'You can have Friar.'
'Okay.'
We started back down the gallery then. Nothing I could do about it. He was right there. I'd get the job done as quickly as possible, and then go back to Italy. I'd be able to forget about Cripples' Ease in Italy.
Back at the main shaft, whilst we were waiting for the gig to come down, Manack said, 'We'll run the air compressor and drill out to the Mermaid immediately after lunch. I've got about half a dozen sharp drills. I'll have Slim re-sharpen the rest.'
'I'll need an extra long drill when we get near the sea bed,' I told him.
He nodded. 'I'll get one,' he said. 'I'll borrow one from Wheal Geevor tomorrow.'
We didn't go straight to the surface, but stopped off at the storeroom gallery. Slim and Friar had practically completed the job of walling up the stores. In half an hour it was done. When it had been covered with muck and dust it looked like solid rock. Slim knew his job as a stone mason. They knocked off for lunch then. Manack stopped me as we went along the gallery to the shaft. 'You feed here,' he said. He pushed back the slabs that formed the entrance to the hideout. 'You'll find iron rations in those boxes. I'll have milk and bread and other things brought down to you. It's not safe for you to feed up at the house now. Okay?'
I nodded. 'No harm in my coming up for a breath now and then?'
'I suppose you'll have to. But keep your eyes skinned.' He left me then and went down the short gallery to the gig. As it rattled upwards and their feet disappeared, I was overcome with a sense of loneliness. I'd never been so lonely in all my life. I heard the gig stop and the door opened. The sound of their voices died away. All sound ceased. It was deathly quiet. The drip of water in the shaft was no more than an echo in the stillness.
In the hideout I found spare lamps, carbide, electric torches, clothes, a clock and a radio. I prised open one of the boxes — corned beef, canned tomatoes, sardines, biscuits, Vitawheat, canned salads, apricots, jam, syrup, butter, knives, spoons, forks, even a can opener. I took some bully and biscuits and went up the narrow, sloping gallery that led to the surface.