id Adams?" he asked of the different gangs of pushers,
hoisters, or thrusters he met with their trucks of coal as they came out
of the passages and holes on all sides, some so low that they had to
stoop down till their heads were no higher than the trucks.

"No; what, is he not found yet?" was the answer he got generally.

It took him nearly half an hour to get to the end of the gate-road.
When he reached thus far, he took the first opening to the right, and
began dropping his paper, and calling out his friend's name. He went on
and on, expecting to get into another gate-road, and in time to reach
the main shaft. How long he had been walking he could not tell, when he
found himself in a deserted part of the mine. It was like a large, low
hall, the roof supported by stout pieces of timber, called "sprags," in
some places, and in others by "cogs," or lumps of coal, or by pillars of
coal. It was necessary here to be more careful than ever in strewing
the paper, or it might be long indeed before he could find his way out
again. He thought of poor David; how, if he had got here, he might have
wandered about round and round, like a person lost in a wood, and sunk
down overcome at last, and not able to rise up again. He could not
altogether get over either fears for himself. His lamp shed a very dim
light, and that only to a short distance, and he thought he saw dark
forms moving about here and there, sometimes stopping and looking at
him, and then going on again. He, like a true hero, had braced up his
nerves to brave everything he might meet, or he would have shrieked out,
and tried to run away. He, however, stoutly kept on his way, uttering a
prayer that if they were evil spirits, they might do him no harm. Still
he, as before, cried out David's name; but there was no answer.

His heart at length began to sink within him; a faintness came over him.
He had got a long, long way from the shaft, and he had hoped before
this to find his friend. His legs ached, too, for he had been for a
long time wandering about. He sat down at last on a block of coal and
thought over what he should do. Nothing should make him give up the
search; that he was determined on. Then he remembered that his lamp
would not last much longer; so he got up, and pushed on. He had need of
all his courage, for when he stopped he thought that he heard sighs and
groans and distant cries. He had often before trembled at hearing such
sounds, thin