He crept close behind the boy whom he hated, until the latter entered the tunnel. Then stooping he picked up the crowbar, and raised it for a blow. In this position he waited until Fred was in the middle of the tunnel clambering over the pile of dirt to get at his shovel.
The time had come.
Swinging the heavy bar once around he struck the bottom of the joist which supported the shoring over head, and the heavy timbers, put up insecurely because they were to be used but temporarily, fell with a crash.
The jar disturbed the earth at the top, and large masses fell, completely filling the entrance, burying alive those who were on the inside.
"That settles them, I reckon," Skip cried, gleefully, as, unmindful of the blinding dust, he sprang toward Bill's blouse.
To find the plan of the mine was but the work of a moment, and then, with the precious document thrust in the bosom of his shirt, he started at full speed toward the entrance to the slope.
The crash of the timbers and earth was by no means an unusual sound in the mine, where heavy masses of coal were constantly being detached by blasts, and the leader of the regulators had good reason to believe it would be unnoticed. His only care was to avoid Sam, in case he should return sooner than might be expected, and to this end he darted from one cutting to another, until having reached a point from which, at the proper moment, he could gain the slope.
Here he remained partially screened from view until the empty car, which Sam was to send to the new cutting, had passed on its way up the drift.
Now he listened intently, and in a few moments came the cry:
"A break! A break, and three men buried! Help on the lower level!"