ark, I suppose."

"When they were in great anxiety about their fathers?" cried the
Colonel, scornfully. "Do you dare to tell me such a lie as that?
Explain yourself at once. Quickly, for I have no time to spare."

It was the stern officer speaking now, with his eyes flashing; and
literally cowed by the Colonel's manner, and in dead silence, Dinass
blundered through his narrative again, but with the addition of a little
invention about the way in which his young companions had behaved.

"Bah!" roared the Colonel at last; "that will do. I see you turned
poltroon and shrank back, to leave them to go on by themselves. Man,
man! if you hadn't the honest British pluck in you to go, why didn't you
stay up?"

"'Cause he funked it at fust, sir," said Vores; "but then, being second
after Sam Hardock, we said it was his dooty, and made him go!"

"Bah! he is of no use now. Hah! You have candles ready, I see. How
many will the skep take?"

"Six on us, sir," said Vores.

"Follow me, then, some of you," said the Colonel. "Hardock, you're
fagged out, and had better stay."

"What! and leave them boys down there lost, sir?" cried Hardock,
sharply. "Not me."

"Then head a second party; I'll go on with five."

"Right you are, sir," said Hardock. "Down with you, then; and we'll
soon be after you. Will someone give me a tin o' water?"

Two men started up to supply his wants, as the Colonel and his party
stepped into the skep to stand closely packed--too closely for Grip to
find footing; and as the great bucket descended, the dog threw up his
muzzle and uttered a dismal howl.

"Quickly as you can," shouted the Colonel, as the skep went down; but
the engineer shook his head.

"Nay," he said to the remaining men present; "none o' that, my lads:
slow and steady's my motter for this job. One reg'lar rate and no
other."

In due time the other skep came to the surface, and Hardock, with a lump
of bread in his hand and a fresh supply of candles and matches, stepped
in, to be followed by five more, ready to dare anything in the search
for the two lads; but once more poor Grip was left behind howling
dismally, while Tom Dinass nursed his leg and glared at him with an evil
eye.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

DOWN IN THE DEPTHS.

"You lead with the lanthorn, Hardock," said the Colonel, as the man and
his companions stepped out of the second skep and had to wade knee-deep
for a few yards from the bottom of the shaft, the r