in'
wonderful; I wish I could tell you so you could understand it; it's
too bad you can't, Jasper; I know you'd be glad."

The mule seemed to recognize the pleasantness of the lad's voice and
to enjoy it, and for a long time Ralph sat there petting him and
talking to him.

Finally, he became aware that the air about him was growing to be very
bad. It made him feel sick and dizzy, and caused his heart to beat
rapidly.

He knew that he must go farther in. He thought, however, to make an
attempt to get out toward the shaft first. It might be that it had
grown clearer out there, it might be that the rescuers were already
working down toward him. He started rapidly down the heading, but
before he had gone half-way to the head of the plane, the smoke and
the foul air were so dense and deadly that he had to stop and to crawl
away from it on his hands and knees. He was greatly exhausted when he
reached the air-way door again, and he sat on the bench for a long
time to rest and to recover.

But he knew that it was dangerous to remain there now, and, taking the
can of oil with him, he started slowly up the heading. He did not know
how soon he should get back here, and when the oil in his lamp should
give out again he desired to be able to renew it.

The mule was following closely behind him. It was a great comfort,
too, to have a living being with him for company. He might have been
shut up here alone, and that would have been infinitely worse.

At the point where the branch leading to the new chambers left the
main heading, Ralph turned in, following his accustomed route.
It seemed to him that he ought to go to places with which he was
familiar.

He trudged along through the half-mile of gang-way that he had always
found so lonely when he was at work, stopping now and then to rest.
For, although he walked very slowly, he grew tired very easily. He
felt that he was not getting into a purer atmosphere either. The air
around him seemed to lack strength and vitality; and when, at last, he
reached the tier of chambers that it had been his duty to supply with
cars, he was suffering from dizziness, from shortness of breath, and
from rapid beating of the heart.

At the foot of Conway's chamber Ralph found a seat. He was very weak
and tired and his whole frame was in a tremor.

He began to recall all that he had heard and read about people being
suffocated in the mines; all the stories that had ever been told to
him about mi