"Hello," came the answer. "Where are you?"

"Chute thirty-one."

A man came running through the half darkness. His face was so blackened from smoke that Rush did not recognize him.

"Is that you, Steve?" cried a familiar voice.

"Yes—Bob, is that you?"

"What's left of me."

Steve gave his companion a mighty hug.

"Where are the men? Quick, tell me! We must help them!"

"I've been herding them on the lower level; that is, all of them that I have been able to find, but they are the craziest lot I ever saw. The heathens won't listen to reason."

"How bad is the fire—is the whole mine going?"