_Plosh_!
There is no combination of letters that will more clearly express the
horrible, echoing, hollow sound which, after what seemed to be a long
interval, but which was almost momentary, rose out of the ancient shaft,
followed by strange and sickening splashings and a faint, panting noise.
Then all was still; and Joe and the mining captain, who had been
absolutely paralysed for the time being, stood gazing wildly in each
other's face.
That, too, was almost momentary, and, with a despairing cry, Joe
Jollivet dashed at the low wall and began to climb over it, dislodging
one of the stones, which fell inward, and then plunged down into the pit
just as Hardock seized the boy by the waist to drag him back.
"What are you going to do?" roared the man, and the splash and roar of
the fallen stone also came rushing out of the mouth.
"Do?" cried Joe, hysterically; "try and save him."
"But you can't do it that way, boy," panted the man, whose voice sounded
as if he had been running till he was breathless.
"I must--I must!" cried Joe, struggling to get free. "Oh, Gwyn, Gwyn,
Gwyn!"
"Hold still, will you?" bawled Hardock. "Chucking yourself down won't
save him."
"Then let me down by the rope."
"Nay; it's parted once, and you'd be drowned too."
"I don't care! I don't care!" cried Joe, wildly. "I must go down to
him. Let go, will you?" and he struggled fiercely to get free.
But the man's strength was double his, and he tore the boy from the
wall, threw him down on his back, and placed a foot on his breast to
hold him as he rapidly ran out the rest of the rope, till only about a
yard remained, and then he released him.
"Now, you keep quiet," he growled. "You're mad--that's what you are!"
Joe rose to his feet, awed by the man's manner, and grasping now the
fact that he was about to take the only steps that seemed available to
save his companion.
For Hardock hurried to the other side of the opening, where the wall had
been built close to the edge, and there was no space between, so that he
could, in leaning over the wall, gaze straight down the shaft.
And then he began jerking the rope; and as he did so they could faintly
hear indications of its touching the water far below.
"D'yer hear, there?" he shouted. "Lay holt o' the rope. Can't you see
it?"
As he spoke, he jerked the stout line and sent a wave along it, making
it splash in the water far below; but the faint, whispering and smacking
sounds were all the answer, and Joe burst out with a piteous cry,--
"He's drowned! he's drowned! Or he's holding on somewhere waiting for
me to go down and save him. Pull up the rope, quick! No; fasten it,
and I'll slide down."
"Nay, nay; you keep quiet," growled the man, whose face was now of a
sickly pallor. "How'm I to hear what he says, if you keep on making
that row?"
"What--he says?" faltered Joe. "Then you can hear him shout?"
"You be quiet. Ahoy! Below there! Ketch holt o' the rope. None o'
your games to frighten us. I know. Now, then, ketch holt and make it
fast round yer."
Joe stood there with his face ghastly, and his eyes starting, as, with
his hands behind his ears, he strained to catch the faintest sound which
came up as through a great whispering tube; but all he could hear was
the splashing of the rope, and a deep low musical dripping sound of
falling water.
"D'yer hear there!" roared Hardock, now savagely. "It arn't right of
yer, youngster. Shout something to let's know where yer are."
"He's dead--he's dead!" wailed Joe. "Let me go down and try and get him
out."
"Will you be quiet!" roared the man, fiercely. "D'yer want to stop me
when I'm trying to save him?"
"No, no, I want to help."
"Then be quiet. You only muddles me, and stops me from thinking what's
best to do. Below there! Pendarve, ahoy! Ketch holt o' the rope, I
tell yer!"
But he called in vain--there was no reply; and though he agitated the
rope again and again, there was no other sound.
"There, now, let me go down. I must--I will go down, Sam."
"There's a good two hundred feet on it, and it's gone right down into
the water," growled the man thoughtfully. "It's him playing tricks with
us, arn't it?"
"Playing tricks! Who's mad now?" cried Joe. "Will you pull up that
rope?"
For answer the man jerked it again and again, then pulled up a few
fathoms, and let them drop again with a splash.
"Now, then, do you hear that?" he cried. "If yer don't ketch holt we'll
haul it all up, and leave yer."
"Oh, Sam, Sam, Sam," cried Joe, "let me go down. Do you hear me? If
you don't, I'll jump."
"Will you be quiet?" roared the man, fiercely. "You just stay where you
are, or I'll tie yer neck and heels with the rope. Think I want to go
back and say there's two on yer drownded. Stop where yer are."
"But we can't stand without doing something. Oh, Gwyn, Gwyn! How can I
go and tell Mrs Pendarve what's happened?"
"And how can I?" cried the man, angrily. "What d'yer both mean, coming
tempting on me to let yer down. What's the Colonel going to say to me?"
"Then you do think he's drowned?" cried Joe, piteously.
"Who's to help thinking he is?" said the man, gruffly, and he wiped the
thick perspiration from his brow. "They all did say it was a onlucky
mine, but I wouldn't believe 'em."
"Gwyn! Gwyn! Gwyn!" shouted Joe, as he leaned over the wall and gazed
down, but there were only hollow reverberations in reply.
"It's no good, my lad," said Hardock, bitterly. "Who'd ha' thought of
that rope failing as it did? Good sound rope as it be."
"But you are not going to give up, and do nothing?" cried Joe,
frantically.
"What is us to do then?" said the man, with a groan. "Let me down, I
tell you."
"Nay; it would be too bad, I won't do that."
"Then go down yourself."
"How? Can you hold me, and haul me up? That's madder still. He's
gone, my lad, he's gone; and we can't do nothing to help him."
"Run, run for help. I'll stay here and hold the rope. He may be
insensible and catch hold of it yet."
"Ay, he may," said the man, meaningly; "but folk don't do that sort o'
thing, my lad. Nay; it's o' no use to struggle over it. He's a dead
and goner, and you and me's got to face it."
"Face it!" groaned Joe, letting his head go down on the top of the wall.
"Face it! How can I ever face Mrs Pendarve again?"
"Ah! and how can I face the Colonel, his father. I can't do it, my lad,
Ydoll Churchtown's been a happy enough home for me, and I've allus made
a living in it, but it's all over now. I must be off at once."
"To get help?" cried Joe, raising his ghastly face from where it rested
upon the weathered stone, and looking more ghastly now from the blood
which had started from a slight cut on his brow.
"Nay; I've done all I could do here for young Gwyn--all as a man can do.
I've got to take care o' myself now, and be off somewheres, for the
Colonel'll put it all on to me."
"Go! Run away!" cried Joe. "Oh, you wouldn't be such a coward! Here,
quick! try again.--Gwyn, old chap! The rope--the rope. Oh, do try and
catch hold," he shouted down the pit.
But there was no reply; and wild now with frantic horror, the boy seized
the rope and began to climb over the wall. "Ah! none o' that!" roared
Hardock, grasping his arms; and now there was a desperate struggle which
could only have the one result--the mastery of the boy. For at last
Hardock lifted him from the ground and threw him on his back amongst the
heath, and held him down.
"It's no good to fight, young 'un," he said breathlessly. "You're
strong, but my muscles is hardest. I don't say nought again' you,
though yer did hit me right in the mouth with your fist. I like it, for
it shows your pluck, and that you'd do anything to try and save your
mate. Lie still. It's of no use, yer know. I could hold down a couple
of yer. There, steady. Can't yer see I should be letting yer go to
your death, too, my lad, and have to hear what the Major said as well as
the Colonel. Not as I should, for I should be off; and then it would
mean prison, and they'd say I murdered you both, for there wouldn't be
no witness on my trial, but the rope, and mebbe they'd give me that for
my share, and hang me. There, will yer be quiet if I let yer sit up?"
"Yes, yes," said the boy, with a groan of despair.
"And yer see as I can't do nothing more, and you can't neither."
"I--I don't know, Sam," groaned the boy, as he lay weak and panting on
his back in the purple-blossomed heath. "No, no, I can't see it. I
must do something to try and save him."
"But yer can't, lad," said the man, bitterly. "There arn't nothing to
be done. It's a gashly business; but it wouldn't make no better of it
if I let you chuck yourself away, too. There, now you're getting
sensible."
Joe lay with his eyes closed in the hot sunshine, glad of the darkness
to shut out the horror of the scene around him; for the bright blue sky,
with the soft-winged grey gulls floating round and round above their
heads, and the far-spreading silver and sapphire sea, were dominated by
the mouth of the horrible pit, from which with strained senses he kept
on expecting to hear the faint cries of his companion for help.
But all was very still, save the soft, low hum of the bees busily
probing the heath bells for honey in the beautiful, wild stretch of
granite moorland, and the black darkness was for the unhappy boy alone.
For the knowledge was forced upon him that he could do no more. He felt
that after the first minute Gwyn's position must have been hopeless, and
he lay there perfectly still now in his despair, when Hardock rose
slowly, and began to haul in the line, hand over hand, coiling it in
rings the while, which rings lay there in the hot sunshine, dry enough
till quite a hundred-and-fifty feet had been drawn on, and then it came
up dripping wet fully fifty feet more, the mining captain drawing it
tightly through his hands to get rid of the moisture.
"Bad job--bad job!" he groaned, "parted close to the end--close to the
end--close to the end--well, I'll be hanged!"
He began in a low, muttering way, quite to himself, and ended with a
loud ejaculation which made Joe sit up suddenly and stare.
"What is it?" he cried wildly. "Hear him?"
"Hear him? No, my lad, nor we aren't likely to. But look at that."
He held out the wet end of the rope, showing how it was neatly bound
with copper-wire to keep it from fraying out and unlaying.
"Well," said Joe, "what is it?"
"Can't yer see, boy?"
"The rope's end? Yes."
"Can't yer see it aren't broke?"
"Yes, of course. Why, it did not part, Sam!" cried Joe, excitedly.
"Nay; it did not part."
"Then it came untied," cried Joe, frantically. "Oh, Sam!"