"Yes."
"Well, Otto wouldn't go to work, nohow. Said the knockers had been riled an' he wouldn't take the risk o' goin' agin 'em. The boss swore at him some, but that didn' faze Otto. He went to the top, just the same. He had the right hunch. Wish I'd followed him!"
They ran on, and Jim broke out again:
"I'd no business to come coal minin', anyway. I'm a prospector, by rights. Gold's my end, not coal. You're s'posed to know this game. What chance ha' we got?"
Clem made no answer in words. He held up his safety-lamp, already showing a marked blue cap of gas over the flame.
"I'd seen it a'ready! That means gas, don't it?"
"We may get through it," said Clem, but his tone was not hopeful.
They turned into a long gallery leading to the old workings, and, as they sped along, the cones of gas on the safety lamps grew longer and longer.
Presently lumps of slate and rock on the floor heralded the end.
Quite suddenly, the gleam of the lamps shone on a wall before them. The roof had fallen in.