'I take it there's some sort of a truck going to run on these ledges,' I said.
'It's already running,' he replied. 'It's wood and galvanised iron with rubber tyred wheels and large sprung ball-bearings to hold it steady against the rock walls. The cables there run on to a winch. Come on. We'll go and have a look at the end of it.'
'Seems a hell of a lot of labour,' I said. 'And you don't know really whether it'll work or not.'
'It'll work all right,' he said.
'It may now,' I said. 'But it may not work when you break through the bed of the sea and the water comes roaring in.'
'That's your job,' he said. The gallery had levelled out and the walls were wetter. I guessed we must be under the sea now.
'You say you've had plenty of experience of blasting. Have you had any experience of blasting into the house of water?'
'Sure,' I said. 'But then I knew the amount of country I'd got to go through before I got to the water. And I'd some idea of the weight of the water, too. Blasting through the bed of the sea is a different matter.'
'I've got all the data you need,' he said. 'I've been over it with azdic. I know the exact depth of the sea above the blasting point and I know the exact depth below sea level of the end of the Mermaid. I'll explain in more detail when we get there. I've got scaffolding up and everything. I wanted my father to do it for me. He's an experienced miner. But he wouldn't, blast him. I'd almost persuaded him to about a month ago and, in fact, he did some preliminary blasting. That was how he struck the seam he was looking for. That finished it. He wouldn't dream of having the sea let into the Mermaid after that.'
'Well, it's a pretty rich lode,' I pointed out.