The tinker turned and looked at the two young people as if he were estimating their strength.
"What are you wondering about?" asked Neale.
Creasy smiled as he glanced again at Betty.
"Well," he replied, "you're a pretty strong young fellow, mister, I take it, and the young lady looks as if she'd got a bit of good muscle about her. If you two could manage one end of a rope, I'd go down into that shaft at the other end—a bit of the way, at any rate. And then—I'd let down a lantern and see if there's aught to be seen."
Betty turned anxiously to Neale, and Neale looked the tinker over with appraising eyes.
"I could pull you up myself," he answered. "You're no great weight. And haven't those shafts got props and stays down the side?"
"Aye, but they'll be thoroughly rotten by this," said Creasy. "Well, we'll try it. Come to my cart—I've plenty of stuff there."
"You're sure there's no danger?" asked Betty. "Don't imperil yourself!"
"No danger, so long as you two'll stick to this end of the rope," said Creasy. "I shan't go too far down."
The tilted cart proved to contain all sorts of useful things: they presently returned to the shaft with two coils of stout rope, a crowbar, a lantern attached to a length of strong cord, and a great sledge-hammer, with which the tinker drove the crowbar firmly into the ground some ten or twelve feet from the edge of the gap. He made one end of the first rope fast to this; the other end he securely knotted about his waist; one end of the second rope he looped under his armpits, and handed the other to Neale; then, lighting his lantern, he prepared to descend, having first explained the management of the ropes to his assistants.