Harley met them at the door of his office with a smile in his crafty eyes.  “Warden is waiting for you in the mine,” he said to Fletcher.  “His lambs have been a bit restless this afternoon.  He has set his heart on a full-dress parade, but I don’t know if it will come off.”

Fletcher’s black brows drew together.  “What do you mean by that?” he demanded.

Harley shrugged his shoulders with a laugh.  “You wait and see!”

The entrance to the mine yawned like an immense cavern in the rock.  The roaring screech of the machines issuing from it made an inferno of sound from which, involuntarily, Dot shrank.

She looked at Hill appealingly as they drew near.  He turned instantly to Harley.

“Go ahead, will you, and tell them to stop work?  We can’t hear ourselves speak in this.”

“I’ll come with you, Mr. Harley,” said Adela, promptly.  “I want to see the machines going.”

Harley paused for a moment.  “You know your way, Mr. Hill?” he said.

Hill nodded with a hint of impatience.  “Yes, yes.  I was here only the other day.”

“Very good,” said Harley.  “But don’t forget to turn to the right when you get down the steps.  The other way is too steep for ladies.”

He was gone with the words and Adela with him, openly delighted to have escaped from her solemn escort, and ready for any adventure that might present itself.

Dot looked after her for a moment, and then back at Hill.  “She’ll be all right, won’t she?” she asked.

“Of course she will!” said Hill.

“Then shall we wait a minute till the noise stops?” she suggested.

Hill paused, though not very willingly.  “There is nothing to be nervous about,” he said.

She glanced at the cavernous opening with a little shudder.  “I think it is a dreadful place,” she said.

She saw him faintly smile.  “I thought it didn’t appeal much to you,” he said.

She shivered.  “Do you like it?  But of course you do.  You are interested in it.  Isn’t that grinding noise terrible?  It makes me want to run away and hide.”

Hill drew her to a large flat rock on the edge of the path.  “Sit down,” he said.

She did so, and he took up his stand beside her, one foot lodged upon the stone.  In the silence that followed she was aware of his eyes upon her, intently watching her face.  She gripped her hands hard around her knees, enduring his scrutiny with a fast-throbbing heart.  She expected some curt, soul-searching question at the end of it.  But none came.  Instead, the noise that reverberated through the valley suddenly ceased, and there fell an intense stillness.

That racked her beyond bearing.  She looked up at him at last with a desperate courage and met his eyes.  “What is it?” she questioned.  “Why do you—­why do you look at me—­like that?”

He made a brief gesture, as if refusing a challenge, and stood up.  “Shall we go?” he said.