"A cave-in, eh?" said one of the miners, running up.
"Worse," said Mark. "Bob Billings is at the bottom of the hole."
"Gee shoo! Ye don't tell me!" cried the miner. "We must git him out."
"Thet's the talk, Jim," said his partner, and they pitched in with a will, and soon all on top of the ground were making the sand fly in all directions.
It was no easy matter to keep the sand from caving in again and one of the miners ran off and soon brought back several short boards, with which one side of the hole was shored up. Then, a few seconds later, Mark uttered a cry as he uncovered the top of the handle of a pick.
"Bob had hold of that when the cave-in came."
"Maybe he has hold of it still," suggested Maybe Dixon.
Mark took hold of the pick handle and pulled upon it.
"Bob! Bob!" he called out loudly.
"Here!" came faintly through the hole made by the moving of the pick handle.