“Yes, it’s all out, my boy,” said Mr Temple. “Now what do you say? Shall we bandage your leg and make you a bed at the bottom of the boat?”
Arthur looked up at him inquiringly, and then, seeing the amused glances of all around, he said sharply:
“I don’t like to be laughed at.”
“Then you must learn to be more of a man,” said his father in a low tone, so that no one else could hear. “Arthur, my boy, I felt quite ashamed of your want of courage.”
“But it hurt so, papa.”
“I daresay it did, and I have no doubt that it hurts a little now; but for goodness’ sake recollect what you are—an English boy, growing to be an English man, and afraid of a little pain! There, jump ashore and forget all about it.”
Arthur stood up and obeyed, and then the little party proceeded to climb the cliff, Will leading and selecting the easiest path, till once more they stood beside an open mine-shaft, situated in a nook between two masses of cliff which nearly joined, as it seemed from below, but were quite twenty feet apart when the opening was reached.
“No,” said Mr Temple after turning over a little of the débris that had been once dug out of the mine; “there would be nothing here worthy of capital and labour.”
He busied himself examining the different pieces of stone with his lens, breaking first one fragment and then another, while Dick tried the depth of the shaft by throwing down a stone, then a larger one, the noise of its fall in the water below coming up with a dull echoing plash. The noise made Arthur shrink away and sit down on a piece of rock that was half covered with pink stonecrop, feeling that it would be dangerous to go too near, and conjuring up in his mind thoughts of how horrible it would be to fall into such a place as this.
Mr Temple seemed to grow more interested in the place as he went on examining the stones which Will kept picking out from the heap beneath their feet.