"Is--is this a silver mine, father?" I faltered.

"Yes, my lad, silver-lead. Doesn't look very attractive, does it?"

I shook my head.

"But is it going to be worth a great deal of money?"

"Yes, my boy; only wait and you'll see. But I suppose you expected to see a hole in the earth leading down into quite an enchanted cave--eh?-- a sort of Aladdin's palace, with walls sparkling with native silver?"

"Well, not quite so much as that, father," I replied; "but I did expect to find something different to this."

"So do most people when they go to see a mine, Sep, and they are horribly disappointed to find that they have not used their common sense. They know that if they dig down into the earth to make a well, in twenty feet or so, perhaps less, they come to water; and it has never occurred to them that if they dig down to form a mine, it must naturally be a wet dark muddy hole just like this one upon which you look with so much disgust. But wait a bit, my boy. We shall soon have furnaces at work and be smelting our ore and converting some of it into silver.

There'll be more to see then. You don't care to go down?" he said, leaning his hand upon a windla.s.s over the trap-doors.

"Is there anything to see, father?" I said rather dolefully.

"To see! Well, there are the sides of a big well-like hole which you can see from here. Look!"

He threw open a trap-door, and I gazed into a well-like place with a couple of ropes hanging down it, and I noted that the walls were made of the stone that had been dug and broken out. The place looked dark and damp, and there was the trickling of dripping water. That was all.

"Well, Sep, what do you say?--will you go?"

"Is it all like this, father?" I said.

"Yes, precisely, my lad. Shall I have you let down?"

"No, thank you," I said; "I think I'll stop up."

He nodded and smiled, and after staying with him for a time while he examined some of the ore that the man was breaking up he set me free, but not till I had asked him how many men he had at work, and been told that at present there were only six.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

WE HAVE A LITTLE FISHING.

I went away to see if I could find Bigley, feeling very much put out, and full of hope that Bob Chowne, when he came, would not ask me to take him to see the mine.

For, truth to tell, I had made rather a fuss about that mine, talking about silver-lead in a very important way at school; and, as I recalled my words, I felt quite a shudder of horror as I thought of all the boys in my cla.s.s coming and standing at the mouth of the mine, and bursting into a roar of laughter at this being the silver cavern in the earth.

There was no likelihood of any of them coming save Bob Chowne; but there was no knowing what he would say when we got back if I offended him and he was in one of his teasing fits.

I walked down to the end of the Gap, past the cottage, and was just going to ask if Bigley had come back, when I saw old Jonas and Binnacle Bill, with another man, putting off in the lugger, which was lying by a buoy about a quarter of a mile from the sh.o.r.e.

After five months at school it seemed such a pretty sight to see the red sails hoisted and fill out, and the lugger begin to move slowly over the smooth water, that I sat down on a stone and watched the boat, wishing I were in her, till she gradually grew more distant, and there was a dull thud close beside me.

I looked round but saw nothing, and I was turning to watch the lugger again, when I heard a fresh pat on the slate rubbish by me, and soon after a piece of flat, thin shale struck the clatter stream behind me.

"Some one throwing," I said to myself, and looking up, there, about six hundred feet above me on the cliff path, were Bigley and Bob Chowne.

I shouted to them, and they ran to the nearest clatter stream and began to slide down standing. Sometimes they came swiftly for a few yards; sometimes they stopped and each had a check, a fall, and a roll over, but they were up again directly, and in less than half the time it would have taken them to walk they were down by my side.

"Here, where have you been?" cried Bob, who was in the highest of glee.

"Old Big says it's such a dark quiet day that the fish are sure to bite, and he's going to ask his father to let us have the boat, and row out."

"But Mr Uggleston isn't at home."

"No, that he isn't," said Bigley, who had just caught sight of the lugger. "That is tiresome."

"But they haven't taken the boat," cried Bob, "so it don't matter."

"Yes, it does," said Bigley gravely, "because I shouldn't like to take the boat without leave."

"Why, of course you wouldn't if your father was at home," said Bob quickly; "but I'm quite sure Mr Uggleston wouldn't like us two to be disappointed when we'd come on purpose to go."

"Oh, I don't think he'd mind," said Bigley.

"But I know he would," cried Bob, who spoke in the most consequential manner. "Your father is rough, but he is very good at bottom."

"Why, of course he is," cried Bigley.

"Then he wouldn't like us to be cheated out of our treat, so you get the mussels for the bait, and some worms, and let's go."

Bigley hesitated. He wanted to go, for the sea was as smooth as a mill-pond--a rare thing in winter; and perhaps we should have to wait for some time before another such day arrived.

He looked at me and I wanted to go too. That was plain enough, and the chance seemed so tempting that, even if I did not openly abet Bob, I said no word to persuade Bigley not.

"You'd got all the lines and bait ready, hadn't you?" said Bob cunningly.

"Yes, everything's ready, and I meant to ask father as soon as I got back. Here, hi! Mother Bonnet, how long will father be?"

"Oh, all depends on the wind," said the fresh-looking old lady coming out, smiling and smoothing her hair. "They've gone across to Swansea, my dear. It will be a long time 'fore they're back."

"There, you see, you can't ask, and it's no use to signal to them in the lugger, because they couldn't understand, so you've got to take the boat, and we shall be back long before they are."

"But it would be so horrible if we were to meet with any accident this time," said Bigley. "You know how unlucky we were over the prawns.

There, we'd better not go!"

"There's a Molly for you!" cried Bob. "Just because we got in a muddle twice over in catching prawns and crabs you think we're always going to be in a mess."

"No, I don't," said Bigley; "but it would be so queer if we got into a sc.r.a.pe the very first time we go out."

"Get out! Oh, I say, you do make me grin, old Big. There, go and get your lines, and a gaff, and the basket of bait. Let's be off while the sea is so smooth."

Bigley hesitated, and after a good deal of banter from Bob, and an appeal to me, he went off, sorry and yet pleased, to get the lines and bait.

"And now he'll be obliged to go, Sep. Don't let's give him time to think, or he's such an old woman he'll back out."