efforts were
beginning to tell. No more came the rumbling, treacherous falls; but
perceptibly, irresistibly was the passage gradually cleared, and the way
opened up, until it seemed as if these men were literally eating their
way into that rock-filled passage.

"Can ye tell me where Black Jock is a' this time?" enquired Andrew, as
Peter and Matthew and he sat back the road, resting while the others
worked. "Rundell has been here twa or three times, for hours at a time,
but I hae never seen Walker yet."

"I hae never seen him either, an' I was hearin' that he was badly,"
returned Peter, and his big eye seemed to turn as if it were looking for
and expecting some one to slip up behind him.

"Ay," broke in Matthew, "badly! I wadna say, but it micht be that he's
badly; but maybe he's not."

"Do ye ken, boys," said Andrew quietly, taking his pipe out of his
mouth, and speaking with slow deliberation, "I'm beginnin' to think
Black Jock is guilty o' Geordie's death. Geordie, as we a' ken, had ay
something against Walker. There was something he kent aboot the black
brute that lately kept him gey quiet; for, if ye noticed, whenever
Geordie went to him about anybody's complaint, the men aye won. I ken
Walker hated him, an' I'm inclined to think that he has deliberately
put Geordie into this place, kennin' that the lower seam had been
worked out lang, lang syne. His plans wad tell him as muckle about the
workin's, and I ken, at least, he's never been in Geordie's place since
it was started, an' there's nae ither places drivin' up sae far as this.
They're a' stoppit afore they come this length; an' forby, frae what
Rundell has let drap the day, he never kent that the coal was being
worked as far up as this. By ----! Peter, gin I could prove what I
suspect, I'd murder the dirty brute this nicht! I would that!"

"Would Nellie no' ken, think ye, what it was that Geordie had against
Black Jock that kept him sae quiet?" enquired Peter.

"I couldna' say," answered Andrew, "but some day when I get the chance
I'll maybe ask her, an' if it is as I think, then there'll be rows."

"Let me ken, Andrew," broke in Matthew. "Let me ken if ever ye discover
onything; an' ye can count on me sharin' the penalties o' hell alang wi'
ye for the murder o' the big black brute."

"I heard," said Peter, "that he was boozin' wi' Mag Robertson and Sanny.
But we'll no' be long in kennin', for ill-doin' canna hide."

* * * *