ace, and it might be another. Maybe they'd know better at the office
of his estate in Scranton, but as he's been dead these eight years----"

"Check!" says I. "It would have been a swell bluff if it had worked
though, wouldn't it?"

Llanders indulges in a grim smile. "But it didn't," says he.

"That's the sad part," says I, "for Mr. Fiske here is in a great stew to
see this Bruzinski party right away. There's a lady in the case, as you
might know; one they met while they were soldierin' abroad. So if
there's any way you could fix it for them to get together----"

"Going down's the only way," says Llanders, "and that's strictly against
orders."

"Except on a pass, eh?" says I. "Lucky we brought that along. Waddy,
slip it to Mr. Llanders. No, don't look stupid. Feel in your right hand
vest pocket. That's it, one of those yellow-backed ones with a double X
in the corners. Ah, here! Don't you know how to present a government
pass?" And I has to take it away from him and tuck it careless into the
superintendent's coat pocket.

"Of course," says Llanders, "if you young gentlemen are on official
business, it makes a difference."

"Then let's hurry along," says Waddy, startin' impatient.

"Dressed like that?" says Llanders, starin' at Waddy's Fifth Avenue
costume. "I take it you've not been underground before, sir?"

"Only in the subway," says Waddy.

"You'll find a coal mine quite unlike the subway," says Llanders. "I
think we can fix you up for it, though."

They did. And when Waddy had swapped his frock coat for overalls and
jumper, and added a pair of rubber boots and a greasy cap with an
acetylene lamp stuck in the front of it he sure wouldn't have been
recognized even by his favorite waiter at the club. I expect I looked
about as tough, too. And I'll admit that all this preparation seemed
kind of foolish there in the office. Ten minutes later I knew it wasn't.
Not a bit.

"Do we go down in a car or something?" asks Waddy.

"Not if you go with me," says Llanders. "We'll walk down Slope 8. Before
we start, however, it will be best for me to tell you that this was a
drowned mine."

"Listens excitin'," says I. "Meanin' what?"

"Four years ago the creek came in on us," says Llanders, "flooded us to
within ten feet of the shaft mouth. We lost only a dozen men, but it was
two years before we had the lower levels clear. We manage to keep it
down now with the pumps, Bruzinski is most likely at the further end of