Chapter Twenty Four.
Anxious Times.
An hour glided by and not a sound was heard from below. Then another hour, and the boys began to grow impatient.
“Why, the place must be very big,” said Gwyn, after straining over the rail and looking down for some time. “Shall I shout?”
“Couldn’t do no harm,” said Dinass; and Gwyn hailed several times, and then gave place to Joe, who was beginning to look uncomfortable.
But the second series of shouting produced nothing but a dull smothered echo, and the lad spoke quite hoarsely when he turned to Gwyn, who was looking angrily at Dinass and the engineer, both of whom sat coolly enough close to the skep shaft, waiting the signal to lift.
“Think there’s anything wrong?” said Joe in a whisper to the engineer.
“Oh, no, the place is big. See what a while it took to pump it out.”