Sappers and Miners | Page 2

Major Jollivet
ought to form a little company of your own, and that he knows he could
make the mine pay wonderfully."
"Yes," said the Colonel, drily, "that's exactly what he would say, but I
don't think much of his judgment. I should be bad enough, but Jollivet,
with his wound breaking out when he is not down with touches of his
old jungle fever, would be ten times worse. All the same, though, I
have no doubt that the old mine is rich."
"But Arthur, my dear," protested Mrs Pendarve, "think of how much
money has been--"
"Thrown down mines, my dear?" said the Colonel, smiling. "Yes I do,
and I don't think our peaceful retired life is going to be disturbed by

anything a mining adventurer may say."
"But it would be interesting, father," said Gwyn.
"Very, my boy," said his father, smiling. "It would give you and Joe
Jollivet--"
"Old Joe Jolly-wet," said Gwyn to himself.
"A fine opportunity for trying to break your necks--"
"Oh, my dear!" cried Mrs Pendarve.
"Getting drowned in some unfathomable hole full of water."
"Arthur!" protested Mrs Pendarve.
"Losing yourself in some of the mazy recesses of the ancient
workings."
"Really, my dear!" began Mrs Pendarve; but the Colonel went on--
"Or getting crushed to death by some fall of the mine roofing that has
been tottering ready to fall perhaps for hundreds of years."
"Pray don't talk like that, my dear," said Mrs Pendarve, piteously.
"He doesn't mean it, mother," said Gwyn, laughing. "Father's only
saying it to frighten me. But really, father, do you think the mine is so
very old?"
"I have no doubt of it, my boy. It is certainly as old as the Roman
occupation, and I should not be surprised if it proved to be as early as
the time when the Phoenicians traded here for tin."
"But I thought it was only stream tin that they got. I read it
somewhere."
"No doubt, my boy, they searched the surface for tin; but suppose you

had been a sturdy fellow from Tyre or Sidon, instead of a tiresome, idle,
mischievous young nuisance of an English boy--"
"Not quite so bad as that, am I, mother?" said Gwyn, laughing.
"That you are not, my dear," said Mrs Pendarve, "though I must own
that you do worry me a great deal sometimes by being so daring with
your boating, climbing and swimming."
"Oh, but I do take care--I do, really," said Gwyn, reaching out to lay his
hand upon his mother's arm.
"Yes, just as much as any other thoughtless, reckless young dog
would," grumbled the Colonel. "I'm always expecting to have one of
the fishermen or miners come here with a head or an arm or a leg, and
say he picked it up somewhere, and does it belong to my son?"
"Really, Arthur, you are too bad," began Mrs Pendarve.
"He's only teasing you, ma, dear," cried Gwyn, laughing. "But I say,
father, what were you going to say about my being a Tyre and
Sidonian?"
"Eh? Oh! That if you found tin in some gully on the surface, wouldn't
you dig down to find it where it was richer?"
"Can't dig through granite," said Gwyn.
"Well, chip out the stone, and by degrees form a deep mine."
"Yes, I suppose I should, father."
"Of course it's impossible to prove how old the mine is, but it is in all
probability very ancient."
"But it's only a deep hole, is it, father?"
"I cannot say. I never heard of its being explored; but there it is."

"I've explored it sometimes by sending a big stone down, so as to hear
it rumble and echo."
"Yes, and I daresay hundreds of mischievous boys before you have
done the same."
"Why was it called the Ydoll mine, father?"
"I cannot say, Gwyn. Some old Celtic name, or a corruption. It has
always been called so, as far as I could trace when I bought the land;
and there it is, and there let it remain in peace."
"If you please, my dear," said Mrs Pendarve. "Will you have some
more coffee and bread and butter, Gwyn?"
The boy shook his head, for there are limits even to a seaside appetite.
"Wonderful!" said the Colonel.
"What is, my dear?" said Mrs Pendarve.
"Gwyn has had enough for once. Oh, and, by the way, I have had quite
enough of that dog. If ever I find him scratching and tearing my garden
about again, I'll pepper him with shot."
The boy smiled and looked at his mother.
"Oh, you may laugh, sir, at your foolish, indulgent father. I don't know
what I could have been about to let you keep him. What do you want
with a great collie?"
"He's such a