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Sappers and Miners; The Flood beneath the Sea, a novel by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 31. Gwyn Gives It Up |
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_ CHAPTER THIRTY ONE. GWYN GIVES IT UP There came a dull sound out of the darkness, as if Joe had struck against the wall of the mine; but he gave vent to no exclamation, and Gwyn cried to him to stop. "Where are you? Don't run off like that, Joe!--Joe! Where are you?" "Here," said the lad, hoarsely. "What is it? What has hurt you?" "Hurt me? I thought something had hurt you. What made you rush off?" "You shouted. What was it?" "Enough to make me shout. Where are you?" Guided by their voices, the lads approached till they were close together. "Now what was it?" panted Joe, who was still trembling from the nervous alarm and shock. "Give me your hand." Joe obeyed shrinkingly, and felt it passed along the skirt of his companion's jacket. "Feel it?" "Yes, I feel something inside the lining. What is it--a box?" "Yes, the matches. They got through the hole into the lining. Wait till I get them out." This was only achieved with the help of a knife. "Ah!" ejaculated the boy, as he at last dragged out the box, struck a match, and held it over his head to see where the candle-box had been laid; and then by quick manipulation he managed to get a wick well alight before the tiny deal splint was extinct. In his excitement and delight, Joe clapped his hands as the candle was forced into the empty socket, and the lanthorn door closed. "Oh, what a beautiful thing light is!" he cried. "And what a horrible thing darkness, at a time like this! There, one feels better, and quite rested. Let's go on, and we may come to them at any time now." Joe said nothing, for fear of damping his companion's spirits; but he knew that they were not rested--that they would soon be forced to stop; and as he gazed right away before them, and tried to pierce the gloom beyond the circle of light shed by the candle, the hopeless nature of their quest forced itself upon him more and more. But Gwyn's spirits seemed to be now unnaturally high, and as they went on following the narrowed tunnels, and passing along such branches as seemed to be the most likely from their size, he held up the lanthorn to point out that the ore seemed to have been cut out for ten or twenty feet above their heads in a slanting direction. In another place he paused to look into a narrow passage that seemed to have been only just commenced, for there was glittering ore at the end, and the marks of picks or hammers, looking as if they had been lately made. "There's nothing to mind, Joe," he said; "only I do want to get back to the shaft now." "Then why not turn?" "We did, ever so long ago. Don't you remember seeing that beginning of a passage as we came along?" "I remember stopping to look into two niches like this one but they were ever so far back, and we are still going on into the depths of the mine." "No, no; we took a turn off to the left soon after I lit the fresh candle, and we must be getting back towards the entrance." Joe said nothing, but he felt sure that he was right; and they went on again till at the end of another lane Gwyn stopped short. "I say, I felt sure we were going back. Do you really believe that we are going farther in?" "I felt sure that we were a little while ago, but I am not so sure now, for one gets confused." "Yes, confused," said Gwyn, sadly. "We seem to have been constantly following turnings leading in all directions, and they're all alike, and go on and on. Aren't you getting tired?" "Horribly; but we mustn't think of that. Let's notice what we see, so as to have something to tell them when we get home." "Well, that's soon done; the walls are nearly all alike, and the passages run in veins, one of which the people who used to work here followed until they had got out all the ore, and then they opened others." "But the ore seems to be richer in some places than in others." "Yes, and the walls seem wetter in some places than in others; and sometimes one crushes shells beneath one's feet, and there's quantities of sand." "But how far should you think we are now from the entrance?" "I don't know. Miles and miles." "Oh, that's exaggeration, for we've come along so slowly; and being tired makes you feel that it is a long way." They went on and on, at last, as if in a dream, following the winding and zigzagging passages, and speaking more and more seldom, till at last they found themselves in a place which they certainly had not seen before, for the mine suddenly opened out into a wide irregular hall, supported here and there by rugged pillars left by the miners; and now confusion grew doubly confused, for, as they went slowly around over the rugged, well-worn floor, and in and out among the pillars, they could dimly see that passages and shafts went from all sides. The roof sparkled as the light was held up, and they could note that in places the marks of the miners' picks and hammers still remained. Roughly speaking, the place was about a hundred feet across, and the floor in the centre was piled up into a hillock, as if the ore that had been brought from the passages around had been thrown in a heap--for that it was ore, and apparently rich in quality, they were now learned enough in metallurgy to know. Gwyn had a fancy that, this being a central position, if the party they sought were still in the mine they would be somewhere here; and he made Joe start by hailing loudly, but raised so strange a volley of echoes that he refrained from repeating his cry, preferring to wait and listen for the answer which did not come. "It's of no use," he said; "let's turn back; they must have got out by now." "Yes, I hope so; but what an awfully big place it is. I say, though, where was it we came in--by that passage, wasn't it?" Gwyn looked in the direction pointed out, but felt certain that it was not correct. At the same time, though, he fully realised that he was quite at fault, for at least a dozen of the low tunnels opened upon this rugged, pillared hall, so exactly alike, and they had wandered about so much since they entered, and began to thread their way in and out among the pillars, that he stared blankly at Joe in his weariness, and muttered despairingly,-- "I give it up." _ |
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