m their high estate--the banker, the pastor, the capitalist, the
minister, and the actress.

In hell the demons could teach Peter nothing.

Ivan stood before the unsightly corpse deep in thought. In his heart
there raged a wild conflict of passions. He also had been robbed,
oppressed by the wealth of his enemies, his heart wounded by a hundred
poisoned arrows, and this by the same men upon whom the revengeful
hate of Peter Saffran had fallen. Ivan had come to their help. He had
saved the lives and the property of his foes--at least, what they
called their property; the monstrous treasure which lies in the very
bowels of the earth does not, in truth, belong altogether to any man,
but to all men; it is the treasure-trove of the state, destined to
serve and minister to all ages.

And yet a great dread, an unconquerable fear, possessed Ivan. He dared
not mention his fear to any one, for if he were to share his
suspicion with any one of the workmen, who up to this had followed him
obediently through every peril, they would, without another word, have
turned their backs and fled for their lives.

The wire cylinder of Saffran's safety-lamp was filled to the very top
with a red flame. This was a warning that the atmosphere was still
charged with one-third of hydrogen gas, and that only two-thirds were
of fresh air.

But there is an even greater danger to be feared than the pit-gas. Its
fearful spirit had been laid; the victims lay silent upon the
wheelbarrows. Yet another and a worse spirit lurks in ambush--a foe
who goes about with closed eyes, whose presence is awful in its
consequences: it is the carbon from the coals.

When the men had made the breach through the tunnel, they found, just
as the engineer had said, that the explosion had burst through the
partition wall, and that the _debris_ had only to be removed, and the
passage between the east and the north pits would be established. Not
one of the workmen could remain long at this work. After some moments
each one returned coughing, and complaining that in that place his
safety-lamp would not burn.

In the pits the flame of the lamp filled the whole cylinder; this was
not reassuring. But in the neighborhood of the ruins it would hardly
burn; this was a far more serious sign.

The last miner who returned said that as he removed a large lump of
coal such a terrible stench had penetrated through his mouth-protector
that he had almost fainted. The smell was like t