ake, "exactly, of such
a thing; but still if you please, and this gentleman wishes--"

"I have no wish upon the occasion," said the baron; "and, like yourself,
cannot see the necessity."

"Oh, there is no trouble," said Mr. Leek; "and it's better, now you are
here, that you see and understand all about it. How can you get down,
Davis?"

"Why, sir, it ain't above fourteen feet altogether; so I sha'n't have
any difficulty, for I can hang by my hands about half the distance, and
drop the remainder."

As he spoke he took off his coat, and then stuck the link he carried
into a cleft of the rock, that was beside the brink of the excavation.

The baron now saw that there would be no such thing as avoiding a
discovery of the fact of the dead body being in that place, and his only
hope was, that in its descent it might have become so injured as to defy
identification.

But this was a faint hope, because he recollected that he had himself
seen the face, which was turned upwards, and the period after death was
by far too short for him to have any hope that decomposition could have
taken place even to the most limited extent.

The light, which was stuck in a niche, shed but a few inefficient rays
down into the pit, and, as the baron stood, with folded arms, looking
calmly on, he expected each moment a scene of surprise and terror would
ensue.

Nor was he wrong; for scarcely had the man plunged down into that deep
place, than he uttered a cry of alarm and terror, and shouted,--

"Murder! murder! Lift me out. There is a dead man down here, and I have
jumped upon him."

"A dead man!" cried Mr. Leek and Sir John Westlake in a breath.

"How very strange!" said the baron.

"Lend me a hand," cried Davis; "lend me a hand out; I cannot stand this,
you know. Lend me a hand out, I say, at once."

This was easier to speak of than to do, and Mr. Davis began to discover
that it was easier by far to get into a deep pit, than to get out of
one, notwithstanding that his assertion of having been down into those
places was perfectly true; but then he had met with nothing alarming,
and had been able perfectly at his leisure to scramble out the best way
he could.

Now, however, his frantic efforts to release himself from a much more
uncomfortable situation than he had imagined it possible for him to get
into, were of so frantic a nature, that he only half buried himself in
pieces of chalk, which he kept pulling down with vehemence fro