and he gazed
helplessly about him, as if for some one to direct and guide him. He no
longer refused to quit the place, only he would not trust himself
anywhere near Botfield; and as soon as a carriage could be procured, he
and Miss Anne were driven off to Longville. There was nothing more to
wait for now; and Stephen went quietly home to breakfast in the
cinder-hill cabin.

It was a good deal later than usual that morning when the engineman at
the works sent down the first skip-load of colliers into the pit. Four
of their number were absent, but that excited no surprise after the
events of the night; and even Bess Thompson supposed her father had gone
off to the public-house with the others. But what was the amazement of
the colliers when they found Tim at the bottom of the shaft, fiercely
hungry after his night's fasting, and as fiercely anxious to hear what
had been taking place overhead. He had the prudence, however, to listen
to their revelations without making any of his own, and would not even
explain how he came to be left behind in the pit. He went up in the
ascending skip, and, escaping from the curiosity of the people on the
bank, he darted as straight as an arrow to Stephen's cabin.

'I'm nigh clemmed,' were his first words, as he seized the brown loaf
and cut off a slice, which he devoured ravenously. 'It seems like a
year,' he continued; 'thee'lt never catch me being left behind anywhere
again. Eh, Stephen, lad! many a time I shouted for fear I'd never see
daylight again; it's awful down there in the night. Thee hears them as
thee can't see punning agen the coal; and then there comes a downfall
like a clap of thunder. I wasn't so much afeared of little Nan: she
never did any harm when she was alive; and I thought God was too good to
send her out of heaven just to terrify a poor lad like me.'

'But how did thee get left behind?' asked Martha.

Then Tim told them how the horse-doctor had gone down to secure one of
the ponies in a large, strong net, in order to bring it to the surface
of the earth for a time; and that he had gone down with him more for his
own amusement than to help him. He had wandered a little way into the
winding galleries of the pit, and came back just as the skip was going
up for the last time but one. Thompson and Davies were deep in
conversation with the men who remained, and, stealing behind them, he
overheard their plot, and their intention of persuading Stephen to join
them. Aft