ows standing by into taking her place. All they did was
to lower her into the dark, loathsome hole. On arriving at the bottom
she quickly found the four unconscious men, and tying the ropes round
two of them gave the signal for them to be hauled up.

The few minutes' work on the poisonous atmosphere was already telling
upon her, and finding herself gasping for breath she tied a rope around
her waist, and was drawn to the surface. The women whose husbands she
had saved showered blessings upon her, and the other two implored her
to rescue theirs. She replied that she would do so if possible, and
having regained her breath she again descended.

A third man was rescued, but before she could attend to the fourth she
felt herself becoming dazed. She decided to go to the surface again,
and return for the fourth man when the fresh air had revived her. It
was necessary that she should be drawn up quickly, but the rope which
had been tied around her waist had become unfastened, and it was some
minutes before she found it. When she did find it she was too
exhausted to draw it down to tie around her. For a few moments she
tugged at the heavy rope, but could not draw it lower than her head.

There seemed to be no escape for her, when suddenly a bright idea
occurred to her--she undid her long hair and tied it to the rope. Then
she gave the signal to haul up.

Cries of horror and pity burst from the onlookers when they caught
sight of the brave girl hanging by her hair, and apparently dead.
Quickly untying her, they carried her into the fresh air, where she was
promptly attended to by a doctor, who eventually succeeded in restoring
her to consciousness. She received the praise bestowed upon her with
the modesty of a genuine heroine, and was greatly distressed at having
been unable to save the fourth man. The poor fellow was dead long
before his body was recovered by the sewermen, for none of the men who
had witnessed Catherine Vasseur's heroism had been brave enough to
follow her example.

MARY ROGERS AND THE WRECK OF THE STELLA

It was at 11.25 on the morning of Thursday, March 30, 1899, that the
steamship Stella left Southampton for Guernsey with 140 passengers and
42 crew aboard. Most of the passengers were looking forward to
spending a pleasant Easter holiday at Guernsey or Jersey, but a few
were natives of the Channel Islands returning from a visit to England.

For the first two hours the voyage was uneve