"Well, Dan," said Mark, as he and his cousin came upon their handy man,
"did you give the poor old fellow the soup?"
"No, sir."
"What! Then why didn't you?"
"Couldn't find him, sir."
"Didn't you go up to the old cavern?"
"Yes, sir. I went right in to where there was that snug sort of place
where Bob Bacon found he had been lying--where we left him, sir."
"Well, do you mean to say he wasn't there?"
"No, sir; that he wasn't."
"Oh, how could you be so stupid! The doctor trusted you to fetch the
soup because he thought you were a man he could depend upon."
"Well, that's right, sir."
"And because you didn't see him directly, the poor creature never got
the soup."
"That's right, sir, too," said Dan, smiling.
"There's nothing to laugh at in it, sir," cried Mark, angrily. "Did you
ever know anything so stupid, Dean?"
"No," cried Dean, taking up his cousin's tone. "You might have been
sure, Dan, that as soon as we had gone the poor old fellow would have
crawled right in as far as he could go."
"Yes, sir; that's what I did think, sir."
"You went right in?" cried Mark. "Yes, sir; right to the very end, and
he warn't there."
"Where was he, then?"
"Oh, I don't know, sir."
"Did you look about well?"
"Yes, sir, as far as there was anywhere to look about."
"As far as there was anywhere to look about?"
"Yes, sir. Don't you remember you could only go right on into the hole
or come back again? You couldn't climb up the sides without somebody
had gone up there first with a rope and let it down to you."
"Yes, that's right, Mark," said Dean. "Yes, I suppose so," replied
Mark, "but I wanted that poor old fellow to have the soup. It might
have been the means of saving his life."
Dan shook his head solemnly. Mark made no observation about that, but
went on: "Look here, Dan, somebody must have been there and helped him."