e
done; your victims will keep this side, and comfort each other till
honest men undo your work, you villain."

Burnley crouched, and wriggled away like a whipped hound, and flung
himself down in bitter despair.

"Oh, papa," said Grace, "we have escaped a great danger, but shall we
ever see the light of day?"

"Of course we shall, child; be sure that great efforts will be made to
save us. Miners have their faults, but leaving other men to perish is not
one of them; there are no greater heroes in the world than those rough
fellows, with all their faults. What you and I must do at once is to
search for provisions and lamps and tools; if there are no poisonous
gases set free, it is a mere question of time. My poor child has a hard
life before her; but only live, and we shall be rescued."

These brave words comforted Grace, as they were intended to do, and she
accompanied her father down the one passage which was left open after the
explosion. Fortunately this led to a new working, and before he had gone
many yards Hope found a lamp that had been dropped by some miner who had
rushed into the hall as the first warning came. Hope extinguished the
light, and gave it to Grace.

"That will be twenty-four hours' light to us," said he; "but, oh, what I
want to find is food. There must be some left behind."

"Papa," said Grace, "I think I saw a miner throw a bag into an empty
truck when the first alarm was given."

"Back! back! my child!" cried Hope, "before that villain finds it!"

He did not wait for her but ran back, and he found Ben Burnley in the
neighborhood of that very truck: but Burnley sneaked off at his
approach. Hope, looking into the truck, found treasures--a dozen new
sacks, a heavy hammer, a small bag of nails, a can of tea, and a bag
with a loaf in it, and several broken pieces of bread. He put his lamp
out directly, for he had lucifer-matches in his pocket, and he hid the
bag of bread; then he lighted his lamp again and fastened it up by a
nail in the centre of the hall.

"There," said he to Burnley, "that's to light us both equally; when it
goes out you must hang up yours in its place."

"That's fair," said Burnley, humbly.

There were two trucks on Hope's side of the hall--the empty one in
question, and one that was full of coal. Both stood about two yards from
Hope's side of the hall. Hope turned the empty truck and brought it
parallel to the other; then he nailed two sacks together, and fastened
t