Without waiting for an order, Hardock lit and fixed another candle against the glittering wall of the mine passage, the Colonel wrote on a slip of paper, and this too was placed where it must be seen; but the Colonel hesitated as if about to alter the wording.
“No,” he said, “I dare not tell them to make for the sumph, they might lose their way. You feel sure that you can bring us back by here, Hardock?”
The man was silent for a few moments, and then he spoke in a husky voice.
“No, sir,” he said, “I can’t say I am. I think I can, but I thought so this morning. The place is all a puzzle of confusion, and it’s so big. Next time we come down I’ll have a pail of paint and a brush, and paint arrows pointing to the foot of the shaft at every turn. But I’ll try my best.”
“Ay, we’ll all try, sir,” said Harry Vores.
“Forward!” cried the Colonel, abruptly; and once more they went on till all at once, after leaving candle after candle burning, they reached a part where the main lode seemed to have suddenly broken up into half-a-dozen, each running in a different direction, and spreading widely, the two outer going off at very obtuse angles.
Here they paused, unconscious of the fact that they had passed the spot, only a couple of hundred yards back, where the boys had made their heroic resolve to go on.
“Let me see,” said the Colonel, excitedly; “it was the third passage from the left that we took this morning.”
Hardock raised his lanthorn and stared vacantly in his employer’s face.
“No, sir, no,” he cried breathlessly; “the third coming from the right.”