ground, and stiffening his muscles held him out at arm's-length
for a few seconds before setting him down.

"That will do, Josh," said Will quietly; and taking the end of the line
he made a good-sized loop, round part of which he twisted a piece of
sailcloth to make it thicker; then stepping through the loop as though
it had been one prepared for an ordinary swing, he turned to Josh:

"Ready?"

"Ay, ay!" was the laconic answer as the fisherman passed the line over
the round iron bar, which seemed perfectly safe, took a good grip of the
rope, and then stood looking at his young companion.

"I tried to stop you when you wanted to dive down," he said, "and I
s'pose I ought to try and stop you now. It looks a gashly sort of a
hole. S'pose I was to let go?"

"But you would not, Josh," said Will confidently, as he lowered himself
slowly over the edge as calmly as if only about to descend a few feet,
with perfect safety in the shape of solid earth beneath him, though, as
he moved, he set free a little avalanche of fragments of granite, that
seemed to go down into the shaft with a hiss, which was succeeded by the
strange echoing splashes--weird whispers of splashes--as they reached,
the water below.

It would have daunted many a strong man; but so intent was the lad upon
his task that he paid no heed to the sounds, and directly after, taking
the candle from its niche, he began to scan the walls of the shaft.

"Lower away, Josh, steadily and slowly," he said, as his head
disappeared from the fisherman's sight. "I'll shout to you when I want
to stop."

The face of the fisherman seemed to undergo a change as his companion
passed out of his sight--from looking stolid and soured it suddenly
became animated and full of excitement; the perspiration stood out upon
it in a heavy dew, and muttering to himself, "I sha'n't let him go down
far," he slowly lowered away.

For the first few yards of his descent Will could easily scrutinise the
walls of the carefully-cut square hole by the light of clay, the flame
of his candle looking pale and feeble; but as he sank lower, swinging to
and fro with a pendulum-like motion, which now took him to one side of
the shaft, now to the other, so that it needed little effort on his part
to be able to carefully examine fully half of the cutting, the light
from the candle grew more clear and bright, and he thrust it here and
there wherever there was a glitter in the time-darkened stone.

Lo