announced his inability to
find the missing boy.

"I did think Skip might have had a hand in it," he said; "but I reckon
he's innocent this time. I found him near his own home with a crowd of
cronies, and according to all accounts he's been there since supper."

"But what has become of Fred?" Mrs. Byram asked, preserving a semblance
of calmness only after the greatest difficulty.

"I hope nothing serious has happened. The superintendent has been
notified, and promises to send men out in search of him at once. It is
just possible he went down the slope to see the night shift at work."

There was nothing in these words to afford the distressed mother any
relief, and the sorrow which would not be controlled took complete
possession of her, as Donovan hurried away to join those who were
examining every place where an accident might have occurred.

Meanwhile the subject of all this commotion remained where the
regulators had left him. It was a long time before he recovered
consciousness, and then several moments were spent in trying to decide
where he was and what had happened.

The fragments of conversation heard while the boys were carrying him
told that he was in an abandoned shaft, and, unacquainted though he was
with mines in general, it did not require much thought to convince him
how nearly impossible it would be to escape unaided.

The bonds which fastened his limbs, as well as the gag, had not been
tied firmly, and in a short time he was free to begin such an
examination of the place as was possible in the profound darkness.

Here and there he could feel the timbers left when the shaft was
deserted, and, after groping about some moments, discovered a
tunnel-like opening ten or twelve feet across. The roof or top of this
place was beyond his reach, and he knew it must be a drift from which
all the coal had been taken.

"It may lead for miles under the hill, and I would be no better off by
following it," he thought. "Unless there is a slope which communicates
with it, I'd be in a worse fix than now, because the chances of being
lost or suffocated must be about even."

Then in his despair he shouted at the full strength of his lungs, until
it was impossible to speak louder than a whisper.

Nothing less than the booming of a cannon could have been heard from the
shaft by any one in the settlement, and with the night shift in the
working mine there would hardly be any one in the vicinity.

After giving full