oping to come out of that passage into the main bottom by
the main shaft in another quarter of a mile. Occasionally a man would
begin to lag, but some one always stopped to give him a hand. Once Grant
passed two men, Tom Williams and Evan Davis, leaning against a timber,
Davis fagged, Williams fanning his companion with his cap.

From some cross passage a group of men who worked on the second level
came rushing to them. They had no lights and were lost. Down the passage
they all ran together, and at the end they saw something cluttering it
up. The opening seemed to be closed. The front man tumbled and fell; a
dozen men fell over him. Three score men were trapped there, struggling
in a pile of pipes and refuse timber that all but filled the passage
into the main bottom. Five minutes were lost there. Then by twos they
crawled into the main bottom. There men were working with hose, trying
to put out the fire in the air course leading to the mule stables. They
did not realize that the other end of the mine was in flames.

Coal was still going up in the cages. The men in the east and west
passages were still at work. Smoke thickened the air. The entrance to
the air course was charred, and puffing smoke. The fans relaxed for a
moment upon a signal to cease until the course was explored. A hose was
playing in the course, but no man had ventured down it. When Grant came
out he called to the men with the cage boss: "Where's Kinnehan--where's
the pit boss?" No one knew. Some little boys--trimmers and drivers--were
begging to go up with the coal. Finally the cage boss let them ride up.

While they were wrangling, Grant said: "Lookee here--this is a real
fire, men; stop spitting on that air course with the hose and go turn
out the men."

The men from the third level were clamoring at the cage boss to go up.

Grant stopped them: "Now, here--let's divide off, five in a squad and go
after the men on this level, and five in a squad go up to the next level
and call the men out there. There's time if we hurry to save the whole
shift." He tolled them off and they went down the glimmering passages,
that were beginning to grow dim with smoke. As he left the main bottom
he saw by his watch under a torch that it was nearly eleven o'clock. He
ran with his squad down the passage, calling out the men from their
little rooms. Three hundred yards down the smoke grew denser. And he met
men coming along the passage.

"Are they all out back of y