eming rapidity for a few hours, then to
cease, until the two men could remove the debris which they had dug out
and haul it by slow, laborious effort to the surface. But it was a
beginning, and they kept at it.

A foot at a time they tore away the old, broken, splintered timbers and
the rocky refuse which lay piled behind each shivered beam; only to
stop, carry away the muck, and then rebuild. And it was
effort,--effort which strained every muscle of two strong men, as with
pulleys and handmade, crude cranes, they raised the big logs and
propped them in place against further encroachment of the hanging wall.
Cold and damp, in the moist air of the tunnel they labored, but there
was a joy in it all. Down here they could forget Squint Rodaine and
his chalky-faced son; down here they could feel that they were working
toward a goal and lay aside the handicap which humans might put in
their path.

Day after day of labor and the indentation upon the cave-in grew from a
matter of feet to one of yards. A week. Two. Then, as Harry swung
his pick, he lurched forward and went to his knees. "I 've gone
through!" he announced in happy surprise. "I 've gone through. We 're
at the end of it!"

Up went Fairchild's carbide. Where the pick still hung in the rocky
mass, a tiny hole showed, darker than the surrounding refuse. He put
forth a hand and clawed at the earth about the tool; it gave way
beneath his touch, and there was only vacancy beyond. Again Harry
raised his pick and swung it with force. Fairchild joined him. A
moment more and they were staring at a hole which led to darkness, and
there was joy in Harry's voice as he made a momentary survey.

"It's fairly dry be'ind there," he announced. "Otherwise we 'd have
been scrambling around in water up to our necks. We 're lucky there,
any'ow."

Again the attack and again the hole widened. At last Harry
straightened.

"We can go in now," came finally. "Are you willing to go with me?"

"Of course. Why not?"

The Cornishman's hand went to his mustache.

"I ain't tickled about what we 're liable to find."

"You mean--?"

But Harry stopped him.

"Let's don't talk about it till we 'ave to. Come on."

Silently they crawled through the opening, the silt and fine rock
rattling about them as they did so, to come upon fairly dry earth on
the other side, and to start forward. Under the rays of the carbides,
they could see that the track here was in fairly go