in his own mine. Thirty miners were
entombed, and it was feared that they could not be saved. Immediately
all thought of his own concerns fled from him, and sending for a
time-table, he looked out a train. He found one that he could just
catch. He took a couple of telegram forms in the cab with him, and on
one scribbled instructions to his servant to follow him at once with
clothes; the other he wrote to Lucy.

He just caught the train and in the afternoon found himself at the mouth
of the pit. There was a little crowd around it of weeping women. All
efforts to save the wretched men appeared to be useless. Many had been
injured, and the manager's house had been converted into a hospital.
Alec found everyone stunned by the disaster, and the attempts at rescue
had been carried on feebly. He set himself to work at once. He put heart
into the despairing women. He brought up everyone who could be of the
least use and inspired them with his own resourceful courage. The day
was drawing to a close, but no time could be lost; and all night they
toiled. Alec, in his shirt sleeves, laboured as heartily as the
strongest miner; he seemed to want neither rest nor food. With clenched
teeth, silently, he fought a battle with death, and the prize was thirty
living men. In the morning he refreshed himself with a bath, paid a
hurried visit to the injured, and returned to the pit mouth.

He had no time to think of other things. He did not know that on this
very morning another letter appeared in the _Daily Mail_, filling in the
details of the case against him, adding one damning piece of evidence to
another; he did not know that the papers, amazed and indignant at his
silence, now were unanimous in their condemnation. It was made a party
matter, and the radical organs used the scandal as a stick to beat the
dying donkey which was then in power. A question was put down to be
asked in the House.

Alec waged his good fight and neither knew nor cared that the bubble of
his glory was pricked. Still the miners lived in the tomb, and
forty-eight hours passed. Hope was failing in the stout hearts of those
who laboured by his side, but Alec urged them to greater endeavours. And
now nothing was needed but a dogged perseverance. His tremendous
strength stood him in good stead, and he was able to work twenty hours
on end. He did not spare himself. And he seemed able to call prodigies
of endurance out of those who helped him; with that example it se