CHAPTER XXVIII
THE WAY BACK
"She is coming, my life, my sweet,
Were it never so airy a tread,
My heart would hear it and beat,
Were it earth in an earthy bed.
My dust would hear it and beat
Had I lain for a century dead,
Would start and tremble under her feet
And blossom in purple and red!"—Tennyson.
The entrance to the lead mine cave had now been artificially widened to allow of free entrance. From the valley below a light wooden stair had been erected, up which the visitors passed. Some good workmen from a similar mine elsewhere were now busy on the premises, making the final tests before the experts would pronounce that there was really money in the scheme.
The party came presently upon a spot where a big underground stream gushed from a tunnel, crossed a space about twenty feet wide, and disappeared in another tunnel on the opposite side of the cavern. It emerged three miles away, far down Branterdale. Nobody knew whence it came.
Since first the caves were discovered, great progress had been made; and only the previous day the men had chipped open a crack in the rock wall, discovering within another big space with a very dangerous floor.
"We've all got to be careful in here," remarked Percy, as he marshalled his party. "Perhaps, Joey, you and Mrs. Gaunt would be happier outside, for it's a case of crawling in."
Virgie and Joey, however, were not going to be left behind. They neither of them had any objection to crawling. With the help of their escort, they both got through quite easily, and found themselves in a curious place. Under their feet were spikes of rock, with deep inequalities between. The men had laid down planks, and warned the visitors to be careful not to step off them. On the further side of this cavern was a very deep cleft which had not yet been explored, as the men had found the air down there too foul for them to venture to descend.
"Like an old well—they don't know how deep," said Percy, indicating a black hole, or chasm, on the further side of the irregular-shaped space in which they stood. "They got a big bundle of hay, set it alight, and pitched it in, burning fiercely. The air down there put it out in no time."