h as they reached the mouth of the
shaft once more; "if there'd been copper worth finding, don't you think
those did chaps would have found it?"

"They might or they might not," said Will quietly; "we're going to see."

He went to another crevice in the face of the cliff and drew out a
good-sized iron bar shaped like a marlinspike but about double the size,
and throwing it down with a clang upon the rock he startled a cormorant
from the ledge above their heads, and the great swarthy bird flew out to
sea.

"Lay out that line, Josh," said Will, who, after a little selection of a
spot, took up the bar and began to make a hole between two huge blocks
of granite, working it to and fro so as to bury it firmly half its
length.

The crevice between the stones helped him in this; and he soon had it in
and wedged tightly with a few sharp fragments that had been dug from the
shaft.

"Going to fasten one end o' the line to that?" sang Josh.

"Yes."

"What's the good? I could hold it right enough with a couple such as
you on the end."

"But I want the rope to be round that, Josh, and for you to lower me
down or haul me up as I give signals."

"Oh yes!" growled Josh; "only we might as well have had a block and
fall."

"If we had brought a block and fall up, Josh, it would have been like
telling all Peter Churchtown what we were going to do; and you're the
only man I want to know anything about it till I've found the copper
lode."

"Ho!" ejaculated Josh, rubbing his nose meditatively with the line.
"How much is there here--five-and-thirty fathom?"

"Thirty," said Will, smiling, as his companion passed the cord through
his hands with the skilful ease of a seaman. "Will it bear me?"

"Two of you," said Josh gruffly.

"Well, I'm going to trust you to take care of me, Josh," said Will,
taking a box of matches from his pocket, and lighting a piece of candle,
which he stuck upon one of those little points known as a save-all, and
then, bending down, he thrust it into a square niche about a foot below
the surface of the mine-shaft--one of several carefully chiselled-out
holes evidently intended for the woodwork of a platform.

"Oh! I'll take care of you."

"Lower me down quite slowly, and stop whenever I shout. You're sure you
can haul me up?"

"Ha, ha! haw, haw!" laughed Josh. "Can I haul you? What do you take me
for--a babby?"

As he spoke he caught the lad by the waistband with one hand, lifted him
from the