'I don't know,' I said, 'They might not have thought of looking for me up here. And I'd never have got across that gap. And I wouldn't have found the other way. I'd no light. It was only by luck I found my way back as far as this. He lost me in the farthest reaches of the old workings.' I turned her towards me. 'You saved my life, Kitty.'
'It's nothing,' she said, nervously.
'Well, it is to me,' I said with an attempt at a laugh that got stuck in my throat.
We were silent for a moment, neither of us knowing what to say. I turned her face towards me. She wouldn't look at me. But she didn't turn her head away. I bent and kissed her then. Her lips were warm and soft. I drew her close to me, but at the touch of my body she thrust away from me. She was panting and I caught the gleam of her eyes. They were wild and scared looking, like an animal's. But I needed her. I needed her close to me — to prove that I wasn't alone any more. I caught hold of her by the arms and drew her towards me. Her helmet fell clattering to the floor and her hair tumbled loose, hiding her face as she fought me off.
Suddenly she stopped struggling. The next instant her body was pressed close against me and her lips sought mine. They were open, inviting lips and she thrust against me with an abandon of passion that was quite wild. Then she drew quickly back and bent to pick up her helmet. I could hear her breath coming in quick pants. She turned back along the gallery. 'I'll show you the tunnel,' she said in a whisper as though she did not trust herself to speak to me.
I followed her. We came to the fall of soft rock, climbed the ledge and entered the hole that had led to the next gallery. She took the third cross-cut to the left and almost immediately turned left again. This gallery opened out to some height. She stopped and directed the beam of her lamp high up to a black hole in the rock. 'There you are,' she said. 'I don't think you would have found that.'
'I certainly wouldn't,' I said.
She led the way up a series of ledges in the wall and disappeared head first. I followed her. We crawled along on our stomachs for perhaps twenty yards. All I could see was her legs and buttocks humped against the light of the lamp which she held out ahead of her.
At last we emerged into another gallery and were able to stand upright. A few minutes later I could hear the rhythmic suck and thump of the pump. We turned left into a wider gallery that was full of noise — the noise of the pump, mingled with the gurgle and rush of water. At the end of the gallery we passed under the great bob as it see-sawed up and down. Ten minutes later we were in the gig clattering to the surface.
It's difficult to describe the utter relief with which I looked out upon the moonlit headland. There was the sea, all silvered, and the stars — and the old workings looked white and pleasant in the ghostly light. My whole body relaxed to the sight of it and I felt desperately tired. The fear I had felt down there in those twisting galleries, the sense of being lost, the darkness — it was all like some ghastly nightmare. I could not believe that it had really happened. It was as though I had just woken up. It just didn't seem real.