Shivering like one in an ague he half threw himself upon the rock, and crept back from the entrance to the gallery, hardly able to answer the demands of his companion at the mouth above. He forced himself, though, to answer, fighting all the time with the nervous dread that was growing upon him; and at last he knew, though he could hardly see it, that the great stone was being swung to and fro. "Now, lad, can't you get it?" cried Josh; and once more the hoarse reply "_No_," came up to him. "Try now!" cried Josh; and the stone was agitated more and more, striking the sides of the shaft, sometimes swinging into the gallery a foot as it seemed, but Will was as if in a nightmare--he could not stir. "Are you trying?" came down the shaft now in quite a sharp tone, to echo strangely from the sides. "No," said Will faintly; and just then the stone struck against the opposite wall, the rope hung loose, and at the end of a moment or two there was once more the hollow sullen splash in the water at the bottom. "Here! hullo there!" cried Josh; "what's up with you, lad?" "I--I don't know!" cried Will hoarsely. "I shall be better soon." "Better!" shouted Josh. "What! aren't you all right?" Will did not answer, but sat there chained, as it were, to his place. Josh let fall the rope and stood upright, giving vent to a loud expiration of the breath, and then wiping the perspiration from his face. He was thinking, and when Josh thought he closed his eyes tightly, as if he could think better in the dark. He was not quick of imagination, but when he had caught at an idea he was ready to act upon it. The idea came pretty quickly now, and opening his eyes he looked sharply round, picked up a great stone, and drove the iron bar a little more tightly into the crevice of the rock. Then he threw down the stone, stooped and tried the bar to find it perfectly fast, and once more stopped to think. An idea came again, and he pulled off his black silk neckerchief, a very old weather-beaten affair, but tolerably strong, and kneeling down he bound it firmly round the bar above the rope, passing it through the loop at last, and knotting it securely below, so that the rope should not be likely to slip off the smooth iron. This done, Josh stood upright once more, gazing down into the black shaft. "Phew!" he said, with a fresh expiration of the breath; "it's a gashly unked place, and the more you look the unkeder it gets, so here goes." He went down on his hands and knees, took hold of the iron bar with one hand, then with the other, and shuffled his legs over the shaft, an act of daring ten times greater than that of Will, for he had no friend to leave who had strength of arm to drag him up.