Derrick's heart sank within him as he remembered the weak spot in his tracing; but he answered, "I don't think so, sir; though it does look as if something was wrong."
Here conversation was interrupted by the difficulties of the road, for they had reached the mass of fallen debris that blocked Job Taskar's way a little later.
As they crawled on hands and knees over the obstruction, the mine boss said, hoarsely, and with great difficulty, "Hurry, boy! there's gas enough here to kill us if we breathe it many minutes. If we had naked lights instead of safeties we'd be blown into eternity."
After they had safely passed this danger he said, "I hope with all my heart that those fellows won't come that way looking for us; there's sure to be an explosion if they do. I don't believe they will, though," he added, after a moment's reflection; "they're too old hands to expose themselves needlessly to the fire-damp."
They had again waded through the icy water, which the mine boss said he must have drawn off before it increased so as to be dangerous, and were well along towards the opening into the break, when the muffled sound of the explosion reached their ears.
"There's trouble back there!" exclaimed Mr. Jones, as he relighted their lamps, which the rush of air had extinguished, "and I'm afraid that somebody has got hurt. You go on out, Derrick, and I'll go back and see. No, I won't, either. I can get there as quickly, and do more good, by going round outside and down the slope. Come, let us run."
In a few minutes they had reached the bottom of the break, climbed the rickety ladder, and once more they stood in safety beneath the starlit sky of the outer world.
"Eight o'clock," said Mr. Jones, looking at his watch. "We've been in there three hours, Derrick, and seen some pretty lively times. What I can't understand, though, is how we got in on that lower level. Never mind now; we must run, for I'm anxious about that explosion."
The news of the disaster in the mine had already reached the surface, but nobody knew exactly how or where it had taken place. A crowd of people, including many women and children, was rapidly gathering about the mouth of the slope, anxious to learn tidings of those dear to them who were down in the mine with the night shift.
The voice of the mine boss calling out that the explosion had occurred in an abandoned gangway, and that nobody who was in the new workings was hurt, gave the first intimation of his presence among them. His words carried comfort to the hearts of many who heard them, but filled with dismay the minds of those who had seen him but a short time before at the underground meeting. They had thought he must surely be still in the mine, and could in no way account for his presence, for they knew positively that he had not come up by the slope or the travelling-road.