ster was owre last nicht," said Jenny after a little, "but I
dinna think she ever spoke to him. He cam' in just when I was comin'
oot, an' I dinna like to leave her. He talked away a wee while an' then
put up a prayer; but there was nae consolation in't for onybody. I think
the sicht o' her face maun hae been too muckle for him. He didna stay
very lang, and gaed awa' saying he'd come back again. Nellie has
everything ready--the bed a' made, wi' clean sheets an' blankets on
them--an' there she stan's always at that window, lookin' doon the brae.
It would break yer heart to see her, Leezie, she's that vexed lookin'."
So they wept and sorrowed together.

* * * * *

Down in the pit, Andrew Marshall, Matthew Maitland, Peter Pegg, and a
number of others toiled like giants possessed. Their naked bodies
streamed with sweat and glistened in the light of their lamps. Timber
was placed in position, and driven tight with desperation in every blow
from their hammers; blocks of rock were tossed aside, and smashed into
fragments, ere being filled into the tubs which were ever waiting ready
to convey the debris to the pit-head. Few words were spoken, except when
a warning shout was given, when some loose rubble poured down from the
great gaping cavern in the roof, and then men jumped and sprang to
safety with the agility of desperation, to wait till the rumbling had
ceased, only to leap back again into the yawning hell, tearing at the
stones, and trying to work their way into the place where they knew
Geordie and the boy were lying. It seemed impossible that human efforts
would ever be able to clear that mountain away.

"Wait a minute, callans," said Andrew, almost dropping with exhaustion,
and drawing his hands across his eyes to wipe the sweat from them,
whilst he "hunkered" down, his back against a broken tree which stood
jutting out from the building, supporting a broken "baton" (cross-tree),
which bent down in the center, making the roadway low and unsafe. "Let
us tak a minute's thocht, and see if we can get a way o' chokin' up that
stuff fear fallin' doon. We'll never get it redd up goin' like this."

So they sat down, tired but still desperate, to listen to each one
suggesting a way of stopping the debris from continuing to fall. Baffled
and at their wits' end, they could think of nothing.

At last in came a number of other men to relieve them--men equally
anxious and desperate as they, burning