"Nor do I. Besides, we might get lost, and it's fearsome dark in case that light gives oot, and I dinna think the batteries are verra strong."
This suggested an alarming possibility to Jack. He knew that Sandy had used the torch a good deal and, as the Scotch lad had pointed out, there was a chance that the light might not hold out. In such a case their predicament would be a serious one, indeed.
The lads turned and retraced their steps and, in the course of a few minutes, found themselves back in the vaulted chamber. Here they sat down to rest once more. While they rested the light was extinguished, but, as it was lonely sitting there in the dark, Sandy felt moved to relate a story of an adventure met with by a friend of his father's in a mine in the west.
This man was an engineer who had been called upon to do some inspection work on a large mine which extended several hundred feet under the ground.
"Being doon here in the dark sets me in mind of it," added the lad. "Shall I tell ye aboot it?"
"Yes, do," rejoined Jack. "It will help to pass the time while we are resting up."
Without further preliminaries Sandy plunged into his story, which we shall not relate in his dialect, but set forth in plain English.
The hero of Sandy's tale was a young engineer named MacPherson. On the day on which he met with his adventure he had completed a tour of inspection of the lower levels of the works and was invited by one of the employees to take a look at a vein which was located in a far part of the mine.
Accompanied by this employee, MacPherson set off to the remote excavation in which the vein was located. All the time they were below the ore trucks, operated by a cable from above, were ascending and descending at a rapid rate. On returning from his investigation of the vein the engineer and his friend stopped for a time to watch the trucks as they rushed up and down.
All at once MacPherson noticed that a truck of a different type to the others was coming toward them. It was painted a bright red. He inquired what it was, and was informed that it was the dynamite car which took a supply of the explosive to another part of the mine where the men were opening up a new lead.