as we charged
on him.

"Then," I cried, "he's shut down in that well! Jump up and open the
door!"

The shoemaker did jump up, and we helped him move the bench, and had the
trap-door open in no time. By this, the rest of the party had come back,
and when Mrs. Chipperton saw the well open and no Mr. Chipperton about,
she turned as white as a sheet. We could hardly wait for the man to
light his lamp, and as soon as he started down the winding stairs,
Rectus and I followed him. I called back to Mrs. Chipperton and the
others that they need not come; we would be back in a minute and let
them know. But it was of no use; they all came. We hurried on after the
man with the light, and passed straight ahead through the narrow passage
to the very end of it.

There stood Mr. Chipperton, holding a lighted match, which he had just
struck. He was looking at something on the wall. As we ran in, he
turned and smiled, and was just going to say something, when Corny threw
herself into his arms, and his wife, squeezing by, took him around his
neck so suddenly that his hat flew off and bumped on the floor, like an
empty tin can. He always wore a high silk hat. He made a grab for his
hat, and the match burned his fingers.

"Aouch!" he exclaimed, as he dropped the match. "What's the matter?"

"Oh, my dear!" exclaimed his wife. "How dreadful to leave you here! Shut
up alone in this awful place! But to think we have found you!"

"No trouble about that, I should say," remarked Mr. Chipperton, going
over to the other side of the den after his hat. "You haven't been gone
ten minutes, and it's a pretty straight road back here."

"But how did it happen?" "Why did you stay?" "Weren't you frightened?"
"Did you stay on purpose?" we all asked him at pretty much one and the
same time.

"I did stay on purpose," said he; "but I did not expect to stay but a
minute, and had no idea you would go and leave me. I stopped to see what
in the name of common sense this place was made for. I tried my best to
make some sort of an observation out of this long, narrow loop-hole, but
found I could see nothing of importance whatever, and so I made up my
mind it was money thrown away to cut out such a place as this to so
little purpose. When I had entirely made up my mind, I found, on turning
around, that you had gone, and although I called I received no answer.

"Then I knew I was alone in this place. But I was perfectly composed. No
agitation, no tremor of th