e pit shaft. The mine was
situated in the midst of an open field and there was a great surging
crowd about it which made way for me at a word. Round about the bed
shafts of the mine, the downcast and the upcast, a little space was held
voluntarily clear and half a dozen men in coaly flannels were standing
there. A little tin pot of an engine in a miniature of an engine-house
was labouring and panting at a little distance, and almost as I arrived
upon the scene, the great iron bucket capable of containing as I should
judge some five or six hundred gallons, was brought from the upcast,
lowered there, set upon a trolley and then run along the rails until it
could be emptied into the shaft in which the fire was raging.

This poor attempt to extinguish the flames was continued for perhaps a
quarter of an hour, but at last one of the little band said, "This is
no good, lads, we might as well stand round in a ring and spit at it.
We shall have to get the 'Stinktors' out. A man or two will have to go
down." The coal-smeared men were all standing close together and they
looked at each other with faces pale beneath the grime. For a second or
two none of them spoke, but at last one said, "Will you make one?" and
the first man answered with a mere nod and a sullen-sounding growl.
The others were appealed to each in turn, and each gave the same sulky
seeming acquiescence. I had at the moment no idea as to what it was
actually proposed to do, but the plan was soon made clear. What
the first speaker had called "stinktors" turned out to be little
barrel-shaped objects about one foot by two.

They were called "l'extincteur," and they contained some gas which in
combination with water was fatal to fire. But when I reflected that in
a confined space like that into which they proposed to venture, any gas
which was fatal to fire would in all probability be fatal to human
life, I almost wondered if the men were mad. Mad or no, they made their
preparations with a deliberate swiftness which showed that they knew
perfectly well what they were about. The man who had first proposed
the venture was the first to set out upon it. The large iron bucket,
technically called "bowk," was attached to the steel wire rope which
hung about the smouldering shaft. The man stepped into this, the chain
was passed about his waist, he was smothered in heavy flannels which
were tied about him with cords; the end of a long coil of dirty, oily,
coaly, three-ply twin