ced, for there was glittering ore at the end, and the marks of
picks or hammers, looking as if they had been lately made.

"There's nothing to mind, Joe," he said; "only I do want to get back to
the shaft now."

"Then why not turn?"

"We did, ever so long ago. Don't you remember seeing that beginning of
a passage as we came along?"

"I remember stopping to look into two niches like this one but they were
ever so far back, and we are still going on into the depths of the
mine."

"No, no; we took a turn off to the left soon after I lit the fresh
candle, and we must be getting back towards the entrance."

Joe said nothing, but he felt sure that he was right; and they went on
again till at the end of another lane Gwyn stopped short.

"I say, I felt sure we were going back. Do you really believe that we
are going farther in?"

"I felt sure that we were a little while ago, but I am not so sure now,
for one gets confused."

"Yes, confused," said Gwyn, sadly. "We seem to have been constantly
following turnings leading in all directions, and they're all alike, and
go on and on. Aren't you getting tired?"

"Horribly; but we mustn't think of that. Let's notice what we see, so
as to have something to tell them when we get home."

"Well, that's soon done; the walls are nearly all alike, and the
passages run in veins, one of which the people who used to work here
followed until they had got out all the ore, and then they opened
others."

"But the ore seems to be richer in some places than in others."

"Yes, and the walls seem wetter in some places than in others; and
sometimes one crushes shells beneath one's feet, and there's quantities
of sand."

"But how far should you think we are now from the entrance?"

"I don't know. Miles and miles."

"Oh, that's exaggeration, for we've come along so slowly; and being
tired makes you feel that it is a long way."

They went on and on, at last, as if in a dream, following the winding
and zigzagging passages, and speaking more and more seldom, till at last
they found themselves in a place which they certainly had not seen
before, for the mine suddenly opened out into a wide irregular hall,
supported here and there by rugged pillars left by the miners; and now
confusion grew doubly confused, for, as they went slowly around over the
rugged, well-worn floor, and in and out among the pillars, they could
dimly see that passages and shafts went from all sides. The roof
sp