There was not a nice suitable piece of stone for Josh to use in polishing his nose, so he contented himself with a rub of the back of his hand before squeezing himself through the narrow passage between the masses of rock, and following his companion to the ledge where the old adventurers had spent their capital in sinking the shaft, and had given up at last, perhaps on the very eve of success. "It's all gashly nonsense," cried Josh as they reached the mouth of the shaft once more; "if there'd been copper worth finding, don't you think those did chaps would have found it?" "They might or they might not," said Will quietly; "we're going to see." He went to another crevice in the face of the cliff and drew out a good-sized iron bar shaped like a marlinspike but about double the size, and throwing it down with a clang upon the rock he startled a cormorant from the ledge above their heads, and the great swarthy bird flew out to sea. "Lay out that line, Josh," said Will, who, after a little selection of a spot, took up the bar and began to make a hole between two huge blocks of granite, working it to and fro so as to bury it firmly half its length. The crevice between the stones helped him in this; and he soon had it in and wedged tightly with a few sharp fragments that had been dug from the shaft. "Going to fasten one end o' the line to that?" sang Josh. "Yes." "What's the good? I could hold it right enough with a couple such as you on the end." "But I want the rope to be round that, Josh, and for you to lower me down or haul me up as I give signals." "Oh yes!" growled Josh; "only we might as well have had a block and fall." "If we had brought a block and fall up, Josh, it would have been like telling all Peter Churchtown what we were going to do; and you're the only man I want to know anything about it till I've found the copper lode." "Ho!" ejaculated Josh, rubbing his nose meditatively with the line. "How much is there here--five-and-thirty fathom?" "Thirty," said Will, smiling, as his companion passed the cord through his hands with the skilful ease of a seaman. "Will it bear me?" "Two of you," said Josh gruffly. "Well, I'm going to trust you to take care of me, Josh," said Will, taking a box of matches from his pocket, and lighting a piece of candle, which he stuck upon one of those little points known as a save-all, and then, bending down, he thrust it into a square niche about a foot below the surface of the mine-shaft--one of several carefully chiselled-out holes evidently intended for the woodwork of a platform. "Oh! I'll take care of you." "Lower me down quite slowly, and stop whenever I shout. You're sure you can haul me up?" "Ha, ha! haw, haw!" laughed Josh. "Can I haul you? What do you take me for--a babby?" As he spoke he caught the lad by the waistband with one hand, lifted him from the ground, and stiffening his muscles held him out at arm's-length for a few seconds before setting him down.