"Then I'll light another candle, and we'll get on: but don't you get slipping while we are going round here, because I don't know how deep it is, and I mightn't be able to get you out." "You take care of yourself, and lead on," said Mark shortly. "I dare say I can go where you do." Dummy nodded, and after handing the second candle to his master, he went along sidewise, and then lowered himself over the edge of the gulf, and dropped out of sight. "Only 'bout a fathom, Master Mark," he shouted, "and plenty of room." Mark did not hesitate, but lowered himself in turn, and dropped upon his feet, to find they were upon a rugged shelf, about four feet wide, sloping downward right by the side of the gulf; and passing along this, they soon reached the other side of the great chasm, to stand nearly opposite to the end of the passage where they had entered, but about twenty feet lower; and here they again looked down into the awesome depths. But nothing was to be seen. The water fell from somewhere beneath where they had entered; and as they judged, plunged deep down into a wide chasm, and from thence ran out and under the great crack, which the boy found out as the way they had to go. "Stream runs right under that, Master Mark. I went along some way, and every now an' then I could hear it, deep down. I say, did you bring anything to eat?" "Some bread that I couldn't manage at breakfast." "So did I," said the boy. "P'r'aps we may want it by-and-by." "We want better lights, Dummy," said Mark, after they had progressed some distance. The boy turned round with a merry look, and was about to suggest torches once more, but at a glance from Mark's eyes, he altered his mind and said: "Yes, those don't give much." But pitiful as the light was, it was sufficient for them to see walls covered with fossils, stalactites hanging from the roofs of chambers, others joined to the stalagmites on the floor, and forming columns, curtains, and veils of petrifaction, draping the walls as they went through passage, hall, and vast caverns whose roofs were invisible. And all the time, sometimes plainly, sometimes as the faintest gurgling whisper, they heard the sound of flowing water beneath their feet. "Well, this is grand!" said Mark; "but it's of no use." "Aren't no lead," said the boy quietly; "but it's fine to have such a place, and be able to say it's ours. May be some use." "But I say, how are you going to find your way back?" "Oh, I dunno," said the boy carelessly. "I've often been lost in the other parts, and I always found my way out." "Yes, but how?" "Oh, I dunno, quite, Master Mark," said the boy earnestly, "but it's somehow like this. I turn about a bit till I feel which is the right way, and then I go straight on, and it always is." "Mean that, Dummy?" "Oh yes, Master Mark; that's right enough. But come along."