“I s’pose so, sir.”
“How long will it be before the mine is quite full of water?”
“Who knows, sir? Tends on how big the hole is. Maybe hours, for it’s a vasty place—miles of workings.”
“Then the water won’t come up to us till the passages are all full.”
“No, sir, and maybe not come to us at all. We may be too high.”
“Too high? Of course. If we’re above sea-level now, it won’t reach us.”
“No, sir. You see the mouth of the mine’s quite two hundred feet above sea-level, the workings are all below.”
“Then we may escape yet?”
“Escape, sir?” said Hardock, despairingly. “How?”
“Grip has gone up to grass.”