nother moved to the doorway to guard
against retreat.

But if Dinass had any intention of breaking away he did not show it. He
rose to his feet, shook himself, and picking up his hat, which had been
knocked off, put it on, took it off again, glanced round for one he
considered suitable, snatched it from its wearer's head, put it on his
own and pitched the one he had worn to the miner he had robbed, and then
stepped into the skep.

"There you are," he said. "Now, then, lower away;" and as he spoke he
stooped down quickly seized the dog by the collar, and swung him out of
the skep.

"Don't! Don't do that," cried Gwyn. "Let the dog come."

But his words were too late; the rail was clapped down, the engineer had
seized the handle; there was a clang, a sharp blow upon a gong, and it
seemed to the boys that the floor they had just left had suddenly shot
up to the ceiling. Then it gave place to a glow of light dotted with
heads, and amidst a low murmur of voices there rose the furious barking
of a dog.

Directly after, they were conscious of the singular sensation that is
felt when in a swing and descending after the rise, but in a greatly
intensified way. Then the glow overhead grew fainter and smaller, and
the lanthorns they held seemed to burn more brightly, while a peculiar
whishing, dripping noise made itself heard, telling of water oozing from
some seam.

"For we always are so jolly, oh! So jolly, oh!" sang Dinass in a harsh,
discordant voice. "How do you like this, youngsters?"

Neither of the boys answered, but the same thought came to them
both--"that their companion was singing to make a show of his courage."

"I didn't want to fight," continued Dinass; "but I could have knocked
that fellow Harry Vores into the middle of next week if I'd liked. I'd
have come down, too, without any fuss if they'd asked me properly; but
I'm not going to be bullied and driven, so I tell 'em."

Still neither Gwyn nor Joe spoke, but stood listening to the dripping
water, and wondering at the easy way in which the skep went down past
platform and beam, whose presence was only shown by the gleam of the wet
wood as the lanthorns passed. And still down and down for what seemed
to be an interminable length of time.

They knew that they must have passed the openings of several horizontal
galleries, but they saw no signs of them, as they stood drawing their
breath hard, till all at once the skep stopped, and Dinass shouted