"I might have known it. Heaven be praised that you are safe. How many men were on the car?"
"Four besides ourselves."
"Did they fall?"
"Yes; you will find them at the bottom of the shaft," answered the boy sadly.
The shouting without quickly died away. Planks were cast over the shaft opening, forming a platform on which the men might drop.
"Lower the cage a little," ordered the superintendent.
This was done. Steve was the first to leap down to the platform, followed quickly by Bob Jarvis, then by the Italian. The moment Dominick felt the solid planking underneath his feet, he uttered a yell and started on a run for home. Mr. Penton shouted to him to halt, but Dominick seemed deaf to all outward sounds. He was hurrying home to tell his wife of his hairbreadth escape from death.
In the meantime Mr. Penton had sprung forward, grasping the hands of the Iron Boys, which he wrung heartily, the tears almost blinding his sight, for he had grown to be very fond of these two manly young fellows.
"I beg your pardon, sir," said Steve, "but have you had those poor fellows who fell in looked up?"
"I have just sent a rescue party to the lower level to look for them. I had not been here ten minutes when you came up. Nothing was being done. Everyone seemed to have lost his head——"