“‘How many feet down is it?’ I went on, peering below me, much fascinated.
“‘Fourteen fathoms. We don’t reckon by feet here. Done with that way of doing things in the schoolroom.’
“‘So that you would be killed outright, if you fell?’
“‘Try and see,’ George jeered.
“‘It’s my brother I was thinking of, not myself,’ I observed. ‘Where was he exactly, when the explosion took place?’
“‘How can I say, boy,’ George replied, irritably. ‘I don’t know where half the folk are.’
“‘They told me he was in an adit leading into the main shaft.’
“‘He may have been, for all I know—and for all I care,’ George answered gruffly.
“‘Do you suppose it was here he was working?’ I said, after a moment or two’s pause, during which I again went to the shaft and peered down.
“‘This is not the only adit on the main,’ George growled. ‘He wasn’t here—leastways not when I was.’