"Rope cut, Master Gwyn?" he cried. "S'pose it does, though. Well, when
you two are ready, just say. I've got him tight enough. But, hark ye,
here; can you tell what I say?"
"Yes," cried Joe, in a choking voice.
"That's right. Well, first thing you do, my lad, you try and ease the
rope over the edge. It checks you like, don't you see? Stretch your
arms well over, Colonel, and get your fingers in a crack and find a
place for your toes, while young Joe Jollivet eases the knot over. Take
it coolly. There's nothing to mind. I've got yer, yer know. Ready?"
"Yes. Now, Ydoll, old chap," whispered Joe, "can you do what he says
and find foothold?"
There was a peculiar staring look in the boy's eyes, but he began to
search about with his toes; and almost at once found a crack that he had
passed over before, forced in the end of one boot, and, reaching over,
he gripped the rope with both hands.
"Get tight hold of my collar," he whispered rather faintly. "Can you do
it kneeling?"
"No power," said Joe, huskily, "I must stand."
He rose to his feet, gripping the collar as he was told, gazing there
into Gwyn's eyes, for he dared not look down beyond him into the dizzy
depth.
"Now," said Gwyn, "when you're ready, I'll try and raise myself a bit,
and you throw yourself back."
"Wait a moment," panted Joe. Then he shouted, "Now I am--all together!"
"Right! Hauley hoi!" came back, and with one effort Gwyn curved his
body, forcing his breast clear of the edge, joined his strength to that
of his comrade in the effort to rise, and the next moment Joe was on his
back with Gwyn being dragged over him.
Then came an interval of inaction, for the three actors in the perilous
scene lay prone upon the rough surface of the cliff, Hardock having
thrown himself upon his face.
"Oh, Gwyn, old chap!--oh, Gwyn," groaned Joe.
"Hah! Yes; it was near," sighed the rescued boy, as he slowly rose to a
sitting posture, and began to unfasten the rope. "I thought I was
gone."
"It was horrid--horrid--horrid!" groaned Joe. "And I couldn't do
anything."
He rose slowly, wiping his brow, which was dripping with perspiration,
and the two boys sat there in the sunshine gazing at one another for a
few minutes as if quite unconscious of the presence of Hardock at the
end of the rope, where he lay spread-eagled among the heath.
Then Gwyn slowly held out his hand, which was gripped excitedly by Joe,
who seized it with a loud sob.
"Thank ye, Jolly-wet," said Gwyn, quietly. "I felt so queer seeing you
try so hard."
"You felt--about me? Ah, you don't know what I felt about you. Ugh! I
could kick you! Frightening me twice over like that! I don't know
which was worst--when you went down or when you came up."
"Going down was worst," said Gwyn, quietly. "But have a kick if you
like; I don't feel as if I could hit back."
"Then I'll wait till you can," said Joe, with a faint smile. "Oh, dear,
how my heart does keep on beating!"
He turned with hand pressing his side and looked toward Hardock, for the
man had moved, and he, too, sat up and began searching in his pockets.
And then, to the great disgust of the two boys, they saw him slowly
bring out a short pipe and a brass tobacco-box, and then deliberately
fill the former, take out his matches, strike a light, and begin to
smoke.
"Look at that," cried Joe, viciously.
"Yes; I'm looking," said Gwyn, slowly, and speaking as if he were
utterly exhausted. "I feel as if I wish I were strong enough to go and
knock him over."
"For laughing at us when we were in such a horrible fix? Yes; so do I.
He's an old beast; and when you feel better we'll go and tell him so."
"Let's go now," said Gwyn, rising stiffly. "I say, I feel wet and cold,
and sore all over."
Joe rose with more alacrity and clenched his fists, his teeth showing a
little between his tightened lips.
"Why, Jolly," said Gwyn, gravely, "you look as if you'd knocked the skin
off your temper."
"That's just how I do feel," cried the boy--"regularly raw. I want to
have a row with old Sammy Hardock. It's all his fault, our getting into
such trouble; and first he stands there laughing at us when we were
nearly gone, and now he sits there as if it hadn't mattered a bit, and
begins to smoke. I never hated anyone that I know of, but I do hate him
now. He's a beast."
"Well, you said that before," said Gwyn, slowly; and he shivered. "I
say, Jolly, isn't it rum that when you're wet, if you stand in the sun,
you feel cold?"
"Then let's go and give it to old Hardock; that'll warm you up. I feel
red hot now."
Gwyn began to rub his chest softly, where the rope had cut into him, and
the boys walked together to where Hardock sat with his back to them,
smoking.
The man did not hear them coming till they were close to him, when he
started round suddenly, and faced them, letting the pipe drop from
between his lips.
The resentment bubbling up in both of the boys died out on the instant,
as they saw the drawn, ghastly face before them.
"Ah, my lads! Ah, my dear lads!" groaned the man; "that's about the
nighest thing I ever see; but, thank goodness, you're all safe and
sound. Would you two mind shaking hands?"
The boys stared at him, then at each other and back.
"Why, Sam!" said Gwyn, huskily.
"Yes; it's me, my lad," he replied, with a groan, "what there is left on
me. I've been trying a pipe, but it aren't done me no good, not a bit.
I seem to see young Jollivet there going head first over the cliff; and
the mortal shiver it did send through me was something as I never felt
afore."
"Why, you laughed at us!" said Joe, with his resentment flashing up
again.
"Laughed at yer? Course I did. What was I to do? If I'd ha' told yer
both you was in danger, wouldn't it ha' frightened you so as you'd ha'
been too froze up to help yourselves?"
"No; I don't think so," cried Joe.
"Don't yer? Well, I'm sure on it. I couldn't do anything but hold on
to the rope, and no one could ha' saved you but yourselves."
"But you shouldn't have laughed," said Gwyn, gravely.
"What was I to do then, Colonel? It was the only thing likely to spur
you up. I thought it would make you both wild like, and think you
warn't in such a queer strait, and it did."
The boys exchanged glances.
"Yes," continued Hardock, as he shook hands solemnly with both, "there
was nobody to help you, my lads, but yourselves, and I made you do that;
but talk about giving a man a turn--Oh, dear! oh, dear! And now my
pipe's gone right out."
"Light it again, then, Sam," said Gwyn, quietly, as he stooped stiffly
to pick up the fallen pipe, and hand it to its owner.
"Thank ye, my lad, thank ye; but I don't feel in the humour for no pipes
to-day, I'm just as if I've had a very gashly turn."
"But you might have tied the rope round me better, Sam," said Gwyn.
"Ay, I might, my lad, but somehow I didn't. Are you hurt much?"
"Only sore, with the rope cutting me."
"Nay, but I mean when you fell down the shaft. Did you hit yourself
again' the sides?"
"No. It was very horrible, though. One moment I was turning slowly
round and round and the next I was losing all the light; the rope
slipped from round me and I was going down, down into the darkness. It
was as if it lasted ever so long. Then there was a splash, the water
was roaring in my ears, and I felt as if I were being dragged down lower
and lower, till all at once my head shot up again. I never once felt as
if I was coming up."
"How queer!" exclaimed Joe, who stood listening with his face all
wrinkled over. "Didn't you feel, when you'd got as low as you went,
that you were going up again?"
"No, not in the least. It was all confused like and strange, and I
hardly knew anything till I was at the surface, and then I began to
strike out, and swam along the sides of the slimy stones, trying to get
a grip of them, but my hands kept slipping off."
"But you didn't halloa!" said Joe.
"No," continued Gwyn, still speaking in the same grave, subdued way, as
if still suffering from the shock of all he had gone through. "I didn't
shout; I felt stunned like, as if I'd been hit on the head."
"You must have been," cried Joe. "You hit yourself against the side."
"No, if I had it would have killed me. I can't explain it. Perhaps it
was striking on the water."
"Nonsense; water's too soft to hurt you. But go on; what did you do
then?"
"I hardly know, only that I kept on striking out, thinking how horribly
dark it must be and wondering whether there were any live things to come
at me; and then I hit my knee against the stones at the bottom."
"But you said it was deep."
"So it was in the shaft, but I must have swum into a passage where it
was quite shallow; and almost directly after I'd hit my knee my hands
touched the stones and I crawled out into the dark, and went on and on,
feeling afraid to go back because of the water."
"But why didn't you shout to us?" cried Joe, excitedly.
"I don't know. I suppose I couldn't. It was like being in a dream, and
I felt obliged to go crawling on. Then all of a sudden I began to feel
better, for I could see a faint light, and this made me try to stand up,
but I couldn't without hitting my head. But I could walk stooping like,
and I went on toward the pale light, which was almost like a star.
Directly after, I was there looking out of a square place like a window,
trying to find a way up or a way down, but the rocks stood out overhead,
and they were quite straight down below me, so I could do nothing but
shout, and I began to think no one would come. Every now and then I
could hear voices, but when I called my voice seemed to float out to
sea. There, you know the rest. But that's an adit, isn't it, Sam
Hardock?"
"Ay, my lad, and lucky for you it was there. You see, the water must
run off by it out to sea when the top rises so high. But I never knew
there was an opening from seaward into the mine. Being right up there,
nobody could see it. Why it must be 'underd and fifty feet above the
shore."
"It looked more," said Gwyn, with a shudder.
"There, I say, hadn't you better get home and change your things, my
lad? You're pretty wet still. If you take my advice, you'll go off as
fast as you can."
"Yes," said Joe, "you'd better. But we haven't done much to examine the
mine."
"Eh?" cried Hardock, "I think we have. Found out that there's an adit
for getting rid of the water and the spoil. Not bad for one day's
work."