e brutal Huns; let's think up some scheme for getting out of it for
awhile." Snipe said, "All right. But how can we get away from these
blamed 'square-heads'?" Just then we noticed one of the tunnels, and I
said, "Hully gee! Snipe, what's the matter with hiding in one of these
tunnels? No one ever comes here." "Golly! I believe it would work,"
says Snipe, pounding me on the back. We were very much excited, and
when we reached our bunkhouse we told some of the other boys. They
asked to come in too, so six of us laid our plans. We went down on
shift as usual and followed the other miners till we came to the tunnel
in which we had planned to hide. When there was no one looking, we
would dodge in, and when we were missed the miners thought we had gone
to work in another part of the mine; each mine boss thought we were
taken to work for some one else, so no one hunted us up; of course we
were in constant danger of being buried alive, but we gladly took the
risk for the sake of getting a rest.

We would lie round chatting and sleeping all day, and at night, blacken
our faces and join the other miners on their way to the main shaft. We
worked this game for eight weeks, not always staying in the same hole,
but changing around whenever we saw a likely looking place. We had a
splendid rest, and it put us in better condition for what was to
follow. A funny thing happened after this had been going on a few
weeks. One morning two of our boys, Barney and Raeside, did not come
down in the same cage with us, and as we didn't dare wait, for fear of
being set to work, we were out of sight before they arrived. So they
hunted up a place for themselves, and the spot they chose was between
the timbers and the roof of the main tunnel. It was a good place, and
they would never have been discovered if they hadn't gone to sleep and
snored. But they did, and a fire boss happened to be passing at the
time, so he located their hiding-place. Of course he couldn't see who
was there, but he tried to poke them out with his stick. They soon
woke up, but Barney whispered, "To hell with him, Mac, we won't go," so
they lay still. Finally the fire boss went for help, and as soon as he
left the boys came out. But they had to come out one at a time.
Barney got down first; and he beat it to locate another hole. When
Raeside struck the tunnel, he saw a light not far away, and he thought
it must be the returning boss, so off he went in the