Menhardoc Part 7

"What's to be done? Can't jump down into the water and swim out by the adit, can you?"

"No," cried Will angrily. "Here, go back and get a rope."

"Where?" shouted back Josh. "I say, I knowed you'd be getting into some mess or another going down there."

Will was equable enough in temper, but a remark like this from the man he had trusted with his life made him grind his teeth in a fit of anger, and wish he were beside Josh for a moment, to give him a bit of his mind.

"Go up to any of the fishermen, never mind where, and borrow a line."

"All right!"

"And, Josh."

"Hullo!"

"Don't make any fuss; don't alarm anybody. I don't want them to know at home."

"But suppose we never get you out again?" shouted Josh, in a tone of voice that startled a s.h.a.g which was about to settle on a shelf of rock hard by, and sent it hurrying away to sea.

Will stamped his foot at this, and mentally vowed that he would never trust Josh again.

"Go and borrow a line," he cried, "and look sharp. I don't want any one to know."

"All right!" cried Josh; and directly after Will knew that he was alone.

The place was not absolutely dark, for he could plainly make out the edge of the gallery, seen as it were against a faint twilight that came from above; and this was sufficient to guide him as to how far he dare go towards the shaft if he wished to move.

For the first few minutes, though, he felt no disposition that way, and seating himself on the stony floor, with hundreds of loose fragments of granite beneath him, he tried to be calm and cool, and to come to a conclusion as to how he should escape.

If Josh came back soon with a rope it would be easy enough; and possibly they might be able to rig up a grappling-iron or "creeper," as the fishermen called it, for the line that was lost; but a little consideration told him that in all probability the line had sunk before now and was right at the bottom of the shaft.

Then he wondered how long Josh would be, and whether he would have much difficulty in borrowing a rope.

If Josh said at once what was the matter, there would be a crowd up at the head of the shaft directly with a score of lines; but he did not wish for that. Even in his awkward, if not perilous, position he did not want the village to be aware of his investigations. He had been carrying them on in secret for some time, and he hoped when they were made known to have something worth talking about.

How long Josh seemed, and how dark it was! Perhaps he was being asked for at home, and he would be in disgrace.

That was not likely, though. He had chosen his time too well.

"I wonder how far it is down to the water?" he said at last; and feeling about, his hand came in contact with a large thin piece of stone, as big as an ordinary tile.

He hesitated for a moment or two, and then threw it from him with such force that it struck the far side of the shaft and sent up a series of echoes before, from far below, there came a dull sullen plash, with a succession of whis.h.i.+ng, lapping sounds, such as might have been given out if some monster had come to the top and were swimming round, disappointed by what had fallen not being food.

"It's all nonsense!" said Will. "I don't believe any fish or eel would be living in an old shaft."

Some of the mining people were in the habit of saying that each water-filled pit, deep, mysterious, and dark, held strange creatures, of what kind no one knew, for individually they had never seen anything; but "some one" had told them that there were such creatures, and "some one else" had been "some one's" authority: for the lower orders of Cornish folk, with all their honest simplicity and religious feeling, are exceedingly superst.i.tious, and much given to a belief in old women's tales.

CHAPTER SIX.

A CASE OF LOST NERVE, AND THE HELP THAT CAME.

It must have been quite an hour of painful waiting before Josh's voice was heard from above.

Will had been sitting there in the dark pa.s.sage listening to every noise, though scarcely anything met his ear but the incessant drip and trickle of the water that oozed from the shaft sides, when all at once there was a faint sound from above, and his heart leapt with excitement.

Was it Josh at last?

"Bellow--er!" came down the shaft.

"Ahoy!" shouted back Will. "Got a rope?"

"Ay, lad; I've got un, a strong noo un as'll hold us both, a good thirty fathom!"

"Make it fast to the iron bar, Jos.h.!.+" cried Will, whose hands now felt hot with excitement.

"Ay, I won't lose this gashly thing!" cried Josh, whose words came down the shaft-hole wonderfully distinctly, as if a giant were whispering near the lad's ear.

Will listened, and fancied he could hear his companion knotting the end of the rope and fastening it round the iron bar; but he could not be sure, and he waited as patiently as he could, but with a curious sensation of dread coming over him. He had felt courageous enough when he came down, indifferent, or thoughtless perhaps, as to the danger; but this accident with the rope had, though he did not realise it, shaken his confidence in Josh; and in addition, the long waiting in that horrible hole had unnerved him more than he knew, full proof of which he had ere long.

"There, she's fast enough now," came down the great granite speaking-tube. "I'm going to send the line down, lad. She's a gashly stiff un, but she was the best I could get. Make a good knot and hitch in her, and sit in it; I'll soon have you up."

"All right!" shouted Will; but his voice sounded a little hoa.r.s.e, and his hands grew moister than before.

"Below there! down she comes!" said Josh; and, taking the ring of new hempen rope, freshly stained with cutch to tan it and make it water-resisting, he planted one foot upon the loop he had secured over the iron bar, and threw the coil down into the pit, so that the weight might tighten out the stiff hemp, uncoil the rings, and make it hang straight.

The rope fell with a curious whistling crackling noise, tightening against the fisherman's foot; and the knot would have jumped off but for his precaution. Then it stopped with a jerk, and Josh shouted again:

"There you are, lad! See her?"

"Ye-es," came up faintly.

"Well; lay hold and make her fast round you. Hold hard a minute till I've hauled up a fathom or two."

He stooped down, keeping his foot on the bar the while, took hold of the rope, and hauled it up a little way.

"There you are, my lad; and now look sharp. I want you out of this unked place."

There was no answer, and Josh waited listening.

"Haven't you got her?" he shouted.

"No; I can't reach. I'm on the other side," came up.

"Oh, I see!" said Josh; and stooping down so as to keep the rope tight to the iron bar, he crept round to the opposite side of the shaft-hole, and held the rope close to the edge.

"There you are, lad," he said. "Got her?"