It was the water from the Logan pit rushing into the Vaughan. For five minutes the noise was like thunder; then, as the pressure from behind decreased, the sound gradually grew less, until, in another five minutes, all was quiet.
THE VAUGHAN PIT.—IX.
Then the men rose to their feet. The air in the next stall was clear and fresh, for as the Logan pit had emptied of water, fresh air had of course come down from the surface to take its place.
"We can light our lamps again safely now," Bill Haden said. "We shall want our tools, lads, and the powder; there may be some heavy falls in our way, and we may have hard work yet before we get to the shaft, but the roof rock is strong, so I believe we shall make our way."
"It lies to our right," Jack said. "Like our own, it is at the lower end of the pit, so, as long as we don't mount, we are going right for it."
There were, as Haden had expected, many heavy falls of the roof, but the water had swept passages in them, and it was found easier to get along than the colliers had expected. Still it was hard work for men weakened by hunger; and it took them five hours of labour clearing away masses of rock, and floundering through black mud, often three feet deep, before they made their way to the bottom of the Logan shaft. Then they saw the light far above them—the light that at one time they had never expected to see again.
"What o'clock is it now, sir?" Bill Haden asked Mr. Brook, who had from the beginning been the time-keeper of the party.
"Twelve o'clock exactly," he replied. "It is four days and an hour since the pit caught fire."
"What day is it, sir? for I've lost all count of time."
"Sunday," Mr. Brook said after a moment's thought.