"I would gladly know how that can be done. If the ventilator has a copper tube, it would be impossible to introduce it through all the zigzag of the rubbish and general wreck; if it has an india-rubber pipe it would be too weak, and wouldn't stand being shoved forward."
"Some one must carry it into the pit."
"Some one?" repeated the engineer, with an air of amazement. "Look yonder; they are drawing up the third man who was foolish enough to venture down there; he is dead, like the other two!"
"No, none of them are dead; they will soon recover consciousness; they are stifled by the foul air."
"All the same, I can hardly believe that you will find a man mad enough to be the first to carry a tube fifty steps through all the wreckage."
"I have already found the man. I shall do it."
The engineer shrugged his shoulders, but he made no effort to dissuade him.
Ivan went back to the men, who meantime had been getting ready for work. He called the oldest miner on one side.
"Paul," he said, "some one must carry the india-rubber tube of the ventilator into the mouth of the pit."
"Good. Let us draw lots."