Catching hold of the rope again he gradually tightened it to feel whether it was all right and had not left its place over the iron bar; and then, swinging himself off, he descended quickly about fifty feet till Will could hear his feet splash into the water, and then he shouted: "Hooray, lad!" "Is there an adit, Josh?" "Dunno yet, but there's a big stick o' wood floating here as someone's pitched down, and our old rope's lying across it. I shall make it fast to the end here before I go any farther." A good deal of splashing ensued, and then as Will listened it seemed to him that his companion must have lowered himself partly into the adit, for the rope swung to and fro. Then his heart leaped, for Josh sang out cheerily: "All right, lad! here's the adit just at the bottom here, and the water dribbling out over it, I think. Come on down." "Come on down!" echoed Will. "To be sure, lad. Here I'm in the hole all right. Lay hold o' the rope. It's all slack now." He set it swinging as he spoke, and at the end of a few moments Will caught it, drew in a long breath, and let himself hang over the black gulf, which seemed far less awful now that there was a friendly voice below. "Steady it is, lad, steady. There, they knots make her easy, don't they?" Josh kept on saying as his young companion lowered himself rapidly down into the darkness, till he could see the water with the light from above reflected upon it; and the next moment he was seized and drawn aside, his feet resting on solid stone. "Stoop your head, lad, mind." He bent down, and Josh drew him into a gallery similar to that which they had just left, only there was a little stream of water trickling about their feet. "Come along, lad. I'll go first," said Josh. "Never mind the ropes: we'll go up and haul them to the top when we get out." Then creeping cautiously forward in the total darkness, and with Will following, Josh went slowly, feeling his way step by step for about fifty yards, when a faint ray of light sent joy into their breasts; and on pushing forward they found their way stopped by what seemed to be a heap of fallen rock and earth, at whose feet the little stream that ran from the mine trickled gently forth. The light came through several interstices, which seemed to be overgrown with ferns and rough seagrass and hanging brambles; but it needed no great effort to force some of them aside, sufficient for Josh to creep out, and the next minute they were standing in the broad sunshine, the reason of the mouth of the adit being closed evident before them, the earth and stones from the cliff above having gone on falling for perhaps a century, and plants of various kinds common to the cliff covering the debris, till all trace of the opening but that, where a spring seemed to be trickling forth was gone.