masheroons. Wondered whose it was.
Gaffer says it's little missus's, and you're to take it up."

"Oh," thought Ram, "that's what they were talking about;" and he began
whistling, quite content, as they went wandering about mushrooming,
till, apparently tired, they sat down close to the mouth of the quarry,
where Jemmy's eyes rolled round for a good ten minutes before he said,
"_Now_."

Then the pair rolled over to left and right, down into the hole, and
descended quickly to the bottom, where the man crept right on along the
half choked passage, took a lanthorn from a great crevice; there was the
nicking of flint and steel, a faint blue light, and the snap of the
closing lanthorn as the dark passage showed a yellow glow.

Meanwhile Ram had been busy removing the pieces of stone, laying bare a
trap-door upon which were a big wooden lock and a couple of bolts.
These he unfastened, threw open the door, and descended with his basket;
while, after handing down the lanthorn into the black well-like hole,
Jemmy climbed up again to the surface and stood with his eyes just above
the level, sheltered by blackberry strands and other growth, and slowly
made his eyes revolve; till, at the end of half an hour, Ram reappeared,
when the business of closing and bolting the door went on, while Jemmy
blew out the light, closed the lanthorn, through whose crevices came
forth an unpleasant odour, bore it back to its hiding-place; and then
the pair departed as cautiously as they came.

"What did he say?" growled Jemmy.

"Oh, not much. Seemed all grumpy, and wouldn't answer a civil
question."

"Should ha' kicked him," said Jemmy.

Very little more was said till they reached home, and Ram busied himself
about the farm till after supper, wishing that he could help the
midshipman to escape without getting his father into trouble.

He was thinking how horribly dark and miserable the old quarry must be,
for the first time. The thought had not occurred to him before, through
every hole and corner being so familiar, from the fact that scores of
times he had held the lanthorn while his father's men carried in
smuggled goods landed at the ledge, if there was plenty of time; for, if
the landing had been hurried, and the danger near, the things were often
carried up to the Hoze for temporary deposit till carts came to bear the
things into the interior.

"I do wish he'd be friends," thought Ram, when his musings were
interrupted by his fathe