e higher and pass it beneath him.

"Nay, nay, let me be," groaned Hardock; "it's all over now. I'm spent."

"Let it fall on him to rouse him up," shouted Gwyn.--"You, Sam, lay hold
of that stone."

The man roused himself, and, climbing higher over the ragged, sharp,
prickly crystals, reached up and took hold of the stone, passed it under
him, and it fell away down for a few feet, and then there was a sullen
splash.

The light showed Gwyn plainly enough that they were in a spot where a
vein of some mineral, probably soapstone, had in the course of ages
dissolved away; and, convinced that the dog had found his way to some
higher cavern, and in the hope that he might find room enough to force
his way after, he scrambled and climbed upward, foot by foot, pausing
every now and then to shout back to his companions to follow.

There was plenty of room to right and left; the difficulty was to find
the widest parts of the crack, whose sides were exactly alike, as if the
bed-rock had once split apart, and pressure, if applied, would have made
them join together exactly again. And this engendered the gruesome
thought that if that happened now they would be crushed out flat.

There was plenty of air, too, for it rushed by now in a strong current
which made the flame of the candle in the lanthorn he pushed on before
him flutter and threaten to go out. For the air was terribly impure, as
shown by the dim blue flame of the candles, and so enervating that the
perspiration streamed from the lad's face, and a strange, dull, sleepy
feeling came over him, which he tried desperately to keep off.

Roughly speaking, the crack ascended at an angle of about fifty degrees,
turning and zigzagging after the fashion of a flash of lightning, the
greatest difficulty being to pass the angles.

But Gwyn toiled on, finding that the great thing he dreaded--the
closing-in of the sides--did not occur, but trembling in the narrowest
parts on account of one who was to follow.

"Joe will easily manage it," he said to himself; "but Sam will stick."

"Time enough to think of that," he muttered, "if he does."

"Can you get higher?" panted Joe, after they had been creeping slowly
along for some time.

"Yes, yes; but there's an awkward turn just here. All right, it's wider
on my left. Hurrah! I've got into quite a big part. Come on!"

Joe climbed on, pushing his lanthorn before him, till it was suddenly
taken and drawn up, when, looking above