It was a position perilous enough to alarm the stoutest-hearted man, and awkward enough without the danger to puzzle any schemer, and for a few minutes the lad stood with one hand resting on the rock, and the cold perspiration gathering on his forehead, trying to think what he had better do. As he stood, there was a low whispering noise that came up the shaft--a noise that puzzled him as to what it could be, for he did not realise that the water down below had, when set in motion by the fall of the rope, kept on lapping at the side, and that this lapping sound echoed and repeated itself strangely from the shaft-walls. "Say, my lad--below there!" came now from above. "Ahoy!" answered Will, the call acting like an electric shock and bringing him to himself. "Where are you?" shouted Josh. "Here, in a gallery of the old mine," replied Will. "That's right!" came back. "I thought perhaps you had fallen." "No, I'm all right," cried Will through the great granite speaking-tube; and then he listened for some words of comfort from his companion. "Below!" shouted Josh again. "Hullo!" "Say, my lad, the rope's gone down." "Yes, I know." "Well, what's to be done?" cried Josh. Will turned cold. He had expected to get a few words of comfort from his companion, and to hear that he was about to propose some plan for his rescue, and all he seemed ready to do was to ask for advice. "How came you to let the rope go?" cried Will, forcing himself into an angry fit so as to keep from feeling alarmed at his position. "Dunno! It kind o' went all of itself like," Josh shouted back. "What's to be done? Can't jump down into the water and swim out by the adit, can you?" "No," cried Will angrily. "Here, go back and get a rope." "Where?" shouted back Josh. "I say, I knowed you'd be getting into some mess or another going down there." Will was equable enough in temper, but a remark like this from the man he had trusted with his life made him grind his teeth in a fit of anger, and wish he were beside Josh for a moment, to give him a bit of his mind. "Go up to any of the fishermen, never mind where, and borrow a line." "All right!" "And, Josh." "Hullo!" "Don't make any fuss; don't alarm anybody. I don't want them to know at home." "But suppose we never get you out again?" shouted Josh, in a tone of voice that startled a shag which was about to settle on a shelf of rock hard by, and sent it hurrying away to sea. Will stamped his foot at this, and mentally vowed that he would never trust Josh again. "Go and borrow a line," he cried, "and look sharp. I don't want any one to know." "All right!" cried Josh; and directly after Will knew that he was alone. The place was not absolutely dark, for he could plainly make out the edge of the gallery, seen as it were against a faint twilight that came from above; and this was sufficient to guide him as to how far he dare go towards the shaft if he wished to move.