to
see his way.

Gwyn did not know it then, but he had committed one of the great errors
of his life.

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.

SAM HARDOCK BRINGS NEWS.

Time went on, and at the end of a year Ydoll Mine was in working order,
with a good staff, the best of machinery for raising the ore, a
man-engine for the work-people's ascent and descent, a battery of stamps
to keep up an incessant rattle as the heavily-laden piles crushed the
pieces of quartz, and in addition a solid-looking building with its
furnaces for smelting the tin.

They were busy days there, and Gwyn and his companion found little time
for their old pursuits--egging, rabbiting and fishing--save occasionally
when, by way of a change, they would spend an evening on the rocky point
which formed one of the protecting arms of Ydoll Cove, trying with pike
rods, large winches and plenty of line, for the bass which played in
silvery shoals in the swift race formed at the point by the meeting of
two currents, and often having a little exciting sport in landing the
swift-swimming, perch-finned fish.

For the fishing was too good off that part of the Cornish coast to be
neglected, and the Colonel made allusions to the old proverb about all
work and no play making Jack a dull boy.

One afternoon Gwyn loosened Grip for a run, to the dog's great delight,
and, after seeking out Joe, who had been at home for days attending on
his father, who was troubled with one of his old fits--Joe called them
fits of the Jungle demon--the boys went down to the mine, Grip trotting
behind them, save when some rustle to right or left attracted him for a
frantic hunt to discover the cause.

At the mine Tom Dinass was found, looking very sour and grim, for he was
still not the best of friends with his fellow-workmen; but as he was one
of the most steady in his devotion to his work he stood well with the
owners.

Gwyn caught sight of him first, and Dinass saw him at the same moment,
but, instead of coming forward, he pretended to have something to do
elsewhere, and went off into the smelting-house.

"What has he gone off like that for?" said Gwyn; and the boys followed
just in time to hear some blows being struck in the gloomy place where a
fierce fire was roaring and sending thin pencils of light through cracks
in the furnace door.

The next minute some pieces of hard burned clay crumbled beneath the
blows, and there was a dazzling stream of molten metal poured out, to
run