harp angle,
and then went on, nearly doubling back over the ground they had
traversed before. Then came a series of zigzags, and these were so
confusing that at the end of a few hundred yards neither Gwyn nor Joe
could have told the direction in which they were going.

"Never been here before, gen'lemen?" said Hardock, with a grin.

"No; this is quite fresh," said Gwyn, consulting a pocket compass.
"Leads west then."

"Sometimes, sir; but it jiggers about all sorts of ways. Ah, there's a
deal of the mine yet that we haven't seen."

"Rises a little, too," said Joe.

"Yes, sir; slopes up just a little--easy grajent, as the big engineers
call it."

"But you said it was natural, and not cut out by following a vein," said
Gwyn. "There are chisel-marks all along here."

"Hav'n't got to the place I mean yet, sir. Good half-mile on."

"And farther from the shaft?"

"Well, no, sir, because it bears away to the right, and I've found a
road round to beyond that big centre place with the bits that support
the roof."

"Well, go on then," said Gwyn; "one gets tired of always going along
these passages."

"Oughtn't to, sir, with all these signs of branches of tin lode--I
don't."

"But one can have too much tin, Sam," said Joe, laughing; and they went
steadily on along the narrow passage, which grew more straight, till
there was only just room for them to walk in single file.

"Been getting thin here, gen'lemen," said Hardock; "sign the ore was
getting to an end. Look, there's where it branched off, and there, and
there, going off to nothing like the roots of a tree. Now, just about a
hundred yards farther, and you'll see a difference."

But it proved to be quite three hundred, and the way had grown painfully
narrow and stiflingly hot; when all at once Grip began to bark loudly,
and the noise, instead of sounding smothered and dull, echoed as if he
were in a spacious place.

So it proved, for the narrow passage suddenly ceased and the party
stepped out into a wide chasm, whose walls and roof were invisible, and
the air felt comparatively cool and pleasant.

"There you are, Mr Gwyn, sir," said Hardock, as he stood holding up his
light, but vainly, for it showed nothing beyond the halo which it shed.
"I call this a bit o' nature, sir. You won't find any marks on the
walls here."

"I can't even see the walls," said Joe. "Here, Grip, where are you?"

The dog barked in answer some distance away, and then came