ou?" he called to the men as they passed.
"Yes," they cried, "except the last three or four rooms."

Grant and his men pushed forward to these rooms. As they went they
stumbled over an unconscious form in the passage. The men behind
Grant--Dooley, Hogan, Casper Herdicker, Williams, Davis, Chopini--joined
him. Their work was done. They had been in all the rooms. They picked up
the limp form, and staggered slowly back down the passage. The smoke
gripped Grant about the belly like a vise. He could not breathe. He
stopped, then crawled a few feet, then leaned against a timber. Finally
he rose and came upon the swaying group with the unconscious man.
Another man was down, and three men were dragging two.

The smoke kept rolling along behind them. It blackened the passage ahead
of them. Most of the lights the men carried were out. Grant lent a hand,
and the swaying procession crawled under the smoke. They went so slowly
that one man, then two on their hands and knees, then three more caught
up with them and they were too exhausted to drag the senseless man with
them. At a puddle in the way they soused the face of the prostrated man
in the water. That revived him. They could hear and feel another man
across the passage calling feebly for help. Grant and Chopini, speaking
different languages, understood the universal call of distress, and
together crawled in the dark and felt their way to the feeble voice.
Chopini reached the voice first. Grant could just distinguish in the
darkness the powerful movement of the Italian, with his head upon the
ground like a nosing dog's as he wormed under the fallen body and got it
on his back and bellied over to the group that was slowly moving down
the passage toward the glimmering light. As they passed the rooms
vacated by the miners, sometimes they put their heads in and got
refreshing air, for the smoke moved in a slow, murky current down the
passage and did not back into the rooms at first.

Grant and Chopini crawled on all fours into a room, and found the air
fresh. They rose, holding each other's hands. They leaned together
against the dark walls and breathed slowly, and finally their diaphragms
seemed to be released and they breathed more deeply. By a hand signal
they agreed to start out. At the door they crouched and crawled. A few
yards further they found the little group of a dozen men feebly pushing
on. Seven were trying to drag five. Further down the passage they could
hear the s