make such talk when we know the thing's
impossible," and the men turned away as if angry at having been brought
so far on a useless errand.

"We know whether----"

Sam ceased speaking very suddenly, for at that moment the sound of
distress came with great distinctness.

The men looked around, each trying to hide his fear, and then a regular
search was begun.

The noise could not have come from the old drift, and the level was
examined thoroughly, but without success.

"It beats me," one of the miners said at length. "I'm sure there's
nothing beneath here but the solid earth."

"Let the boys tell Wright," the other suggested, and his companion
assented.

"We'll hang around here till he comes or you get back; but don't stay
very long, for I don't like the looks of things."

"Why not?"

"It may be a warnin' for some of us. I've heard tell of such."

Fred laughed heartily, and the man replied impatiently:

"When you've been in a mine as long as I have, you won't think there's
any fun to be made of warnin's. Before the explosion of fire damp in the
old workings, I've been told the miners heard all kinds of queer
noises."

"Go on," the second man said fretfully, "an' don't waste time chinnin'
here when p'rhaps we oughter be gettin' out to save our lives."

The boys started, feeling a trifle disturbed because of the
unexplainable cries, and arrived at the store as the whistle sounded for
the night shift to begin work.

The superintendent was surprised by the information brought, and
insisted, as had the miners, that the sounds could not have been made by
a human being.

"I will go down the slope at once, however," he said, and the boys
accompanied him on what proved to be a useless errand.

Every portion of the lower level was searched. A party descended the old
shaft, traversing the abandoned passages to the chamber connecting with
the new portion of the workings, but nowhere could be seen any signs of
life.

Joe and Bill, alarmed because the boys had not returned, came to look
for them in time to join the exploring parties, and the latter was
decidedly uneasy when Mr. Wright ordered the useless labor to be
stopped.

He, in common with several others, believed the mysterious noises to be
warnings, and there was every evidence of a panic until Mr. Wright spoke
at considerable length on the subject, intimating that the cries were
due to natural causes.

Then those who were off duty went home, and amo