came to the load that had been worked the day before. Gunpowder had been used frequently during the week, and the bitter, pungent smell still clung about the rock-face of the mine, and the rubble had not all been cleared away. The men who were working the seam and had filled the buckets were Doonhaven men, not Captain Nicholson's own Cornish-men, but, like the surface men, they professed themselves ignorant as to how the iron residue came to fill the trolley, and in proof of their innocence reminded the Captain how he himself had been present the evening before when their shift came off duty, and had supervised the now customary nightly search, and not a trace of any mineral had been found on their persons.
'Do you think we swallow the stuff?' asked one of them, in high indignation. 'And will you be cutting open our stomachs to look for it?'
'It's my belief,' said his companion solemnly, 'that the spirits in the old hill make away with it, and put a charm on us in the doing of it, so that we cannot see them crouching beside us with their little barrows.'
'The only spirits that come into this mine you bring yourself in a bottle from Murphy's shop in Doonhaven,' said Captain Nicholson. 'Go on, get to work, and remember to hold yourselves in readiness for further questions from Mr. Brodrick when he arrives. It's my belief he will have every one of you arrested by the police and taken into Mundy.'
The new setback meant a great loss of face for Captain Nicholson, who had been congratulating himself that the trouble was over, and it was with extreme reluctance that he sent a lad over to Clonmere with a note to the Director, explaining what had occurred.
Copper John came within the hour, in company with his two sons, and listened to Nicholson's story in silence, his face hard and expressionless.
'Well, Henry,' he said at the conclusion, 'your brains are young, and you arrive here fresh to the business. What do you make of it?'
Henry looked thoughtful. He did not reply immediately. Although he was now twenty-five, and his brother a year younger, they were so used to deferring to their father's views and opinions, and keeping their own thoughts in abeyance, that to be appealed to in this way was something of a novelty.
Henry's travels in France and Germany had given him plenty of confidence, however, which his brother still lacked, and he was the lucky possessor too of great natural charm and grace of manner, in addition to a good brain, and, glancing across at Captain Nicholson with a smile, he asked for permission to descend the mine.
'By all means, sir,' said the Captain, 'and I will come with you myself.'
'No, don't trouble to do that,' said Henry. 'I think it might be better if I went alone, and possibly my brother could come with me. We may strike upon something that will give a clue to the business and solve your troubles.'
'I wish you success,' said his father, with a short laugh, 'but take care not to lose yourselves. John is quite capable of tumbling down the shaft and breaking his neck.'
The brothers left the small counting-house and walked past the dressing-sheds and the trolleys to the ladder, close to the shaft head.
'Well,' said John, 'what's in your mind?'
'Just something,' smiled his brother, 'but I shan't tell you yet. I Want your help, all the same. When we get down to the level where Nicholson told us the men were working yesterday, you must somehow get the fellow there in conversation, while I look about the place without interference. When you see me blow my nose, that will be your signal.'
'What am I to talk to the man about?' objected John.
'Anything you please. Tell him about your new greyhound. But keep his attention distracted.'
'What a tom-fool business it is!' said John. 'If I were my father I should let matters alone, and leave the fellows to take the copper. There must be enough to go round. Confound it, Henry, look at the mess they are making of Hungry Hill.'
He pointed at the tall, lean chimney, the long row of sheds, the clustered huts where the miners lived.
'And all,' laughed his brother, 'so that I can amuse myself in Paris and Brussels, and you can race your greyhounds.'
They put on mining hats and overalls, and were soon descending the long, steep ladder into the mine.
The atmosphere was a curious mixture of chill and oppression, and the candles stuck in brackets at intervals gave a gloomy, fitful light.
They reached the first level, where they could see the figures of two of the miners beside the shaft, engaged in steadying the buckets en the chains before they were raised to the surface by a windlass. Henry enquired where the blasting operations were in progress, and the two brothers were directed to a lower level.
'It's the narrowest level in the whole of the mine,' said one of the men. 'You will have to go single file, and crawl part of the way.'
Henry was obviously enjoying himself, and looked about him the whole time with keen interest, now and again tapping the rock-face, and whistling under his breath, a habit of his when thinking very hard, while John, who with his superior height found the low ceiling highly uncomfortable, followed his elder brother in silence, aware that with every step he took farther into the bowels of the mine he became more and more depressed. He longed to be up and out of it, away in the fresh air on the top of Hungry Hill, and to him there was something degrading, almost evil, in burrowing like this into the depths, breaking the age-old rock with gunpowder to extract the hidden mineral.
A low rumble and muffled explosion not very far distant warned them that they were nearly within reach of the work, and through the gloom and smoke they edged their way along the gallery close to the miners.
The men's faces looked grey and haggard in the dim light, and once again John was filled with a sense of oppression. If any harm came to these fellows through their grim work, it would be the fault of his father and himself.
Henry was amongst them immediately, chatting easily, asking questions, while John stood aloof, looking at the dripping walls and the rubble caused by the last explosion, which the men were now clearing with their picks and shovels. He heard his brother enquire how far the gallery ran, and where they had been blasting during the previous weeks, and one of the men, a Cornishman, whose work it was actually to ignite the train, pointed to the far end of the gallery, where a mass of rubble appeared to be uncleared and the height of the ceiling little more than four foot.
'We wasted our time there,' he said. 'The rock goes chalky, and there is no mineral deposit. You could blast away for weeks, and you would only find chalk. It's my belief the hill slopes suddenly here, above ground, forming a wide hollow, and we are not so very far from the surface.'
'Yes,' said Henry, 'I have often come upon those hollows while walking about the hill-almost like natural quarries. I should say there were earthworks here in days gone by.'
'Yes, sir,' said the Cornishman, uncertain what was meant by an earthwork, and then John suddenly perceived that his brother was very vigorously blowing his nose. He at once moved into the group of men.
'Do you ever have accidents during these explosions?' he asked.
The man turned to him civilly. 'No, sir,' he said; 'it's only a matter of being careful. Of course it's specialised work.'
The Cornishman showed John where holes had been bored in the side of the rock, for the charge to be inserted. John asked many questions, showing a keen interest most foreign to his nature, while the other three men, glad of a respite, leant on their tools and entered into the discussion, which worked round to when and where gunpowder had. first been employed for mining purposes.
No one noticed or cared that Henry did not join in the conversation, and had disappeared in the gloom to the end of the gallery. When he finally returned-John having meanwhile re-told the story of the Gunpowder Plot with great eloquence, professing himself firmly on the side of Guy Fawkes, and thus earning for himself a certain amount of respect from two of the men, who came from Doonhaven-ten minutes or a quarter-of-an-hour had passed by, and John, glancing at his brother, perceived that his clothes were covered in chalk and that there was a look of intense excitement in his eyes.
'Well, John,' he said, 'if you've had enough of it, we'll leave these fellows to their work and get up to the surface,' andwitha brief word of thanks to the men he began to edge his way back along the level to the ladder.
They climbed to the surface in silence, John asking no questions, but as soon as they were above ground, and
