He turned cold, and the wet dew of horror stood upon his face as he grasped at the rough wall, sending the candle flying forwards to lie burning sidewise upon the stones, for the rebound of the rope as it struck the crown of the arch nearly dragged him back just as he had released his hold. It was a narrow escape, but forgotten directly in the excitement of his discovery; and freeing himself from the rope he picked up the candle carefully, to find that he had only about an inch left, and perhaps a mile of galleries to explore. "There must be abundance of metal here," he said aloud, as he held the candle above his head and gazed before him. "I shall be the discoverer and--" "Here, hoy! Will Marion! ahoy!" shouted Josh, who was kneeling down at the edge of the shaft, his face drawn with horror and strangely mottled, as he stared down into the pit. For, without warning, Will had freed himself from the rope, the tension upon which was gone; and as Josh drew a few feet up, and let the line run down again, his eyes seemed starting from his head, and he listened for the awful splash he expected to hear. He listened for quite a minute, and then rousing himself from his half cataleptic state, he uttered a stentorian hail. "Right, Josh, right!" shouted Will. "I've found it at last." "He's found it at last!" growled Josh, wiping his wet brow. "Why, he must have got to the bottom then. Are you all right?" "All right!" came back faintly; and Josh gave his hands a rub, his arms a stretch, and then leaving the rope, he seated himself on the stones, thrust his hands into his pockets, and out of one he drew forth a heavy clasp-knife, from the other a steel tobacco-box, which he opened, took out some roll tobacco, and proceeded to cut himself off a piece to chew. As he was thus occupied a strange, sharp, rustling noise fell upon his ear, and then stopped. He listened, and looked round, but saw nothing. "Can't be snakes up here!" he muttered, and then he became all alert once more, for there was a noise from below, as of a small stone having fallen. "What's he doing of now?" growled Josh. "Here, I wish I hadn't come. Eh! What!" Just at the same time, after carefully groping his way for a very short distance along the gallery, Will was warned by his expiring candle to return to the mouth, which he reached just in time to hear a curious whistling sound and then a long-drawn splash. "What's that?" he exclaimed, and then his blood ran cold as, in a hoarse voice that he hardly knew as his own, he shouted up the shaft: "Josh, Josh! The rope!" It was in a frantic hope that his idea was wrong, and that it was not the rope which he had heard _whish_ through the air, and then fall below. Just then the candle wick toppled over on one side in a little pool of molten composition, sputtered for an instant, sent up a blue flash or two, and went out. CHAPTER FIVE. WILL FINDS HIMSELF IN A PAINFUL POSITION.