Sir Edward, uttered an ejaculation, and turned to his son.
“You have been by here, then?” he cried.
“Yes, father; this is the way,” replied Mark. “Follow him.”
“No, keep with him yourself,” said Sir Edward. “You are the guides. But be silent now.”
“There is no need yet,” replied Mark; “we have a tremendously long way to go yet.”
“Let there be silence,” said Sir Edward sternly. “For aught we know, these men, if the grottoes do communicate, may be exploring on their own account, and sound runs curiously along these passages.”
Mark accepted the rebuke, and joined Dummy at once, the rest of the party followed, and at a word from Sir Edward, raised their pikes and advanced steadily, as if expecting at any moment to meet the foe.
But many hours seemed to have elapsed, during which they had climbed, descended, squeezed through narrow upright cracks, and crawled, as the two lads had crawled before, ere they reached the limpid pool where their guides had rested and gone to sleep.
Here, at a word from Mark, Sir Edward gave the word to halt for refreshment, while, in company with the two lads, he made a farther advance, and planted two men at intervals along the route they took, following the flow of the underground stream, whose musical gurgling grew very plain at times.
The second man was posted a good two hundred yards beyond the first, and made no objection to being left in the dark, showing Dan Rugg’s wisdom in selecting miners for the task in hand.