_ CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. REVERSAL OF POSITION
The afternoon had glided by, and evening was approaching fast, as the men gathered about the mouth of the mine sat and chatted over the place and its prospects. Work had been suspended for the greater part of the day, to allow the owners to make an inspection, and the men held quite a discussion meeting as to how matters would prove.
Some were of opinion that they would have perhaps a few weeks' work, and then be dismissed; but among those who took the opposite view was Harry Vores, the miner who had behaved so well that day.
"I don't think it will be so," he said. "This is a gashly old mine; and depend upon it when it was worked they didn't get half out of it. I begin to think that we shall soon find a lot; more men will be wanted; and I hope it will be so, for the pluck these two gentlemen have shown. We want a few more good mines to be going in the country, for things have been bad enough lately."
Others took his side, and as the time went on and there was no signal from the bottom of the shaft, that was discussed as well.
"Oh, they'll be all right," said Harry Vores. "The place is bigger than we thought; but we ought to have known, seeing what a sight of water was pumped out. They've only gone farther than they expected, and we shall be having them all up in a bunch directly."
He had hardly uttered these words when the gong arranged for signalling gave three tings, and the engineer responded by standing by to hoist.
Another signal was sent up, and the wheel began to revolve, the wire rope tightened, and the empty skep descended.
"Won't bring 'em all up at once, will you, mate?" said Harry Vores.
"No; two lots," said the engineer; and the men all eagerly gathered round the place to see the explorers of a mine which had not been entered probably for hundreds of years when they came up, and to learn what report they would have to give of the prospects of the place.
The rope ran over the wheel almost silently, for the work had been well done; and as they were waiting, Grip, who had passed the greater part of his time watching the place where he had seen his master disappear, grew more and more excited. He kept on bursting into loud fits of barking till the ascending skep appeared, when he bounded away among the men, barking, snarling and growling savagely, for the only occupant of the skep was Dinass.
"Hullo!" cried Vores, as the man stepped out, muddy and wet, with his cheeks reddened by the minerals which had discoloured his hands, and looking as if he had rubbed his face from time to time.
"Hullo, to you," he said sourly; and he sat down at once upon a rough bench, with the water slowly dripping from his legs and boots.
"Where are the young guv'nors? Lie down, dog!"
"Young guv'nors?" said Dinass, looking wonderingly round as he slowly took the lanthorn from where it swung from his waist by a strap.
"Yes, where are they?" cried Vores.
"How should I know?" growled Dinass. "Aren't they up here?"
"Here? No; we haven't seen them since they went down with you," cried Vores.
"More aren't I, hardly; I thought they'd come up again."
"Come up again!" cried the miner, as a low murmur arose from the men around. "You don't mean to say that you've come up and left them two poor boys in the lurch!"
"Lurch be hanged!" cried Dinass, fiercely, and now subsiding with a groin, as it he were in pain. "It's them left me in the lurch. They started a game on me; I saw 'em whispering together, but I didn't think it meant anything till we'd got some ways in, and my candle wanted a bit o' snuffing to make it burn; so I kneels down and opens the lanthorn, and it took a bit o' time, for I wetted my thumb and finger to snuff it, and the wick spluttered after, and the light went out. Course I had my box o' matches, but it took ever so long to light the damp wick. At last, though, I got it to burn, but it went out again; and I turns to them, where they was waiting for me when I see 'em last. 'Give's a fresh candle, sir,' I says, 'for this here one won't burn.' But there was no answer. So I spoke louder, never thinking they was playing me any larks, but there was no answer; and I shouted, and there was no answer; and last of all I regularly got the horrors on me, for I was all alone."
"Well?" said Vores, scornfully, "what then?"
"Oh, then I begun wandering about in the dark banks and lanes, shouting and hollering, and going half mad. It's a horrid place, and I must have gone about for miles before I found my way back to the sumph, and nearly fell into it. But haven't they come up again?"
"No," said Vores, who had stepped up and opened the lanthorn as the man went on talking. "But how was it, when your candle wouldn't light again, that it's all burnt down in the socket?"
"Oh, I did get it to light at last of all," said Dinass; "but I had to burn all my matches first, and hadn't one left for a pipe."
"But you said you went about all in the dark."
"Yes, that was afterwards, and it soon burned out."
"Soon burned out!" cried Vores, fiercely. "Look here, mates; this fellow's a stranger here, and I don't know why he should have been set over us, for he's a liar, that's what he is. He didn't want to go down, and as soon as he could he hung back, and let those two poor boys go on all by themselves."
"What!" cried Dinass, as a murmur arose; "it's you that's the liar;" and he rose scowling.
"Dessay I am," said Vores as fiercely; "but I'm a honest sort of liar, if I am, and not a coward and a sneak, am I, lads?"
"Nay, that you aren't, Harry Vores," cried another miner. "We'll all say that."
"Ay! Shame, shame!" cried the miners.
"I'll lay a halfpenny he's been waiting at the bottom of the shaft all the time, and then come up."
"Get out of the way," roared Vores, "this is men's work, not cowards'. Here, lads, come on, we must go and fetch those boys up at once."
He gave Dinass a heavy thrust with his hand as he spoke, and the man staggered back against Grip, who retaliated by seizing him by the leg of the trousers and hanging on till he was kicked away.
But this incident was hardly noticed, for the men were busily arming themselves with lanthorns and candles ready for the descent.
"Four of us'll be enough," said Vores, every man present having come forward to descend. "Perhaps Tom Dinass, Esquire, would like to go too, though. If so, we can make room for him."
There was a roar of laughter at this, and Dinass glared round at the men, as he stood holding one leg resting on the bench, as if it had been badly bitten by the dog.
"Ready?" cried Vores.
"Ay, ay," was answered.
"Come on, then, and let's get the boys up. Dessay they've found their fathers before now."
Vores stepped to the skep and laid his hand on the rail just as the last lanthorn was lit and snapped to, when there was the sharp ting on the gong again--the signal from below--and the men gave a hearty cheer.
"Give another, my lads," cried Vores; and instead of taking their places in the empty skep, the men stood round and saw it descend, while they watched the other portion of the endless wire rope beginning to ascend steadily with its burden.
"I wouldn't stand in your boots for a week's wage, my lad," said Vores, banteringly, as he looked to where Dinass stood, still resting his leg on the bench and holding it.
"You mind your own business," he growled.
"Ay, to be sure, mate; but when a brother workman's in trouble it is one's business to help him. You're in trouble now. Like a man to run and get a doctor to see to that hole the dog made in your trousers?"
There was a roar of laughter.
"Don't grin, mates," said Vores; "they're nearly a new pair, and there's a hole made in the leg. He thinks it's in his skin."
There was another roar of laughter which made Dinass look viciously round, his eyes lighting sharply on the dog, which had gone close up to the opening where the skep would rise, and kept on whining anxiously.
"Smells his master," said Vores; and the dog then uttered a sharp bark as the top of the skep appeared with the link and iron bands attached to the wire rope.
Then, to the surprise of all, Colonel Pendarve, the Major, and Sam Hardock stepped wearily out, their trousers wet, their mackintoshes and flannels discoloured, and their faces wet with perspiration.
"Here you are, then, gentlemen," said Vores; "we thought you were lost. The young gents are waiting to come up, I s'pose."
"Young gents?--waiting to come up?" cried the Colonel, who had just looked round with a disappointed air at not seeing his son waiting. "What do you mean?"
"We all got tired o' waiting, and scared at your being so long, sir; and the young gents went down with Tom Dinass to seek for you."
"What? I don't understand you," cried the Colonel, excitedly. "Dinass is here."
"Yes, sir, he come up," said Vores; "but--the young gents are down still."
"My son--my son--down that place!" cried the Colonel, while the Major uttered a groan.
"Yes, sir, and we were just going down to search for 'em when you come up."
"Horrible!" groaned the Major.
"The place is a dreadful maze," cried the Colonel; "we were lost, and have had terrible work to find our way up. You're quite exhausted, Jollivet. Stay here. Now, my lads; volunteers: who'll come down?"
"All on us, sir," said Vores, sturdily; "they've got to be found."
"Thank you," cried the Colonel, excitedly; and the look of exhaustion died out of his face. "But you, Dinass--they say you went down with them. Why are you here?"
"'Cause they give me the slip, sir. For a lark, I suppose."
"When they were in great anxiety about their fathers?" cried the Colonel, scornfully. "Do you dare to tell me such a lie as that? Explain yourself at once. Quickly, for I have no time to spare."
It was the stern officer speaking now, with his eyes flashing; and literally cowed by the Colonel's manner, and in dead silence, Dinass blundered through his narrative again, but with the addition of a little invention about the way in which his young companions had behaved.
"Bah!" roared the Colonel at last; "that will do. I see you turned poltroon and shrank back, to leave them to go on by themselves. Man, man! if you hadn't the honest British pluck in you to go, why didn't you stay up?"
"'Cause he funked it at fust, sir," said Vores; "but then, being second after Sam Hardock, we said it was his dooty, and made him go!"
"Bah! he is of no use now. Hah! You have candles ready, I see. How many will the skep take?"
"Six on us, sir," said Vores.
"Follow me, then, some of you," said the Colonel. "Hardock, you're fagged out, and had better stay."
"What! and leave them boys down there lost, sir?" cried Hardock, sharply. "Not me."
"Then head a second party; I'll go on with five."
"Right you are, sir," said Hardock. "Down with you, then; and we'll soon be after you. Will someone give me a tin o' water?"
Two men started up to supply his wants, as the Colonel and his party stepped into the skep to stand closely packed--too closely for Grip to find footing; and as the great bucket descended, the dog threw up his muzzle and uttered a dismal howl.
"Quickly as you can," shouted the Colonel, as the skep went down; but the engineer shook his head.
"Nay," he said to the remaining men present; "none o' that, my lads: slow and steady's my motter for this job. One reg'lar rate and no other."
In due time the other skep came to the surface, and Hardock, with a lump of bread in his hand and a fresh supply of candles and matches, stepped in, to be followed by five more, ready to dare anything in the search for the two lads; but once more poor Grip was left behind howling dismally, while Tom Dinass nursed his leg and glared at him with an evil eye. _