It fell, and a portion of it hurled him down and caught his feet and legs, pinning him fast.
The torch was extinguished.
At first Del Norte thought the end had come. As he lay with the weight of earth holding his legs fast, he fully expected another mass to follow the first and end his life without delay.
A sudden feeling of indifference came over him, and calmly he waited for the end.
"Come, death!" he urged. "Get it over quickly!"
But no more of the roof fell.
After a little he found himself looking upward into the opening, and far, far away, seemingly miles distant, he imagined he could detect a ray of light.
Lifting the upper part of his body, he began dragging away, with his hands, the earth and stones which had fallen on his legs. It did not take him long to clear his feet.
Next he sought for the torch, but it was buried and lost beneath the fallen mass.
This mass had made a great mound almost as high as the roof of the passage.