'Wot's up, mate?' Friar asked.
'The rock's weaker here,' I told him.
'Dangerous?' he asked.
'Maybe,' I said. 'Let's go up and have a look.'
We set ladders up into the freshly blown section of the shaft and clambered up. The rock was faulty. You didn't need to be an expert to see that. It was streaked with veins of basalt and cracked with the force of the explosion. Through a thousand minute crevices the water was seeping. It splashed on our helmets, on our upturned faces and sizzled as drops struck the naked flames of our lamps. It streamed down the walls so that they glistened like burnished steel. 'Don't look too safe to me. Friar said. "Ow much rock is there between us an' the sea?'
I glanced at the rock walls, measuring with my eye the height added to the shaft by last night's blow. 'About fifteen feet according to Captain Manack's reckoning,' I told him.
'Fifteen feet don't seem much,' he muttered.
I examined the rock again. The roof of the shaft was no longer neatly cut out by the force of the charge. It was broken and jagged. 'Two more blasts should do it,' I said.
Two more!' His voice sounded doubtful. 'Blimey! I ain't sure I cares very much aba't doin' one more. Look at that crack there, mate. Wide enough fer me ter put me fist into. Looks ter me as though the 'ole bleedin' lot'll fall away soon as we get the drill goin'.'
'Looks worse than it is,' I told him. 'We'll drill the charge holes and then probe ahead with the long drill.'
He caught hold of my arm and peered up into my face. 'You 'ave done this sort o' thing before, ain't yer? I mean, yer do know wot yer up ter?'
'Scared?' I asked.
'Wot, me?' He drew back angrily. "Course I ain't. I just like ter know I'm workin' wiv somebody wot knows his onions, that's all.'
Within ten minutes we had the drill clamp fixed across the shaft. Then Friar started up the compressor and the whole undersea gallery reverberated to the roar and chatter of the pneumatic drill. By the time we'd done two holes, Captain Manack arrived with Dave and Slim. They off-loaded the compressor and then set to work loading the broken rock on to the carriage. Manack climbed up beside us. 'How's it going?' he shouted.
I shut off the air. 'Getting pretty wet,' I said. 'Have you got the long drill?'
'Do you want it immediately?' he asked.
'No,' I replied. 'But I'll probe ahead as soon as we've finished the charge holes.'
He nodded. 'I'll bring it down next time I come. I want to get this rock clear now. When will you be ready to blow?'
I looked at my watch. It was nearly ten. 'Midday,' I told him.
'What are the chances of being through to the sea bed tonight?'
'All depends how quickly you can clear the debris,' I said. 'Reckon I can blast faster than you can clear. Trouble is it may not be a very neat job. Rock's faulty here.'
He nodded and climbed down. I turned on the air again. The drill leapt in my hand and bored into the rock. Pieces flaked off. Nose, eyes and mouth were full of rock dust despite the spray of water that hissed into the drill hole. Every few seconds I paused to examine the rock. I was scared of a fall. Down below us Captain Manack, stripped to the waist, drove himself and the other two. They were clearing the pile of rock fast. He brought me two long drills when he returned from disposing of the first load of rock. By eleven-thirty I had finished the charge holes and Friar and I started to drill the probing hole. When the drill was only three feet in, water began to trickle along my hand and down my upturned arms. By the time the drill was full home there was a steady flow from the hole, running out of it as though from a tap only half turned on.
I called to Captain Manack. 'I think your figures are wrong,' I told him when he'd clambered up on to the ladders beside us. 'It may be due to the flaws in the rock. But I'd say we'd drilled pretty near to the sea bed.'
He nodded. 'Asdic wouldn't take into account a deep fissure in the rock,' he said. 'It gives you the general level of the sea bed. You think we'll be through at this blow?'
'No,' I answered. 'But we may come pretty near it, and that may make it unsafe to do any more drilling. I don't like this rock If you want my advice,' I added, 'you'll start the whole thing again somewhere else where the rock isn't faulty.'
But he shook his head. 'No time for that. If I'm to run any more cargoes I must have this undersea route open. I'll take a chance on it opening with a clean break.'
'Okay,' I said. 'Got the charges?'
He went down and brought up the charges. I tamped them into the charge holes. The rock had all been cleared, except for one great jagged piece too heavy to lift. They were rigging a pulley. We loaded the compressor and the tools. I fixed the fuse and we tramped back along the gallery to the main shaft. Then Manack thrust over the lever that operated the carriage haulage gear. The hawser lifted out of the mud with a sucking sound, tightened and began to reel in on the drum beside the water wheel. We waited until the carriage appeared out of the gloom of the gallery. Then we went up to the surface in the gig. As we went up, I said, 'Supposing the police arrive and start searching the mine. Who's to warn us?'
The girl,' he answered.
'What makes you think she wouldn't give you away?' I asked him. 'After what she heard last night she must hate the place.'
He looked at me and smiled beneath his moustache. 'She'll warn us all right,' he said.
'I don't see why she should,' I persisted.
'Don't you?' He laughed. The harshness of it sounded above the noise of the gig wheels on their wooden runners. 'She'll do it for your sake.'
'My sake?'
'Yes. Good God, man — don't say you haven't realised she's in love with you? Why else do you think she went searching for you up in the old workings last night?' He put his hand on my arm. 'You don't have to worry about that,' he said. 'By daylight tomorrow you'll be beating out past the Scillies on the Arisaig. She doesn't know that, of course. And see you don't tell her. Not that you'll be seeing her before you leave. But if she heard about it. Well, women are funny creatures. Look at the mess Dave got himself into.'
The callous way he spoke of it… I could have killed him. Perhaps he saw how I felt for he said, 'You stay down here till the job's done. The Arisaig will be off the adit at four o'clock. I fixed that this morning. And Mulligan has his orders. He'll not interfere with either you or Tanner. I'll bring you letters for the manager of my estate this evening. Believe me, the sooner you're out of the country the better for you.'
The gig stopped at the store gallery. We all got out with the exception of Captain Manack. He went on up to the surface. I followed the others into the dugout. I was thinking of Kitty. I had to get a message to her somehow. But it was no use asking Manack to take it. Friar was sorting through one of the cases of rations. 'Wot aba't bully an' apricots?' he suggested.
I caught hold of his arm. 'You going to the house, Friar?' I asked.
He looked up. 'No,' he said. 'My orders is ter stay da'n 'ere. We starts work again soon as them charges is blown.'
I sat down on the bed. What the hell would Kitty be thinking of me? Manack was right. If she heard I was leaving on the Arisaig in the early hours of the morning, anything might happen. I couldn't leave her here. And he'd said she loved me. My God! I needed somebody to love me. I needed her. I couldn't go on like this — alone. I thought of the hot moonlit nights in Italy. The women there were easy enough. But a man needed something more than that of a woman. If Kitty were with me… I got up and started pacing up and down the dugout. I suddenly knew that I had to have Kitty with me. I wouldn't go without Kitty. It wasn't only that I needed her — that I loved her. It was the thought of her staying on up there in the house. She'd go mad She'd brood and brood on what had happened. And then… It didn't bear thinking on. I had to get her away from the place. I'd refuse to go on with the job unless Manack agreed to her leaving with me. Yes, that was the answer. I'd refuse to do the job for him 'Ain't yer feelin' 'ungry?' Friar asked me.