“'After I gets up,' he said, 'an' me an' Jim's all ready, you climb into the bucket an' light the fuse. Then raise the long yell to me an' Jim, an' we'll yank ye out. But be shore an' light the fuse. There's nothin' more discouragin' than for to wait half an* hour outside an' no cartridge goin' off. Especial when it goes off after you comes back to see what's the matter with her. So be shore an' light the fuse, an' then Jim an' me'll run you up the second follerin'. This oughter be a great day for you, young man! firin' a shot this away, the first six hours you're a miner!'
“Jim and Gassy were at the windlass and yelled:
“'All ready below?'
“I was in the bucket and at the word scratched a match and lit the fuse. It sputtered with alarming ardour, and threw off a shower of sparks.
“'Hoist away!' I called.
“The villains ran me up about twenty-five feet, and came to a dead halt. At this they seemed to get into an altercation. They both abandoned the windlass, and I could hear them cursing, threatening, and shooting; presumably at each other.
“'I'll blow your heart out!' I heard Gassy say.
“My alarm was without a limit. I'd seen one dynamite cartridge go off. Here I was, swinging some twenty-five feet over a still heavier charge, and about to be blown into eternity! Meanwhile the caitiffs, on whom my life depended, were sacrificing me to settle some accursed feud of their own.
“I cannot tell you of my agony. The fuse was spitting fire like forty fiends; the narrow shaft was choked with smoke. I swung helpless, awaiting death, while the two monsters, Gassy and Jim, were trying to murder each other above. Either from the smoke or the excitement, I fainted.
“When I came to myself I was outside the shaft, safe and sound, while Gassy and his disreputable assistant were laughing at their joke. There had been no shot placed in the drill-hole; the heartless Gassy had palmed it and carried it with him to the surface.