Josh rose reluctantly, and the lad began to descend again, climbing quickly down the old mine débris till they reached the shore, and then walking a dozen yards or so he climbed in and out among the great masses of rock to where there was a deep crevice or chink just large enough for a full-grown man to force himself through to where the light came down from above.
“What’s the good o’ coming into a gashly place like this?” growled Josh, whose breast-bone and elbows had been a little rubbed.
“I wanted to show you that,” said Will, pointing to a little crack through which a thread of water made its way running over a few inches of rock, and then disappearing amongst the shingly stones.
“Well, I can see it, can’t I?”
“Yes; but don’t you see that the rock where that, water runs is all covered with a fine green powder?”
“Yes, it’s sea-weed,” said Josh contemptuously.
“No; it’s copper,” cried Will excitedly; “that’s a salt of copper dissolved in the water that comes out there, and some of it is deposited on the stones.”
“Yah! nonsense, lad! That arn’t copper. Think I don’t know copper when I see it? That arn’t copper.”
“I tell you it is,” said Will; “and it proves that there’s copper in the rock about that old mine if anybody could find it; and the man who discovers it will make his way in the world.”
“You do cap me, you do indeed, lad. I shall never make anything of you. Well, and do you mean to go down that gashly hole.”