"Then we'll find 'im atween here an' there."
The two men had been moving slowly down the chamber. When they came to the foot of it, they turned into the air-way, and from that they went through the entrance into the heading. At this place the dirt on the floor was soft and damp, and they saw in it the print of a boy's shoe.
"He's gone in," said Bachelor Billy, examining the foot-prints, "he's gone in toward the face. I ken the place richt well, it's mony's the time I ha' travelled it."
They hurried in along the heading, not stopping to look for other tracks, but expecting to find the boy's body ahead of them at every step they took.
When they reached the face, they turned and looked at each other in surprise.
"He's no' here," said Billy.
"It's strange, too," replied Conway. "He couldn't 'a' got off o' the headin'!"
He stooped and examined the floor of the passage carefully, holding his lamp very low.
"Billy," he said, "I believe he's come in an' gone out again. Here's tracks a-pointin' the other way."
"So he has, Mike, so he has; the puir lad!"