"Safe?"
"I—don't know. I can feel 'em, but they don't answer."
At that instant, without any warning, one of the fallen timbers slipped from its position, and revealed a narrow aperture into the crosscut, through which Tabitha caught a glimpse of Toady's white face and the gleam of Susie's scarlet dress.
"Can you crawl through?" she demanded.
"Yes."
"Carefully now, so as not to start another landslide. There! Now, can you help me make the opening bigger?"
But other aid was at hand. The assayer with three men from the town had arrived and the rescue of the quintette at the bottom of the shaft was speedily effected.
"Are they—" Tabitha's voice faltered as she stood at last on the rocky mountainside and looked down into the still, white faces of Billiard, Susie and Inez. How could she ever have let them out of her sight? How could she ever break the news to the mother?
"Merely stunned," replied the doctor, examining the victims with rapid, practised fingers. "See, the girls are coming to their senses. It's nothing short of a miracle that— Hello, Susie, what did you say?"
"It wasn't gold at all," murmured the child faintly; "just quartz, but he wouldn't b'lieve it."