. "If tha mun, tha mun."

She took her seat in the cage by Grace, and when she took it she half
turned her face away. But when those above began to lower them, and they
found themselves swinging downward into what might be to them a pit of
death, she spoke to him.

"Theer's a prayer I'd loike yo' to pray," she said. "Pray that if we mun
dee, we may na dee until we ha' done our work."

It was a dreadful work indeed that the rescuers had to do in those black
galleries. And Joan was the bravest, quickest, most persistent of all.
Paul Grace, following in her wake, found himself obeying her slightest
word or gesture. He worked constantly at her side, for he, at least,
had guessed the truth. He knew that they were both engaged in the
same quest. When at last they had worked their way--lifting, helping,
comforting--to the end of the passage where the collier had said he last
saw the master then, for one moment, she paused, and her companion, with
a thrill of pity, touched her to attract her attention.

"Let me go first," he said.

"Nay," she answered, "we'n go together."

The gallery was a long and low one, and had been terribly shaken. In
some places the props had been torn away, in others they were borne down
by the loosened blocks of coal. The dim light of the "Davy" Joan held up
showed such a wreck that Grace spoke to her again.

"You must let me go first," he said, with gentle firmness. "If one of
these blocks should fall----"

Joan interrupted him,--

"If one on 'em should fall I'm th' one as it had better fall on. There
is na mony foak as ud miss Joan Lowrie. Yo' ha' work o' yo're own to
do."

She stepped into the gallery before he could protest, and he could only
follow her. She went before, holding the Davy high, so that its light
might be thrown as far forward as possible. Now and then she was forced
to stoop to make her way around a bending prop; sometimes there was a
fallen mass to be surmounted, but she was at the front still when they
reached the other end without finding the object of their search.

"It--he is na there," she said. "Let us try th' next passage," and she
turned into it.

It was she who first came upon what they were looking for; but they did
not find it in the next passage, or the next, or even the next. It was
farther away from the scene of the explosion than they had dared to
hope. As they entered a narrow side gallery, Grace heard her utter a low
sound, and the next minute she wa