THE VAUGHAN PIT.—II.
Jack brought three safety-lamps from the lamp-room, and took his place in the cage with the two volunteers.
"Lower away," he shouted, "but go very slowly when we get near the bottom, and look out for our signal."
It was but three minutes from the moment that the cage began to sink to that when it touched the bottom of the shaft, but it seemed an age to those in it. They knew that at any moment a second explosion might come, and that they might be driven far up into the air above the top of the shaft, mere scorched fragments of flesh.
Not a word was spoken during the descent, and there was a general exclamation of "Thank God!" when they felt the cage touch the bottom.
Jack, as an official of the mine, at once took the lead.
"Now," he said, "let us push straight up the main road."
Just as they stepped out, they came across the bodies of two men, and stooped over them with their lamps.
"Both dead," Jack said; "we can do nothing for them."
A little way on were some waggons thrown together in a heap, and broken up; the body of a pony; and that of the lad, his driver. Then they came to the first door—a door no longer, not a fragment of it remaining. In the door-boy's niche the lad lay in a heap. They bent over him.