"Can't tell, sir. Most o' the men seemed to be gettin' clear."
"Ready to go down again?"
"Sure!"
"All right, get in the cage, then."
The assistant superintendent, the mining engineer, the safety inspector, and the fire boss were already in. The foreman jumped in beside them, and the cage rattled down to the bottom.
Already the word had spread to the gathering crowd that the accident was but a roof-fall, not an explosion, that two cages full of miners had come and that there was a likelihood that most of the men were safe.
Volunteers clustered around the mine-owner, clamoring to be allowed to go down.
"We'll dig 'em out, sir!" they cried cheerily.
"Keep back, men!" was the answer. "Wait till we know just what has to be done. Maybe every one below ground will have a chance to get out."
There was need for caution. While mine disasters are numerous—over two thousand men being killed every year in United States collieries alone—such an accident as this one had rarely happened before. The landslide above, combined with the sinking of the strata below, produced a condition which might be of the extremest danger.