othing but a nightmare.

But Manuel gathering up the tools aroused him from such thoughts. Not
without difficulty were the necessary things conveyed to the abandoned
mine back of the old Wiley claim. Their course lay along the bottom of
a dry creek, over a ridge, and so to the shaft half-way down the side
of a hill. A second trip had to be made to bring the gas tube.

It was two o'clock in the morning when Manuel stood at the foot of the
four-hundred-foot hole and signaled up that the air was good. Talbot
lowered the tools to him, and the gas container, and lastly went down
himself. As already stated, Talbot had explored the underground
workings of the mine not eighteen months before. Picking out the main
tunnel and keeping a close watch for rattlers with electric torches,
the two men went cautiously ahead. In places earth had fallen and had
to be cleared away, but the formation for the most part was a soft rock
and shale. They went slowly, for fear of starting slides.

At a spot taking an abrupt turn--and it was here that the newer tunnel
had broken through into the older gallery of the Wiley claim--Manuel
caught swiftly at Talbot's arm. "What is that?" To straining ears came
the unmistakable throb of machinery. They snapped off their torches and
crouched in Stygian darkness. Not a ray of light was to be seen. Talbot
knew that in following the ore stratum, the Wiley gallery took several
twists. Laboriously he and Manuel advanced with the gas tube. It was
stiflingly close. He counted the turns, one, two, three. Now the roar
of machinery was a steady reverberation that shook the tunnel. He
whispered to Manuel:

"Go back and wait for me at the mouth of the shaft. Only one of us must
risk taking the gas tube any nearer the enemy. Here, take my watch. It
is now two-forty-five. If I don't rejoin you by four o'clock touch off
the explosive."

Manuel started to protest. "Do as I say," commanded Talbot. "The fate
of the world is at stake. Give me an hour; but no longer--remember!"

Left alone in the clammy darkness Talbot wiped the sweat from his face.
Grabbing one end of the rope sling in which the tube was fastened, he
pulled it ahead. There was a certain amount of unavoidable noise; rock
rattled, earth fell; but he reasoned shrewdly enough that the roar of
the machinery would drown this. Beyond a crevice created by a cave-in
he saw an intense light play weirdly. He squirmed through the crevice
and pulled the tube aft