Mr Temple with the greatest eagerness.

"Rich! No, my lad. What, have you got the Cornish complaint?"

"Cornish complaint, sir?" said Will wonderingly.

"The longing to search for mineral treasures?"

"Yes, sir," said Will bluntly after a few moments' pause.

"Then you need not waste time here, my lad."

"But there's copper here. I proved it; and now you say there is."

"Yes; tons of it," said Mr Temple.

"There, Josh!" cried Will triumphantly.

"But," continued Mr Temple as they all stood there half-crouching in
the narrow adit, "it is in quantities and in a bed that would be hard to
work, and every hundredweight you got out and smelted would have cost
more in wages than you could obtain when you sold your copper."

"There, lad, what did I gashly say?" cried Josh eagerly. "Didn't I say
as the true mining was for silver in the sea--ketching fish with boats
and nets."

"No, you did not," cried Will hotly; "and you meant nothing of the kind
in what you did say."

"Ah! there's nought like the sea for making a living," said Josh in an
ill-used tone. "I wouldn't work in one of these gashly places on no
account; not for two pound a week, I wouldn't."

"Well, let's get out in the open air at all events, now," said Mr
Temple. "I should like to see the mouth of the shaft."

"I'll show you, sir," said Will eagerly; and Mr Temple watched him
closely as they stood once more out in the bright sunshine, and, lithe
and strong, he began to climb up the rocks, Dick following him almost as
quickly, but without his cleverness in making his way from block to
block.

Mr Temple followed, then Josh, lastly Arthur, who got on very badly,
but indignantly refused Josh's rough tarry hand when he good-naturedly
offered to help him up the rough cliff.

"Here's where Josh and I went down," said Will, as they all stood at the
shaft mouth.

"And did you go down there, my lad?"

"Yes, sir."

"Swinging on a rope?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then you've a good nerve, my lad. It wants a cool head to do that."

Will winced and glanced at Josh, who wrinkled up his forehead in a
curious way.

"A tremendous nerve," continued Mr Temple. "You wouldn't care to go
down, Dick?"

"No, father; but I'd go if you told me, and the rope was safe."

"That's right," said Mr Temple, smiling; "but, as I said before, it
would require tremendous nerve--like that of our friend here."

Will looked from one to the other uneasily, and turned his cap