“I hardly know, only that I kept on striking out, thinking how horribly dark it must be and wondering whether there were any live things to come at me; and then I hit my knee against the stones at the bottom.”
“But you said it was deep.”
“So it was in the shaft, but I must have swum into a passage where it was quite shallow; and almost directly after I’d hit my knee my hands touched the stones and I crawled out into the dark, and went on and on, feeling afraid to go back because of the water.”
“But why didn’t you shout to us?” cried Joe, excitedly.
“I don’t know. I suppose I couldn’t. It was like being in a dream, and I felt obliged to go crawling on. Then all of a sudden I began to feel better, for I could see a faint light, and this made me try to stand up, but I couldn’t without hitting my head. But I could walk stooping like, and I went on toward the pale light, which was almost like a star. Directly after, I was there looking out of a square place like a window, trying to find a way up or a way down, but the rocks stood out overhead, and they were quite straight down below me, so I could do nothing but shout, and I began to think no one would come. Every now and then I could hear voices, but when I called my voice seemed to float out to sea. There, you know the rest. But that’s an adit, isn’t it, Sam Hardock?”
“Ay, my lad, and lucky for you it was there. You see, the water must run off by it out to sea when the top rises so high. But I never knew there was an opening from seaward into the mine. Being right up there, nobody could see it. Why it must be ’underd and fifty feet above the shore.”
“It looked more,” said Gwyn, with a shudder.
“There, I say, hadn’t you better get home and change your things, my lad? You’re pretty wet still. If you take my advice, you’ll go off as fast as you can.”
“Yes,” said Joe, “you’d better. But we haven’t done much to examine the mine.”
“Eh?” cried Hardock, “I think we have. Found out that there’s an adit for getting rid of the water and the spoil. Not bad for one day’s work.”