and the men in the bucket started up the
shaft. The others pounded at the ladder, and those who could find no
work clambered up the stairs to the bottom of the gap that separated
them from the second level. As the men in the buckets were nearly up to
the second level, where the hoist stopped, Grant heard one of them call:
"Hurry, hurry--here she comes," and a second later a hot, smoky wind
struck his face and he knew the fan was turned again and soon would be
blowing fire down the air course.

The men had the ladder almost finished. The men above on the stairs
smelled the smoke and began yelling. The bucket reached the top and was
started down. Grant looked up the air shaft and saw the fire--little
flickering flames lighting up the shaft near the second level. The air
rushing down was smoky and filled with sparks. The ladder was ready and
the men made a rush with it up the stairway. Most of their lamps were
put out and it was dark in the stairway. The men were uttering
hysterical, foolish cries as they rushed upward in their panic. The
ladder jolting against the sides of the chamber knocked the men off
their feet and there was tumbling and swearing and tripping and
struggling.

Grant grabbed the ladder from the men and held it above his head, and
called out:

"You men go up there in order. You'll not get the ladder till you
straighten up."

The emergency-passage was filling with smoke. The men were coughing and
gasping.

Up and down the stairs men called:

"Brace up, that's right."

"Red's right."

"We'll all go if we don't straighten up."

In a moment there was some semblance of order, and Grant wormed his way
to the top holding the ladder above him. He put one end of it on a
landing and nailed the foot of the ladder to the landing floor. Then he
stood on the landing, a great, powerful man with blazing eyes, and
called down: "Now come; one at a time, and if any man crowds I'll kill
him. Come on--one at a time." One came and went up; when he was on the
third rung of the ladder, Grant let another man pass up, and so three
men were on the ladder.

As the top man raised the trapdoor above, Grant and those upon the
ladder could see the flames and a great gust of smoke poured down. The
man at the top hesitated. On the other side of the partition in the air
chute the smoke was pouring and the fire was circling the top of the
emergency escape through which the men must pass.

"Go ahead or jump down," yelled Gr