“There, Josh!” cried Will triumphantly.
“But,” continued Mr Temple as they all stood there half-crouching in the narrow adit, “it is in quantities and in a bed that would be hard to work, and every hundredweight you got out and smelted would have cost more in wages than you could obtain when you sold your copper.”
“There, lad, what did I gashly say?” cried Josh eagerly. “Didn’t I say as the true mining was for silver in the sea—ketching fish with boats and nets.”
“No, you did not,” cried Will hotly; “and you meant nothing of the kind in what you did say.”
“Ah! there’s nought like the sea for making a living,” said Josh in an ill-used tone. “I wouldn’t work in one of these gashly places on no account; not for two pound a week, I wouldn’t.”
“Well, let’s get out in the open air at all events, now,” said Mr Temple. “I should like to see the mouth of the shaft.”
“I’ll show you, sir,” said Will eagerly; and Mr Temple watched him closely as they stood once more out in the bright sunshine, and, lithe and strong, he began to climb up the rocks, Dick following him almost as quickly, but without his cleverness in making his way from block to block.
Mr Temple followed, then Josh, lastly Arthur, who got on very badly, but indignantly refused Josh’s rough tarry hand when he good-naturedly offered to help him up the rough cliff.
“Here’s where Josh and I went down,” said Will, as they all stood at the shaft mouth.
“And did you go down there, my lad?”