f coal that had been left as pillars had been taken
away, and the ceiling of the pit had come down bodily, so that he had to
sit down and study his map to find a way round to the part he wanted to
reach.

It was strangely depressing work; but Philip Hexton had a big spirit,
the strength of mind that has enabled Englishmen to make their nation
what it is; and hence no sooner was he stopped by a fall of rock in one
place, than he sought out and found a way round to the other side.

Sometimes a clear dry part would enable him to get along pretty quickly,
but generally it was very slow travelling; often, where the seam of coal
hewn-out had been a thin one, it was in a position bent double.

And now, as he exerted himself, he felt less of the feeling of dread.
Once only did it come very strongly, and that was when, after getting by
a very narrow, crumbling part of the workings, he heard a heavy fall of
rock behind, and he crept cautiously back, feeling sure that the passage
by which he had come was stopped up, and that he might be left there to
starve, buried alive, without a prospect of being saved.

A reference to his map reassured him, and he went on. But now a fresh
doubt assailed him. Suppose his lamp should go out: how would it be
possible to get back?

If he had been ready to give way to them there were hundreds of such
fear-engendered thoughts ready to oppress him; but he fought against
them steadily, and was the master as he plodded on, with his faintly
marked shadow, distorted and broken as it fell upon the walls, forming
his only companion in his quest.

"Poor mother!" he thought once; "how alarmed she would be if she could
see me now!"

"But it must be done," he added, half aloud. "Ours is notoriously a
fiery mine. Ah! it is foul here."

For the lamp began to sputter and burn dimly within the gauze for a few
minutes, till he reached a more open place, thinking--"If I can get this
task done, I shall have made the mine comparatively safe, and who knows
but the old workings may not prove, with our modern appliances, well
worthy of carrying on?"

He was so elated by these thoughts that the remainder of his dark
subterranean journey seemed not one-half as difficult; and at last he
seated himself on a block of stone fallen from the roof to consult his
map.

"Let me see," he said, half aloud, as, with the map spread upon his
knees, he held his lamp so that the dim light might the better fall upon
the ca