passage, and stood
barking at the end, as if eager to show them that it was a _cul-de-sac_.

Hardock went right to the end, and spent some time examining the place
before speaking.

Then he began to point out the marks made by picks, hammers, and
chisels, some of which were so high up that he declared that the miners
must have had short ladders or platforms.

"Ladders, I should say," he muttered; "and the mining must have been
stopped for some reason, because the lode aren't broken off. There's
plenty of ore up there if we wanted it, and maybe we shall some day, but
not just yet. There's enough to be got to make your fathers rich men
without going very far from the shaft foot; and all this shows me that
it must have been very, very long ago, when people only got out the
richest of the stuff, and left those who came after 'em to scrape all
the rest. There, I think that will do for to-day."

The boys thought so, too, though they left this part rather reluctantly,
for it was cooler, but the idea of going along through galleries which
extended beneath the sea was anything but reassuring.

That evening the Major came over to the cottage with his son, and the
long visit of the boys underground during the day formed one of the
topics chatted over, the Major seeming quite concerned.

"I had no idea of this," he said. "Highly dangerous. You had not been
told, Pendarve, of course."

"No," said the Colonel, smiling, "I had not been told; but I shrewdly
suspected that this was the case, especially after hearing the faint
murmuring sound in places."

"But we shall be having some catastrophe," cried the Major--"the water
breaking in."

The Colonel smiled.

"I don't think we need fear that. The galleries are all arch-roofed and
cut through the solid rock, and, as far as I have seen, there has not
been a single place where the curves have failed. If they have not
broken in from the pressure of the millions of tons of rock overhead,
why should they from the pressure of the water?"

"Oh, but a leak might commence from filtration, and gradually increase
in size," said the Major.

"Possibly, my dear boy," replied the Colonel; "but water works slowly
through stone, and for the next hundred years I don't think any leakage
could take place that we should not master with our pumping gear. Oh,
absurd! There is no danger. Just try and think out how long this mine
has been worked. I am quite ready to believe that it was