The tinker came hand over hand up the stationary rope, helped by the second one: his face, appearing over the edge of the gap, was grave and at first inscrutable. He shook himself when he stepped above ground, as if he wanted to shake off an impression: then he turned and spoke in a whisper. "It's as I thought it might be!" he said. "There's a dead man down there!" CHAPTER XVII ACCIDENT OR MURDER? Betty checked the cry of horror which instinctively started to her lips, and turned to Neale with a look which he was quick to interpret. He moved nearer to the tinker, who was unwinding the rope from his waist. "You couldn't tell--what man?" he asked, in low tones. Creasy shook his head with a look of dislike for what he had seen by the light of his lantern. "No!" he answered. "'Twasn't possible, mister. But--a man there is! And dead, naturally. And--a long way it is, too, down to the bottom of that place!" "What's to be done?" asked Neale. The tinker slowly coiled up his ropes, and laid them in order by the crowbar. "There's only one thing to be done," he answered, after a reflective pause. "We shall have to get him up. That'll be a job! Do you and the young lady go back to Scarnham, and tell Polke what we've found, and let him come out here with a man or two. I'll go into Ellersdeane yonder and get some help--and a windlass--can't do without that. There's a man that sinks wells in Ellersdeane--I'll get him and his men to come back with me. Then we can set to work." Creasy moved away as he finished speaking, untethered his pony, threw an old saddle across its back, and without further remark rode off in the direction of the village, while Neale and Betty turned back to Scarnham. For a while neither broke the silence which had followed the tinker's practical suggestions; when Betty at last spoke it was in a hushed voice. "Wallie!" she said, "do you think that can possibly be--Uncle John?" "No!" answered Neale sharply, "I don't! I don't believe it possible that he would be so foolish as to lean over a rotten bit of walling like that--he'd know the danger of it." "Then it must be--the other man--Hollis!" said Betty. "Maybe," agreed Neale. "If it is----" He paused, and Betty looked at his set face as if she were wondering what he was thinking of. "What?" she asked timidly. "You're uneasy about something." "It's a marvel to me--if it is Hollis--however he comes to be there," answered Neale at last. "According to all we know, he certainly went to meet somebody on Saturday night. I can't think how anybody who knew the district would have let a stranger do such a risky thing as to lean over one of those shafts. Besides, if anybody was with him, and there was an accident, why hasn't the accident been reported? Betty!--it's more like murder!" "You think he may have been thrown down there?" she asked fearfully.