"Where are they?"
"I don't know. They're everywhere at once. I never saw anything like those two young fellows. You can give them the credit for saving your mine."
"But the magazines—is there fire near them?" asked the superintendent hurriedly.
"Who put it out?"
"Rush and Jarvis did—that is, they got into the powder house, carried out dynamite and blew up the drift ahead of the fire, so it could not reach the explosives."
The blood rushed to the face of the superintendent in a sudden wave of emotion.
"Have any lives been lost?"
"I fear so. We have been too busy to find out. We knew there was nothing that could be done; in fact, there was no possibility of our getting into the other side of the works. If we could get there the men could get here. I believe, however, that Rush and Jarvis have pulled out twenty or thirty men who had been overcome."
"Wonderful!" breathed Mr. Penton. "Come, men; we must go through the mine and make a quick investigation. Bates, have you stationed men through the various levels to watch?"