McGowan's face was not a thing I liked to look upon, in that moment.
Then came the day when I felt the first detector beam. I had been wondering and doubting, but when it came it was unmistakable; a single sharp pain through every fiber of my body, like the exposed nerve of a tooth when it's unexpectedly touched; and then a strong, steady tingling utterly different from that of the radite ore.
I was with Blakely at the time. He stopped his work instantly. "We'd better go down and get McGowan," he said.
McGowan came back up with us. "What would you say, Reed? Think we're enough into that beam to have set off an alarm?"
"How close would you say we are?" I asked.
"According to my estimates, there must be at least another hundred yards of rock."
"Then I'd say we're safe. We must be on the very fringe of this beam. But if it weren't for me—"
"Yes, I know. But now your work's only beginning. We're going to have to cut parallel to the surface and get beyond range of the furthest beam before we can go up again."
McGowan was right. And this took several more weeks. We were very impatient now, but he impressed upon us the need for extreme caution. At last, however, we reached a point where I was definitely sure we were beyond the range. It had been agony for me, that constant proximity to the beams that seemed to tear at my every nerve-center; but I endured it and said nothing.