“Now hold fast!”
The next minute he gave himself a swing, and obtained foothold in the great cave whose bottom was worn hollow by the trickling of a tiny stream which drained into the lower part of the shaft, and after throwing off the rope and shouting to the men to haul up, he stood holding the light above his head, examining the roof and sides, while he waited for the descent of his companion; but here the ore seemed to have been chipped and picked out to the last fragment.
Sturgess joined him at the end of a few minutes, took the lanthorn, opened it so as to get as much light as possible, and then turned to Reed.
“Same way again, sir?”
“No; we’ll try that gallery off to the left. That third one I noticed last time.”
“Why, that’s right half a mile away, and goes to nowhere. That’s never been worked.”
Reed faced round to him sharply.
“Do you object to your job, my man?” he said; “because if so, speak at once, and send down one of the others.”
“Oh, I don’t object,” said the man surlily. “I’ll go where you won’t get them to venture. I was thinking about you.”
“Then don’t think about me, but about your duties.”