"But it hurt so, papa." "I daresay it did, and I have no doubt that it hurts a little now; but for goodness' sake recollect what you are--an English boy, growing to be an English man, and afraid of a little pain! There, jump ashore and forget all about it." Arthur stood up and obeyed, and then the little party proceeded to climb the cliff, Will leading and selecting the easiest path, till once more they stood beside an open mine-shaft, situated in a nook between two masses of cliff which nearly joined, as it seemed from below, but were quite twenty feet apart when the opening was reached. "No," said Mr Temple after turning over a little of the _debris_ that had been once dug out of the mine; "there would be nothing here worthy of capital and labour." He busied himself examining the different pieces of stone with his lens, breaking first one fragment and then another, while Dick tried the depth of the shaft by throwing down a stone, then a larger one, the noise of its fall in the water below coming up with a dull echoing plash. The noise made Arthur shrink away and sit down on a piece of rock that was half covered with pink stonecrop, feeling that it would be dangerous to go too near, and conjuring up in his mind thoughts of how horrible it would be to fall into such a place as this. Mr Temple seemed to grow more interested in the place as he went on examining the stones which Will kept picking out from the heap beneath their feet. Then he looked down at the steep slope to the shore, and he could now see why the bank of broken stone was so small, for the waves must have been beating upon it perhaps for a couple of hundred years, sweeping the fragments away, to drive them on along the coast, rolling them over and over till they were ground together or against the rocks and made into the rounded pebbles that strewed the shore. "That will do," said Mr Temple at last; and as the others descended, he signed to Will to stop, and as soon as they were alone he held out half a crown to him. "You did that very well, my lad," he said. "You have often taken out hooks before?" "Dozens of times, sir," said Will quietly, and without offering to take the half-crown. "I don't want paying for doing such a thing as that, sir." "Just as you like, my lad," said Mr Temple, looking at him curiously. "Go on down." Will began descending the path, and as soon as his head had disappeared Mr Temple picked up a scrap or two more of the stone, examined them carefully, and then, selecting one special piece, he placed it in his pocket and followed Will. There was plenty to interest them as they embarked once more, to find that the tide had risen so much that the boat was rowed over rocks that had previously been out of water.