"Wait!" said Arthur, with a hasty movement of impatience. "We have waited a full hour, and the lives of the unfortunate men may hang on each minute. Do you think it is possible to get down the drawing-shaft?"
"It may perhaps be possible. It seems to be only smoke that is coming up, but any one who goes down now will risk his life. I would not venture on it."
"But I will!" broke in Ulric's voice, speaking with great decision. As soon as the machinery had begun to move he had pushed forward, and he was now standing by the great iron cage in which the ore was lifted.
"I shall go down," he repeated, "but one man is of no use below, I must have help. Who will go with me?"
Nobody answered. All present recoiled before a journey down that steaming gulf; they had seen how the brave fellows, who had tried to force an entrance through the other shaft, had stumbled back or fallen. Lawrence still lay unconscious; he had succumbed to a venture from which his stronger companion had escaped scathless, and not one among them had the temerity to follow that companion in an expedition where return or retreat seemed almost hopeless.
"No one?" asked Ulric after a pause. "Well then, I will go by myself. Give the signal."
He sprang into the cage, but suddenly a slender white hand was laid on its grimy edge, and a clear voice said:
"Wait a moment, Hartmann, I am coming with you."
A cry of horror broke from the lips of all the officials standing round; on all sides a loud opposition was set up.
"For God's sake, do not, Herr Berkow! You will sacrifice your life uselessly. You can give no help." And so on, in every tone and alarm of anxiety.