Revel started back, appalled. The man lying behind the rise was red and brown from short-cropped hair to waist, his back a mass of blood--sparkling crimson in the light of dawn, where it had freshly sprung leaks, and dirty mahogany color, where the scabs had dried and cracked and flaked. It was a back that should have belonged to a dead man; but Dawvys rolled over on it without a wince and grinned at his leader. "Hallo, Revel, bless your soul," said the former servant. "I'm glad to see you alive." "The same to you, Dawvys," said the Mink. "Did you have any trouble in that pit?" "I went to sleep when the hounds had passed, and never awoke till your men found me tonight." He stretched and grunted with pain; then, "I think I shall live." Revel looked cautiously over the rise. Some fifty yards down the valley the squires were grouped in a knot, their costumes gaudy in the early light. A few of them were looking toward him, but most watched the far end of the valley. They were looking, thought Revel, for reinforcements. Time might be short. He scanned the terrain. Where the squires stood, the valley was narrow, scarcely more than sixty feet across. Above their knot, to Revel's left, was the open mouth of a mine; the opposite hillside was bare and rocky, without break. A familiar voice behind him said, "What's to do, Mink?" "Greetings, Jerran. Why did you leave the machine?" "Nothing doing there. The gods are sitting on the horizon. Have you a thought?" "See that mine?" He pointed with his gory pick. "Isn't that the western entrance of the great mine of Rosk?" Jerran took his bearings. "It is." "Then the other entrance is back yonder, and through it we can traverse the mine and come out that hole-above the squires." Jerran nodded. "The best plan under the circumstances. Let's go." Rack said, "I come too." "Yes, all of us save four men," agreed Revel. "They must stay here to create noise and pretend to be forty people. Give us ten minutes, and the squires will find that mine shaft erupting death all over them!" CHAPTER XV The Mink has fought till nearly blind, Till almost deaf and dumb; Till all his strength is waned away, And all his senses numb. At last his foemen give before His pick as swift as fire; Before him now there stands alone The cruel, and savage squire! --Ruck's Ballad of the Mink With thirty men at his back, Revel went down the valley at a crouch; slipped up the rock shelf to the eastern entrance of the great mine of Rosk, protected from the gentry's view by a chance outcropping of shale, and went into the darkness. The tunnel he sought was on the second level. He dropped down the ladder, unhooked a blue lantern to guide his way, and followed the narrow tunnel west.