The work of rescue had continued without intermission for seventy hours. On calculating the amount of rock and coal removed from the drift-ways, it was found that a full month would have been required, under ordinary circumstances, to do the work which had been performed in three days.
STORY OF THE SUFFERERS.
The most precise details of the circumstances of their confinement were given by the two rescued colliers. They were at work in a heading when the water was heard coming upon them. They then ran to the upper end of the gallery, where they were found—a narrow place with a considerable slope, and very slippery. With their hands and the hooks of their lamps they dug a little place in the shale to sit down in; the water was up to their feet, and they were in a sort of bell, in which the air was highly compressed. They felt a singing noise in their ears, and for a time they lost their voices. Their lamps went out for want of oil. They tapped with the heels of their shoes on the walls of the gallery to summon assistance. This sound was the one which was heard, but only after they had been imprisoned twenty-four hours!
Convinced that help would arrive, the eldest of the three, the one who was destined never to behold the light of day again, shed tears of joy. Another, mad with thirst, descended into the level with the water up to his armpits, in a vain search for a way through the rubbish; but he afterwards regained his place, being guided by the voices of his companions. The youngest, seventeen years of age, frequently fell asleep, and would have fallen into the water but for the help of his neighbor, who held him in his arms like a child, and thus saved him from death. At one time the noise of the ventilator connected with the operations of their preservers reached their ears, when they imagined that a new influx of water was about to occur, and they became discouraged. The old man was constantly active. Overcome by his efforts, he slid from his resting-place into the water, and was drowned without a struggle, and without uttering a cry. Frozen with horror, and held motionless in their places, the two others dared not move to his assistance, and they even refrained from announcing the accident to those who were working to relieve them. “There are three of us,” they cried, when in reality only two were alive.
IN DARKNESS WITH A CORPSE.
The one who suffered from thirst finally determined to move, but touching the dead body while drinking, he clambered back again. Fatigue, bad air, and this fearful vicinity to a corpse, rendered him delirious, and he said to his comrade, “Come, let us leave this.” The other was frightened, and in order to divert his attention, suggested that he should go and drink again. He went, and returned, striking against the dead body in passing. “The darkness,” said he, “made the place more horrible than anything I had ever imagined.”
In the mean time the water got lower in the level, but it was cold there, and the two captives remained in their places where the air was dry and warm, though constantly growing more impure. At last they were recovered, and carried into the light by their comrades. By a strange phenomenon they had lost all notion of time, and thought they had not been in the mine more than twenty-four hours. Other instances of a similar nature are recorded. Some miners of Hainault, who lived twenty-five days shut up in a mine during an inundation, thought they had only been there eight or ten hours.
While the operations for saving the lives of these two men were in progress, other works were undertaken, with the view of penetrating the interior at other points. Pits were dug where the miners were suspended from ropes for fear of explosions, while other workings, which had been injured by the flood, were repaired. One of the old shafts was undergoing repairs at the time of the accident. In ordinary times, fifteen days, at the least, were required to refit the engine, put up the ropes, and get everything ready. In this instance everything was done in four days: the pumping began on the 15th of October, and was not again interrupted.
The workmen continued to bore and dig shafts. On the 24th of October, thirteen days after the accident, the men working at the bottom of the shaft heard shouts. Three men were still alive, only separated by rubbish and a vacant space of ground from the point where the workings were in progress. Disputes arose as to who should save them, each man desiring the honor of going down first. At last the favor was given to one of the overmen, who descended and found two men, who clung to him, and begged for relief. He encouraged them, and fed them from a can of broth which he carried. In a little while the timbermen made the place secure, and the captives were brought out.