Sam lifted one and cast it; but he was apparently too much shaken to take good aim. The boot fell into the shaft. "See now! ’Tis plain!" he said forlornly. "My poor wambling arm! Even as yer boot fell, so——" "Hush!" cried Dick. There had been no sound of the boot striking on the bottom. After what seemed a long time—it was in fact no more than two or three seconds—from the depths came rumbling reverberations of a splash. The water must have been nearly two hundred feet below. Both the boys were silent as they thought of the terrible fate Dick would have met with if he had fallen. "Well, good-bye, Sam!" said Dick at last, rousing himself. "One boot is no good without the other, so you can keep it. I’ll come back for you as soon as I can." "I wish ’ee well, Maister." He stood near the brink, with a piteous expression upon his rugged face, watching Dick’s gradually receding form. When a bend in the passage hid his master and comrade from view, he leant against the wall, and buried his face in his hands. CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH A Packet for Rusco During many hours Dick had been solely preoccupied with the problem how to recross the chasm. Penwarden, the smugglers, even the destroyer of the bridge, were all forgotten. But now all the circumstances of his recent misadventure returned with full force to his mind. A run was to be attempted. The smugglers’ hiding-place, which the revenue officers had sought in vain, must be somewhere near at hand, and the person, whosoever it was, that had flung the bridge down the shaft—for its fall could not have been accidental—had done so with the intention of forestalling interference. Dick considered what he had better do. Should he make his way back to the well, in the hope of being able to climb it secretly and give warning to the officers? He reflected that it might be too late for that. Besides, his presence in these underground passages had been observed by some one early in the morning; that same person might still be lying in wait for him. As this idea occurred to him, he remembered that he had left his gun behind in the cave, and for an instant thought of returning for it; but a slight sound from the other direction made him hastily extinguish the candle, and advance cautiously along the passage; perhaps the bridge-destroyer was coming towards him.