"What a pit for a fellow to fall into!" he said, with a shudder. "He might slip or jump in, or throw in his enemy or any one he wanted to get rid of, and not a soul would be the wiser. It's a regular gateway into the other world. "What stuff!" he said directly after, with a half-laugh. "Why, I'm turning morbid. It's a gateway to the golden land of success, and if I had a chance I'd make it pay." He rose directly after, and with each wave as it broke below making his steps inaudible even to himself, he went on, peering first into one building and then into another, all seeming to be built on a goodly, if not extravagant, scale, which he noted at once for future purposes. He crossed a patch of heathery turf next, and had nearly reached the doorway of a low shed-like place, probably the stables for the horses that had been used in connection with the mine, when he stopped short, for mingled with the low roar of the sea he seemed to hear voices. He stopped short and listened, but heard nothing more. "Ghosts of dead and gone disappointed shareholders, or the noises of the Kobolds of the mine," he said laughingly, and stepping forward he entered the doorway to find that to him, coming out of the full blaze of the sun, the place was very dark. He stretched out his hands to avoid running against any thing, and hardly knowing why, only that he seemed to be drawn on to investigate the place, he went forward, with the darkness growing lighter, when he stopped short again. This time there was no mistake, for he heard a sob, and before he could make up his mind what to do, he heard a woman's voice speaking in tones of appeal. CHAPTER NINE. MORE OF THE VICAR'S PEOPLE. "I really cannot come again!" exclaimed somebody, piteously, as Geoffrey stood there half-paralysed by surprise. "What nonsense!" said a man's voice. "You can if--" Geoffrey heard no more, for he beat a rapid retreat back into the sunshine, and hurried away, with a comical expression of vexation upon his countenance. "Lovers, by all that's wonderful!" he exclaimed. "Hang 'em, they're everywhere! Fancy finding them in this out-of-the-way, forsaken place of all others in the world. Why, hang me! if I don't believe that's why some women go up Mont Blanc--they go up to court." He strode away, whistling a merry air, little thinking what an influence all this would have upon his future life; and, thrusting his hands down into his pockets, he went on, leaping from rock to rock, making for the other side of the promontory, evidently intending to see as much of the country as he could before returning to dinner. "Why, hallo!" he suddenly exclaimed, stopping short. "Surely I've heard one of those voices before? No: impossible!" he said, "I don't know any ladies down here."