He hesitated about going, though, for fear of meeting his father; but feeling that it was cowardly, he went to where the men lay now, found them asleep, and came out again to go into the dining-room and make a hasty breakfast; after which he went out, descended the steep steps out in the side of the rock upon which the castle was perched, glanced up at it, and thought how strong it was; and then came upon Dummy, waiting with his candle-box and flint and steel, close by the building where the blasting-powder was kept. "Let's take these too, Master Mark," he said, pointing to the coils of rope which had been brought back from the cave; "we may want 'em." He set the example by putting one on like a baldric, Mark doing the same with the other. "Now for a light," he said, taking out his flint, steel, and tinder-box. "Well, don't get scattering sparks here," said Mark angrily. "Suppose any of the powder is lying about, you'll be blowing the place up." "Not I," said the boy, smiling; "I'm always careful about that." He soon obtained a glow in the tinder, lit a match, and set a candle burning. Then taking each one of the small mining-picks, the two lads descended into the solitary place, Dummy bearing the light and beginning to run along cheerily, as if familiarity with the long wandering passages and gloomy chambers had made them pleasant and home-like. Mark followed him briskly enough, for the solemn silence of the place was familiar enough to him, and he looked upon it merely as a great burrow, which had no terrors whether the men were at work or no. Dummy went steadily on, taking the shortest way to the chamber where he had shown his companion that it was no _cul de sac_, but the entrance to the grotto where nature had effected all the mining, and at last the great abyss where the sound of the falling water filled the air was reached. Here Dummy seated himself, with his legs swinging over the edge, and looked down. "That's where the river water comes in," he said, "through a big crack. Now let's see where it goes, because it must go somewhere." "Right into the middle of the earth, perhaps," said Mark, gazing down into the awful gulf, and listening to the rushing sound. "Nay," said Dummy; "water don't go down into the earth without coming out again somewhere. Dessay if we keep on we shall come out to daylight." "Eh?" cried Mark; "then we had better find it and stop it up, for as I said the other day, we don't want any one to find a back way into our mine." "That's what I thought, Master Mark," said Dummy quietly. "Wouldn't do for Purlrose and his men to find it, and come in some day, would it?" "No; that wouldn't do at all, Dummy." "No, sir. But how's your head?" "My head? Oh, I'd forgotten all about it." "I know'd you would," said the lad, grinning. "Don't feel so tired, neither?" "No."