"We've come quite a different way."

"Well, it doesn't matter," said Gwyn, so long as we get to the foot of
the shaft; "and I shall be very glad, for, wet, tired, and hungry, it's
very horrible being here."

They went on, led by the dog like two blind beggars Gwyn said, as he
tried to look cheerfully upon their position, when he received another
mental check, for Joe cried suddenly, "Stop a moment, for there's
something wrong with this candle;" and a shudder worse than that which
had attacked the boy when the water first rose to his breast ran through
his nerves.

Joe opened the door of the lanthorn with a jerk, and the candle, which
had fallen over on one side and was smoking the glass, dropped out on to
the rocky floor; but Gwyn stooped quickly and saved it from becoming
extinct, while the dog uttered an impatient bark and dragged at the
leash again.

And it was always so as they proceeded, that the boys' strength, which
had flickered up at the hope of rescue brought by the dog, rapidly
burned down now like the candle, which quickly approached its end; while
the dog seemed to be untiring and toiled and tugged away, as if trying
to draw his master onward. They spoke less and less, and dragged their
feet, and grew more helpless, till at the end of a couple of hours Joe
suddenly said,--

"It's of no use, Ydoll; I can go no farther, and he's only taking us
more into the mine. There isn't a bit of it we've passed before."

"Never mind; we must trust him now," said Gwyn, sadly; "we can't go
back."

"No, but we oughtn't to have trusted him at all. We ought to have felt
that we knew better than a dog."

"Stop! What are you going to do?" cried Gwyn, angrily.

"This," said Joe; and he let himself sink down on the rocky floor, and
laid his head on his hand.

"No, no; get up! You sha'n't turn coward like this. Get up, I say!"

"I--can't," said Joe. "I'm dead beat. You go on, and if Grip takes you
out try and find me again. If you can't, tell father I did my best."

"I won't; I sha'n't," cried Gwyn, furiously. "Think I'm going to leave
you?"

"Yes. Save yourself."

"You get up," cried Gwyn; and stooping down, he caught one of his
companion's arms, dragged at it with a heavy jerk, and found that he had
miscalculated his strength, for he sank upon his knees, felt as if the
lanthorn was gliding round him, and then subsided close by where Joe
lay, while just then the dog gave a furious tug at the leash,