"Yes; but he is dangerously ill, or I should have called him in," said Wrigley; and Jessop's countenance cleared. "Well, sir, shall we go down the mine?" "Better let me go alone, sir," said the engineer. "I cannot tell you what you want to know in a minute. Perhaps it will take me a week." "Take your time, only get to work, and let's have the full truth, as soon as you can," said Wrigley, and the engineer nodded, had himself put into communication with the underground foreman, and passed the whole of the following week in the mine. At the end of that time he announced that he was ready with his report, and an adjournment was made to the little office, where Wrigley threw himself into a chair, and Jessop lit a cigar which kept going out, and had to be re-lit again and again, as the expert began to read his carefully written report of his work from day to day. "My dear sir," said Wrigley at last, impatiently, "we do not want to hear what time you went into the mine each day, or when you came out, nor yet about how you tested the surroundings of the great lode in different places. Let's have your final decision, and the position." "Very good, gentlemen. I'll give you both together. The lode ends dead against the barren rock." "Which we had already discovered," said Wrigley sarcastically. "Through a geological fault," continued the engineer; "and I have tried hard to make out whether the vein of silver lead, where it was snapped off in some convulsion, or gradual sinking, went down or up." "Down or up," said Jessop, who was listening eagerly, trying with nervous fingers to re-light his cigar from time to time. "If it went downward, by constant search and sinking--" "Money?" interrupted Wrigley. "I mean shafts, sir," said the engineer, smiling; "but you may include money; you might perhaps hit upon the lode again; but I am inclined to think, from the conformation of the strata, that the vein was snapped in two and thrust upward." "What!" cried Jessop, "then it must be close to the surface?" "I should say, sir, it was on the surface, and all cleared away hundreds upon hundreds of years ago." "But you would sink shafts to try if it had gone down?" said Wrigley, eyeing the engineer keenly. "No, sir; if it were my case I would be content with the money I had got out of the mine." "General burst up, Jessop, my lad," said Wrigley coolly. "The `White Virgin's' reputation is smirched, and she is not immaculate after all. Thank you, Mr Benson, I am quite satisfied with your judgment. There, you must have your cheque. There will not be many more for any one." Just about the same time, after a week's trembling in the balance, Clive Reed had taken a turn which filled all at the cottage with hope. His senses returned upon that day a week earlier; but after some hours' calm sleep, he woke in so enfeebled a state that it required all the efforts of nurse and doctor to keep him from sinking calmly away into the great sleep of all.