CHAPTER XL.
THE COINERS’ CAVERN—SUBTERRANEAN ABODES—THE OATH—THE RELEASE—THE PROMISE.
“I don’t much like this, Master Ned,” exclaimed Tim, shivering, “where can we be going to?”
“Hold your tongue, you prating fool,” replied Ned, angrily, “your idle words will do more harm than good; do you hear me say anything?”
“All right, Master, but I ain’t Wildfire Ned, you know; I ain’t made of cast-iron.”
Tim would have added something else, but a violent jerking of the machine under his feet convinced him that they had reached the bottom.
Before he had time to recover from the shock, he was seized by two or three powerful men, who bound his arms behind him, and led him away.
They also blindfolded him, in spite of his groans for mercy, and, after dragging him along for about a hundred yards, they stopped, and, loosening the bandage from his eyes, thrust him under a vaulted arch.
He was evidently far under ground, and the soil on which he stood was of a whitish colour, similar to that in a lead mine.
The water was trickling down through the fissures of the rocks, and formed all around a stagnant pool.