"Get it out!"
Then, to the mine boss:
"Murchison, get a new pipe down the uptake shaft as quick as you know how! Double pay for every man working on the job! Put them on the jump!"
As fast as his eye could travel round the circle of eager men, the boss picked his workers, miners of tried worth.
Almost as though by magic a line was formed from the storehouse to the shaft. Mechanics, with their tools ready, were on the ladders by the time the first joint of pipe reached the shaft, and the first nine-foot length was flanged on in less than five minutes after the giving of the order. So fast were the joints thimbled and braced against the side of the shaft that the long pipe seemed to grow like a living thing. In an hour's time, the pumps were going again.
Meanwhile, the time clerk, not needing to wait for his orders, had checked the names of all the men who had come up the shaft, until the cage came up empty save for the foreman.
"That's the last," he said.
The time clerk closed his book and nodded, then went to the superintendent.
"Eight missing, sir."
"That's bad enough, though it might have been a good deal worse. Make out a detailed list and bring it here."