Sappers and Miners Part 53

"Ay, it's all very well to talk, but what can we do?--cooey?"

"No good, or I'd cooey loud enough to bring some of the stones down. I say, though, isn't it wonderful how solid it all is--no stones falling from the roof."

"How could they fall when there are none to fall? Isn't it all cut through the solid rock?"

"Humph! yes, I suppose so; but we have found scarcely anything to fall over."

"No," said Joe, sarcastically, "it's a lovely place. I wish the beastly old mine had been burnt before we had anything to do with it."

"Oh, I say, what a plucked 'un you are, Joey. Breaking down over a bit of trouble. I feel ever so much better now, for I'm sure the dad has found his way out."

"I was thinking about my father."

"Well, so was I. My father wouldn't go out without yours. They're too good old chums to forsake one another; and you see if before long they don't both come with a lot of men carrying baskets--cold roast chicken, slices of ham, bread and b.u.t.ter, and a kettle and wood to light the fire and make some tea."

"I say! don't, don't, don't," cried Joe. "I was bad enough before, now you're making me feel savagely hungry. But I say, Ydoll, do you really think they've got out?"

"I'm sure of it."

"And not lost themselves so that they won't be found till it's too late?"

"Get out! Too late? They'll be all right, and so shall we; we're only lost for a bit in the dark, and we don't mind a bit. I don't now. I feel as plucky as a gamec.o.c.k. And I say, Joe."

"Well?"

"Tom Dina.s.s?"

"What about him?--a beast!"

"What we're going to do when we see the sneak again. I say, it won't be the first time we've had a set-to with him."

"Oh, I should like to--"

"Ah!"

Gwyn uttered a wild cry, as if something from out of the darkness had seized him; and as the cry went echoing down the long zigzag pa.s.sage in which they were, Joe uttered a gasp, and in spite of his desire to stand by his friend, dashed off from the unknown danger by which they were beset.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

GWYN GIVES IT UP.

There came a dull sound out of the darkness, as if Joe had struck against the wall of the mine; but he gave vent to no exclamation, and Gwyn cried to him to stop.

"Where are you? Don't run off like that, Joe!--Joe! Where are you?"

"Here," said the lad, hoa.r.s.ely. "What is it? What has hurt you?"

"Hurt me? I thought something had hurt you. What made you rush off?"

"You shouted. What was it?"

"Enough to make me shout. Where are you?"

Guided by their voices, the lads approached till they were close together.

"Now what was it?" panted Joe, who was still trembling from the nervous alarm and shock.

"Give me your hand."

Joe obeyed shrinkingly, and felt it pa.s.sed along the skirt of his companion's jacket.

"Feel it?"

"Yes, I feel something inside the lining. What is it--a box?"

"Yes, the matches. They got through the hole into the lining. Wait till I get them out."

This was only achieved with the help of a knife.

"Ah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the boy, as he at last dragged out the box, struck a match, and held it over his head to see where the candle-box had been laid; and then by quick manipulation he managed to get a wick well alight before the tiny deal splint was extinct.

In his excitement and delight, Joe clapped his hands as the candle was forced into the empty socket, and the lanthorn door closed.

"Oh, what a beautiful thing light is!" he cried.

"And what a horrible thing darkness, at a time like this! There, one feels better, and quite rested. Let's go on, and we may come to them at any time now."

Joe said nothing, for fear of damping his companion's spirits; but he knew that they were not rested--that they would soon be forced to stop; and as he gazed right away before them, and tried to pierce the gloom beyond the circle of light shed by the candle, the hopeless nature of their quest forced itself upon him more and more.

But Gwyn's spirits seemed to be now unnaturally high, and as they went on following the narrowed tunnels, and pa.s.sing along such branches as seemed to be the most likely from their size, he held up the lanthorn to point out that the ore seemed to have been cut out for ten or twenty feet above their heads in a slanting direction. In another place he paused to look into a narrow pa.s.sage that seemed to have been only just commenced, for there was glittering ore at the end, and the marks of picks or hammers, looking as if they had been lately made.

"There's nothing to mind, Joe," he said; "only I do want to get back to the shaft now."

"Then why not turn?"

"We did, ever so long ago. Don't you remember seeing that beginning of a pa.s.sage as we came along?"

"I remember stopping to look into two niches like this one but they were ever so far back, and we are still going on into the depths of the mine."

"No, no; we took a turn off to the left soon after I lit the fresh candle, and we must be getting back towards the entrance."

Joe said nothing, but he felt sure that he was right; and they went on again till at the end of another lane Gwyn stopped short.

"I say, I felt sure we were going back. Do you really believe that we are going farther in?"

"I felt sure that we were a little while ago, but I am not so sure now, for one gets confused."