The figure jumped back with a startled cry.
It was a woman's cry.
'Is that you, Jim?' asked Kitty's voice.
Relief, surprise, humiliation — they were all mixed up. 'Yes,' I said, coming out into the light of her lamp.
'Oh, thank God!' she said.
'What in the world are you doing down here?' I asked her.
'I came down to find you. Thank God you're all right.' The softness of her voice whispered back at me as though it had wandered through countless galleries.
'Didn't you think I would be?' I asked.
'I don't know,' she replied. 'I didn't know what to think. I saw Mr Manack come up. I was down by the sheds where you said you'd meet me. I waited. But you didn't come up. And then I got scared. I went down to the hideout. Mr Tanner hadn't seen you. I went out to the Mermaid then. I thought you might be down there. But you weren't, and when I got back you hadn't returned to the hideout. I was really scared then and decided to come up into the old workings. I thought you might have got lost — or something. But I see I needn't have bothered,' she added with a trace of sharpness.
I said, 'Is this the only way into the old workings?'