He had to stoop to look into it, and only by creeping could it be followed; but as he wanted to see in which direction it led, and whether another abyss opened from it, he lay down on the ground and began to enter it on hands and knees.
An obstacle speedily arrested his progress.

He fancied he could perceive by touching it, that a human body lay across the passage.

A sudden thrill of horror and surprise made him hastily draw back, but he again advanced and felt more carefully.
His senses had not deceived him; a body did indeed lie there; and he soon ascertained that, although icy cold at the extremities, there was some vital heat remaining.

In less time than it takes to tell it, Harry had drawn the body from the recess to the bottom of the shaft, and, seizing his lamp, he cast its lights on what he had found, exclaiming immediately, "Why, it is a child!" The child still breathed, but so very feebly that Harry expected it to cease every instant.

Not a moment was to be lost; he must carry this poor little creature out of the pit, and take it home to his mother as quickly as he could.