.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

THE COMPACT SEALED.

"No, no, my boy, don't be alarmed," said the Major, turning to smile at his son. "It is only that I am a little nervous and impressionable from my illness. But it is strange how a depth attracts, and how necessary it is for boys to be careful and master themselves when tempted to do things that are risky. Upon my word, I marvel at the daring of you fellows in running such a risk as you did the other day."

"It was not Joe, sir," interposed Gwyn. "I went down."

"But I'll be bound to say my boy was ready to offer."

The pair of actors in the trouble glanced at each other, and Joe's cheeks grew red again.

"Take my advice," said the Major, "as boy or man never do anything risky unless it is for some good reason. One has no right to go into danger unless it is as an act of duty."

"Quite right," said the Colonel; "that's what I tell Gwyn; but boys have such terribly short memories. There, we may as well go back; but you had better wash your face at the first pool, Gwyn. You look horrible.

I can't have you go home in that condition."

"No; he would frighten Mrs Pendarve out of her senses," said the Major.

"Well, I've seen the wonderful mine, and it looks just like what it is: a big square hole, with plenty of room to throw down money enough to ruin the Queen. But you were right, Pendarve: the fresh air and the exertion have done me good. I must go back, though, now; the fever makes me weak."

That evening the Colonel had a long talk with his son, for he had come to the conclusion that they had not heard the end of the man's visit to the mine.

"It seems to me, Gwyn," he said, "that something must have been known about the place and caused this amateurish kind of inspection."

"I've been thinking so, too, father," said Gwyn. "Sam Hardock must have been talking about it to different people, and praised it so that someone wants to begin mining."

They had come to the right conclusion, for the very next day a dog-cart was driven to the Cove, stopped at the Colonel's gate, and a little fussy-looking gentleman, with sharp eyes, a snub nose, and grey hair, which seemed to have a habit of standing out in pointed tufts, came up to the door, knocked, and sent in his card.

"Mr Lester Dix, solicitor, Plymouth," said the Colonel, reading the card, as he and Gwyn were busy over a work on military manoeuvres. "I don't know any Mr Dix. Show him in."