“I bet you!” was the answer.
Chet attacked the wall with renewed courage. The earth and small stones rattled down faster than Dig could shovel the rubbish aside.
“Hold on! hold on!” gasped Dig. “Let’s take a breath. You’ll bury us both in this stuff, Chet. Wait till I shout again.”
“Go ahead!” panted his chum, quite breathless.
Digby raised his voice as loudly as possible. Immediately there was an answer—unmistakably a human voice!
“They’re in there—and they are alive!” cried Chet, half sobbing. “Come on, Dig! maybe some of them are hurt! I want to hear my father’s voice!”
CHAPTER VII—THE RESCUE—AND AFTERWARD
The two boys went at the task of digging into the other mine with renewed vigour. A murmur of sound came through the intervening wall of earth—unmistakably the voices of the entombed miners.
“Hurrah!” cheered Digby Fordham. “They hear us!”
Chet’s heart was too full for him to speak. He worked at the wall of dirt and small stones furiously, and without regard to the bringing down of a possible avalanche upon his own and Digby’s heads.