des and Toady and puffed and
panted as the rope slowly unwound, and Billiard, scrooched low in the
bucket, disappeared from view. It was hard work and slow, to pay out
the rope evenly, but Billiard did not seem at all inclined to be
critical, and accepted his rough, jolting descent without a murmur.
Had the truth been known, the boy was too nearly paralyzed with fright
to notice anything of his surroundings, and more than once he was on
the point of signalling for his companions to hoist him to the surface
again, but fear of ridicule kept him tongue-tied until it was too late.

With a final jerk and jolt, the bucket stood still, and cautiously
opening his eyes for the first time since he had stepped into his queer
elevator. Billiard beheld a row of black, shadowy heads hovering over
the brink of the aperture, and heard Toady's voice, sounding strangely
muffled and far away, call cheerfully, "Well, you've struck bottom, old
boy! What does it look like?"

Bottom? Billiard blinked and rubbed his eyes, and peered about him in
surprise; but at first in the semi-darkness, he could distinguish
nothing. Then as he grew more accustomed to the blackness, he could
see before him the mouth of a still blacker cavern, which to his vivid
imagination seemed yawning to swallow him up; and he shudderingly
shrank back into the friendly protection of the bucket.

"Why don't you answer?" demanded an impatient voice from above.

"_Are_ there snakes and lizards?" called Mercedes.

Snakes! Lizards! Billiard had forgotten them, but with a sigh of
relief he realized that there was not a sound of anything stirring
about him. "Naw!" he yelled back, trying to make his voice sound brave
and scornful. "Guess not. I can't see a thing. Might as well haul me
up, 'cause no one could tell what a mine looks like in this blackness."

"Got any matches?" inquired Toady.

Billiard rapidly felt through his pockets. "One," he announced.

"Then here's a candle. Catch it!"

Toady let it drop almost before the words were out of his mouth, and
with a tremendous thump it struck poor Billiard on the head before he
had caught the significance of the directions from above; and with a
yelp of surprise and pain, he tumbled out of the bucket against a
timber, which shivered and splintered under his weight. But in some
mysterious manner, he found himself in possession of the candle when he
had righted himself once more and brushed the rotten wood from