g forward
his lamp, foot by foot, and straining his eyes into the darkness ahead,
Trevna close behind with his gun at full cock and ready for instant
action.

"Gad'rabotin, but they take their time, those two!" said John Drillot,
impatiently, outside.

"It iss going right through to Wailee, I do think," growled Evan Morgan
inside.

And it was just after that that there broke out in the depths of the
tunnel a commotion so extraordinary that the listeners outside could
make nothing at all of it, and could only lurch about in amazement and
climb up and push their heads into the tunnel, and wonder what it all
meant. Then, in the midst of the turmoil, there came the thunderous
bellow of the gun, and after a time a trickle of thin blue smoke floated
lazily out and hung about the well; and the men outside sniffed
appreciatively, and said, "Ch'est b'en!" and waited hopefully.

Evan Morgan, shifting forward his light, got an impression of something
in the narrow way in front, and suddenly he was taken with the biggest
fit of sneezing he had ever had in his life. He banged down the lamp
and threw up his head till it cracked against the roof, then banged his
chin against the floor, and finally propped himself, like a sick dog, on
his two front paws, and sneezed and sneezed and sneezed for dear life.

Then John Trevna began. He had the sense to lay down his gun, or Morgan
might have got the charge in his back. And so they sneezed in concert,
until their heads were clearer than they had been for many a day. And
the sound of it all to those outside was like the sound of mortal
combat.

Then Morgan, wiping his streaming eyes on the sleeve of his coat, in a
state of extreme exhaustion, caught sight of that which lay just beyond
him, and he saw that it was a man crawling down the tunnel to meet him.

"Shoot, John, shoot! He iss here," he yelled, and laid himself flat to
give Trevna his chance.

And Trevna, between two sneezes, picked up his gun, though he could see
nothing to shoot at, and ran the barrel forward above Morgan's head and
fired, and the roar of it in that confined space came near to deafening
them both.

The smoke hung thick and choked them, as they gasped it in in gulps
while they sneezed, and the light had gone out with the concussion.

They lay for a time exhausted. Then the atmosphere cleared somewhat, and
they lay in the thick darkness straining their ears for any sound, but
heard nothing.

"What did yo