"Great guns! Died?"
"Yes," the young miner said, "poor fellows, they went under. Another man and I were the only ones who got over it."
"Died in saving others! That's sure tough!" There was a pause, and Eric added, "What got you two clear?"
"The other chap had been lying full length on the ground, while working, and as white damp rises, he had breathed less of the gas than the others. I wasn't able to work, so I didn't have to breathe deep." He looked down at his broken arm. "It's a queer thing," he said, "but it was breaking my arm that saved my life."
CHAPTER IV
SNATCHED FROM A FROZEN DEATH
"Father! Father! What do you think?" cried Eric, bursting into the sitting room at breakfast one morning, a couple of weeks after his encounter with his young mining friend, "I'm going into the Life-Saving work right away!"
"What's the excitement?" his father asked, speaking for the rest of the family. "Cool down a bit, my boy, and tell us all about it."
"I've—I've just got a letter from the Captain Commandant," replied Eric, fairly stuttering in his haste to tell the good news, "and he says I can enlist in one of the lake stations until the close of navigation. I'll get some real practical training that way, he says, and then I can take up prep. work for the Academy all winter."