The composed voice and words made Percy feel quite hot, and for a moment they disconcerted Gerald, but he took up his cue almost at once.

"I have been afraid to look you in the face, Gaunt," he replied gratefully, "since making such an utter a.s.s of myself. I'm glad to take this chance of apologising; but I don't feel quite so repentant as I did, now that I see Mrs. Gaunt look so well and blooming."

Joey chimed in, vowing that the Derbyshire air was doing wonders for Virgie.

"If we could get some fine weather, Osbert ought to run you round the Peak," said Virgie to Gerald.

Gerald was puzzled. If this were acting it was jolly good. Surely this girl could not be afraid of her husband. He looked from one to the other, completely mystified.

Lunch was quite a hilarious meal. Tom and Bill were both present, and Virgie sat between them by special request. She confided various episodes from the career of Little Runt to their willing ears, and the way in which she understood them, and entered into conversation without the least effort, or any departure from her usual naturalness of manner, filled Gaunt with admiration. They behaved so well as to surprise both their parents, seeming quite hypnotised by the spell of the thrilling voice and the dainty nonsense talk with which she plied them.

After lunch, while the men stood about smoking a cigarette before starting, baby was brought down, and Joey and Virgie, kneeling on the drawing-room carpet, tried to inveigle her into making a tottering step alone. It was pathetically amusing to watch her little plump body, balanced upon its unsteady supports, her dimpled arms outspread, her baby lips parted in glee, showing the two rows of tiny pearls between.

To and fro, to and fro, she wavered, with protecting arms on either hand, not touching, but guarding. Then at last, with a shriek of ecstasy at her own boldness, she ran forward--one step--two--and fell, a triumphant, huddled sweetness, right upon Virgie's breast.

The girl knelt up, clasping the rosy thing in her hugging arms, kissing her cheek and praising her courage. "Oh, babs, when you are a big, grown up girl," said she, "some day I will remind you that you took your first step to me."

Gaunt stood near the window, rigid, fascinated, his whole being melted into a tenderness so poignant as to be half painful. How many sources of happiness, simple and everyday, were in the world! How barren and dry and selfish his own life had been! In his moment of insight, he saw that even Joey Ferris, tied to Percy, might have her moments of utter beatification, since he had made her the mother of this babe.

He took a new resolve. When they got home that evening, he would have it out with Virginia, he would give her her choice. He would persuade her to tell him frankly if all her heart was bound up in Gerald. If it was not....

He did not hear Ferris suggesting to him that they should be on the move. They had to call him thrice before he started from his dream.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE WAY BACK

"_She is coming, my life, my sweet, Were it never so airy a tread, My heart would hear it and beat, Were it earth in an earthy bed.

My dust would hear it and beat Had I lain for a century dead, Would start and tremble under her feet And blossom in purple and red!_"--Tennyson.

The entrance to the lead mine cave had now been artificially widened to allow of free entrance. From the valley below a light wooden stair had been erected, up which the visitors pa.s.sed. Some good workmen from a similar mine elsewhere were now busy on the premises, making the final tests before the experts would p.r.o.nounce that there was really money in the scheme.

The party came presently upon a spot where a big underground stream gushed from a tunnel, crossed a s.p.a.ce about twenty feet wide, and disappeared in another tunnel on the opposite side of the cavern. It emerged three miles away, far down Branterdale. n.o.body knew whence it came.

Since first the caves were discovered, great progress had been made; and only the previous day the men had chipped open a crack in the rock wall, discovering within another big s.p.a.ce with a very dangerous floor.

"We've all got to be careful in here," remarked Percy, as he marshalled his party. "Perhaps, Joey, you and Mrs. Gaunt would be happier outside, for it's a case of crawling in."

Virgie and Joey, however, were not going to be left behind. They neither of them had any objection to crawling. With the help of their escort, they both got through quite easily, and found themselves in a curious place. Under their feet were spikes of rock, with deep inequalities between. The men had laid down planks, and warned the visitors to be careful not to step off them. On the further side of this cavern was a very deep cleft which had not yet been explored, as the men had found the air down there too foul for them to venture to descend.

"Like an old well--they don't know how deep," said Percy, indicating a black hole, or chasm, on the further side of the irregular-shaped s.p.a.ce in which they stood. "They got a big bundle of hay, set it alight, and pitched it in, burning fiercely. The air down there put it out in no time."

"Not much chance for anybody who went over," remarked Gaunt, moving nearer.

"Not much. Don't stand too close," replied Percy. "You see, the men put in a stake, and rigged up a rope, meaning to go down and explore; but they will have to wait till something has been done before they can make use of it."

"What will they do?" asked Virgie, with interest.

"Pump air down, I think, and force the bad gas upwards," replied Percy, who was in his element, showing and explaining.

Gaunt stood on the plank near the hole, gazing at it as if it fascinated him. His hands were in his pockets. Virgie had made a little movement when he first approached it, putting out her hand as if to grasp his arm. She checked herself, for since his rebuff she had never touched him. But as he still stood there, seeming lost in his own thoughts, some kind of dread fell upon her. "Osbert," she said.

He turned sharply at the sound of her voice, and moved towards her.

"I believe my--my shoe-lace has come untied," said she.

It was the first thing that occurred to her to say, and she knew it was a lame excuse. He looked so intently at her that she almost thought he was aware that it was a pretext merely. Never before had she asked him to render her any such small personal service.

"Lean against the wall, and give me your foot," said he. "I'll do it up."

"Thanks. The--the air is rather close in here, isn't it?" she faltered, as she went to stand against the cave side. "Will you take me out? I feel a bit faint."

"We shall all go out in a minute or two," was his reply, as he knelt upon the plank at her feet.

He tried to steady himself as he bent over his task. He had seen something in her eyes which shook his purpose--a dawning anxiety, or fear, or.... Was that all? Was there not more? He could not be sure.

But, if her suspicions were awake, he might have to let this chance go.

The cave echoed to Joey's loud, jolly laugh. She and Gerald were standing upon a plank which see-sawed slightly, and it amused her to make it move up and down.

"Don't play the fool there, Joe," said Ferris sharply. "This place is really not safe, you know. You and Mrs. Gaunt had better creep out again. Come along, there's nothing to see."

He took her somewhat roughly by the arm. Her weight, suddenly removed from the plank, caused Gerald, who was at the further end, to stumble.

He had been balanced upon one foot, and the uneven nature of the rocky floor gave him no place upon which to put the other foot down. It went into a hollow, quite a foot in depth. He gave a lurch, in the effort to reach the next plank, which was not quite near, and came down with all his weight upon one edge of it. It turned over, throwing him completely off his balance. He staggered, slipped, and before Joey had time to shriek, was over the edge of the poisonous gulf and had disappeared.

It all took place in a single instant. At one moment Joey and he were balancing one each end of the board, at the next Ferris had pulled her away, Gerald was crashing and stamping in the vain effort to regain his lost poise; and even as Ferris, hampered by the displaced planks, sprang to help him he was gone, and the place echoed to Joey's screams.

Gaunt, whose back had been turned to the scene, sprang up and realised instantly what had happened. In that same instant, like a flash, he saw what he must do. His chance had come to him, one in a thousand. In that same heart-beat he knew that he did not want to go--that never in all his existence had he loved life as he loved it now.

There was, however, not a moment for delay. None of the workmen were with them in the small cave; they were alone. A few minutes' hesitation might be fatal to the victim. Gaunt turned away from Virginia without looking at her, moved rapidly along a plank, took the rope which the workmen had left ready for a descent, and began to fasten it to his own body.

"Gaunt--no!" Ferris, who had stood for a moment paralysed like a man distraught, without moving or speaking, leapt at him.

"He is dead; he must be. Don't fling away your life. It's not only the bad air, it's the depth; these places go down n.o.body knows how deep!"

"One can but try," was the reply, as Gaunt completed the swift knotting of the rope.

"Listen to me!" he said, laying his hand upon the shaking Percy's nerveless arm, and speaking quietly and naturally with the intention of calming the other's hysteria. "Summon the men--get another rope. If I find him, I will signal by three tugs for you to pull him up. Do you understand?"

"Let--let one of the men go down," shrieked Ferris wildly.

"There isn't time. Virginia!" He raised his voice a little, and the white, still girl started.

"Crawl out at once and summon the men--as many as you can. Then send Ransom with the car for Dr. Dymock. Can you hear me?"