farther than the
voice."

"That's what the geophone man heard," Owens commented to the reporter.
"Go on, lad!"

"I kept that up," Clem went on, "until my arms ached. I was so tired
in my back and so weak with hunger that bright violet spots kept
dancing before my eyes. But I kept on, just the same.

"Then I heard a shout, and, presently, Anton came staggering along,
dead beat. He'd been guided back by the sound of the tapping.

"'No sign of Jim?' I asked

"'Nothing!'

"He lay down on the coal dust, and, pretty soon, I heard him breathing
hard. He'd gone right off to sleep, exhausted, poor kid!"

"How long do you suppose he'd been wandering?" queried the reporter.

"No way of knowing. But I'm pretty husky, and I can stand an eight
hours' shift of coal hewing without getting too tired. And, I tell
you, I was about done out, just from reaching up and tapping that roof
with a pick. Of course, I was weak. But I reckon it must have been
eight hours, good, that the youngster was straying in those mine
galleries, in the dark, alone. Maybe it was more.

"I must have gone to sleep, too, but it didn't seem for long.
Half-asleep, I heard Anton say,

"'There's a rat gnawing at my stomach!'

"I woke up right quick, at that, for though mine rats are ugly
customers, I thought if we could catch a rat or two, that might give
us food. But what the boy meant was that he was so hungry that it felt
as if a rat were there.

"I wasn't exactly hungry, leastways, not all the time. The pain came
in cramps, that were bad enough while they lasted, but I didn't feel
anything much between. My tongue was getting swollen, though. I knew
what that meant. Drink of some sort we must have.

"'Look here, Anton,' I said, 'you tap on the rock, in threes, the same
as I did, and I'll go try to find water. I know the lay-out of this
mine better than you do, and there used to be a sump (hole) near the
goaf (waste rock taken from the main gallery roofs). Maybe there'll be
water there.'

"I started off, cheerfully enough. I reckoned I knew the mine. So I
do, with a lamp, but I didn't have any idea what it meant to wander in
the pitch-dark. The galleries were low there, too, not more than four
feet high. I had to keep one hand stretched out in front of me to keep
from going headlong into the wall, and the dinner pail that I was
carrying in that hand struck the side more times than I could count; I
kept the other hand above my head, to keep me fro