concealing all clue to the district of which I write, and will perhaps
thank me for refraining from any description that may tend to its
discovery.

Let me say, then, as briefly as possible, that I accompanied the
engineer into the interior of the mine, and became so strangely
fascinated by its gloomy wonders, and so interested in my friend's
explorations, that I prolonged my stay in the neighbourhood, and
descended daily, for some weeks, into the vaults and galleries hollowed
by nature and art beneath the surface of the earth. The engineer was
persuaded that far richer deposits of mineral wealth than had yet been
detected, would be found in a new shaft that had been commenced under
his operations. In piercing this shaft we came one day upon a chasm
jagged and seemingly charred at the sides, as if burst asunder at some
distant period by volcanic fires. Down this chasm my friend caused
himself to be lowered in a 'cage,' having first tested the atmosphere
by the safety-lamp. He remained nearly an hour in the abyss. When he
returned he was very pale, and with an anxious, thoughtful expression
of face, very different from its ordinary character, which was open,
cheerful, and fearless.

He said briefly that the descent appeared to him unsafe, and leading to
no result; and, suspending further operations in the shaft, we returned
to the more familiar parts of the mine.

All the rest of that day the engineer seemed preoccupied by some
absorbing thought. He was unusually taciturn, and there was a scared,
bewildered look in his eyes, as that of a man who has seen a ghost. At
night, as we two were sitting alone in the lodging we shared together
near the mouth of the mine, I said to my friend,--