d wrenched himself loose from the rock, and torn his boot away in
so doing. Along the length of the white flesh was a flaring line of
red, where the point of rock had cut deeply when he made that last
desperate struggle to escape. He dropped to the floor and clutched his
wound with his hands while Dick, almost with a moan, thrust his
candlestick into a timber and savagely tore his shirt off and rent it
into strips. He stooped over and with hasty skill bandaged the wound.

"It's not bad, I hope," he said, "but it does hurt, doesn't it, old
partner?"

"That's nothin'," bravely drawled the giant, striving to force a grin
to his pain-drawn lips. "Don't worry now, boy! Think what might have
happened if I'd been there a minute or two longer, or if I couldn't
have got loose at all!"

In their thankfulness for the last escape they had almost forgotten
the fact that their situation was still almost hopeless, and that
perhaps the speedy end would have been preferable to one more
agonizing, more slow, to come. They got to their feet at last and
hobbled forward, the big man resting half his weight on his friend's
shoulder and making slow progress. Again they were centered on the
faint hope that beyond was some sort of opening, because now they knew
but too well that their retreat was effectually cut off. If there was
no opening ahead they were doomed. They consulted the plan again and
went forward. Abruptly they came to a halt, shutting their jaws hard.
They had come to the end of the main drift and it was a blank wall of
solid stone where the prospectors had finished!

"Well, old man, there's still the two side drifts to examine," said
Bill with a plain attempt to appear hopeful that did not in the least
deceive the other.

"Yes. That's back there about fifty feet," Dick assented, finding that
it required an effort to steady his voice. "The other one is behind
that barrier."

They looked at each other, reading the same thought. They had but one
more chance and that was almost futile; for the plans indicated that
the side drift extended but a score or so of yards and had then been
abandoned. They felt their feet faltering when they turned into it,
dreading the end, dreading the revelation that must tell them they
were to die in this limited burrow in the hills. But courageously they
tried to assume an air of confidence. They did not speak as they
progressed, each dreading that instant when he would again face an
inexorable