em were dimmed, and those in front grew dim. They reached the
passage in a cloud of smoke, but it was going up the air shaft and did
not fill the passage. "Mugs," yelled Grant to a boy driving an ore car,
"run down this passage and tell the men there's a fire--where's your
father?"

"He's up yon way," called the boy, pointing in the opposite direction as
he ran. "You tell him." The fire was roaring down the air course behind
them, and Grant and the three men knew that in a few minutes the reverse
air would be sucking the flames up the air shaft, cutting off the
emergency escape for the men on the first and second levels.

Grant knew that the emergency escape was not completed for the third
level, but he knew that they were using the air chute for a temporary
hoist for the men from the third level and that the main shaft was not
running to the third level.

"Run down this passage, Bill," called Grant. "Get all those fellows.
Evans, you call the first level; I'll skin down this rope to the men
below." In an instant, as the men were flying on their errands, his red
head disappeared down the rope into the darkness. At the bottom of the
hoist in the third level Grant found forty or fifty men at work. They
were startled to see him come down without waiting for the bucket to go
up and he called breathlessly as his feet touched the earth: "Boys,
there's a fire above on the next level--I don't know how bad it is; but
it looks bad to me. They may get it out with a hose from the main
bottom--if they've got hose there that will reach any place."

"Let's go up," cried one of the men. As they started toward him, Grant
threw up his hand.

"Hold on now, boys--hold on. The fans will be blowing that fire down
this air shaft in a few minutes. How far up have you got the ladders?"
he asked.

Some one answered: "Still twelve feet shy." There was a scramble for the
buckets, but no one offered to man the windlass and hoist them up the
air shaft. Grant was only a carpenters' boss. The men around the buckets
were miners. But he called: "Get out of there, Hughey and Mike--none of
that. We must make that ladder first--get some timbers--put the rungs
three feet apart, and work quick."

He pointed at the timbers to be used for the ladders, stepped to the
windlass and cried:

"Here, Johnnie--you got no family--get hold of this windlass with me.
Ready now--family men first--you, Sam--you, Edwards--you, Lewellyn."

Then he bent to the wheel