Mark obeyed, and counted his hundred aloud, opened his eyes again, and he was alone. "Here! Where are you?" he cried; and he looked about the place, up and down, but to all appearances, he was in a _cul de sac_, whose walls were dotted with the fossil stems of _pentacrinites_, over which stalagmitic petrifaction had gradually formed, looking as if dirty water had run over the walls in places, and hardened in the course of time to stone. "Here, Dummy! Haven't run back, have you?" shouted Mark, as it occurred to him that should the boy have played him a trick, he would have no little difficulty in getting back to the part where the men were at work. But there was no occasion for so loud a cry; the words had hardly passed his lips when a hand holding a candle suddenly appeared against the wall in front, and upon stepping to it, he found that the sheet of stalagmite there, instead of touching the wall, was a foot away, leaving room for any one to creep up a steep slope for thirty or forty feet, and continue the way through a long crevice, whose sides looked as if they might have separated only a few hours before. "This is the way," said Dummy, and he led on for a quarter of an hour longer, with a peculiar rushing noise growing louder, till it became a heavy dull roar, as the narrow crack through which they had passed suddenly opened out into a vast cavity which, below the ledge on which they stood, ended in gloom, and whose roof was lost in the same blackness; but the echoes of the falling water below told them that it must be far enough above their heads. "What a horrible hole!" cried Mark. "Yes; big," said Dummy. "Look: I climbed along there. It's easy; and then you can go right on, above where the water comes in. It's warm in here." "Yes, warm enough." "Shall we go any farther?" "No, not to-day. Let's stop and look. Shall I throw down my candle?" "No, Master Mark: it's no good. Goes out too soon. I'll light a match." He took an old-fashioned brimstone match from his breast, lit both its pointed ends, waited till the sulphur was fluttering its blue flame, and the splint was getting well alight and blackening, and then he reached out and let it fall, to go burning brightly down and down, as if into a huge well. Then it went out, and they seemed for the moment to be in darkness. "I don't think it's very, very deep," said Dummy quietly; "but it's all water over yonder. Seen enough, Master Mark!" "Yes, for one day. Let's go back now." Dummy topped the long wicks with his natural snuffers, to wit, his finger and thumb, and led the way back, after Mark had taken a final glance at the vast chasm. "So you found this place out, Dummy?" "Yes, Master Mark. I'm always looking for new holes when I've nothing to do and the men aren't at work." "It's of no use: there's no lead." "No: aren't any ore. All spar and stones like this." "Well, we must bring hammers and find some good pieces next time we come."