sway to his grief for half an hour or more, anger
replaced sorrow, and he rushed into the tunnel with no other thought
than to escape from that particular place.

Stumbling on over decaying timbers, rocks, and mounds of earth which had
fallen from the roof, he pushed straight ahead until the decided
inclination told that this drift tended upward. There was now reason to
believe it might communicate with another which, in turn, was reached by
a slope, and hope grew strong once more.

How long he had traveled when the sound of voices caused him to halt it
was impossible to form any idea; but it seemed as if several hours
elapsed, and the first thought was to shout for help.

"I won't do it," he said, checking himself. "This tunnel may have led me
back to the other mine, and if the people ahead are some of the night
shift they'll be likely to have considerable sport at my expense."

Walking cautiously in the direction of the voices he was suddenly
brought to a standstill by an apparently solid wall of earth.

He groped around until there was no question but that he had reached the
end of the drift, and when this discovery had been made he found a small
aperture which opened into a gallery or chamber where were a dozen men,
the lamps in their hats illumining the place sufficiently for Fred to
distinguish the party.

He had reached the limit of the abandoned drift, and was looking in upon
a portion of the new mine.

Even now he made no appeal for help. The conversation of the men caused
him to listen with no thought of his own condition.

"Unless we do the job to-morrow night there's little chance of gettin'
through with it all right," one of the party was saying, and another
replied with an oath:

"There's no reason why we should wait. To-night would suit me."

"I don't believe in it," a third man said. "What's to be gained by
floodin' the mine, an' turnin' ourselves out of a chance to earn a
living?"

"You allers was chicken-hearted, Joe Brace. Haven't we put up with
enough from the mine owners an' bosses? We work for starvation wages,
while they can barrel money."

"Would you say that if you hadn't been thrown out of a job?"

"That's my business. Here's a crowd of us who have sworn to stick
together, no matter what happens, an' five have been warned out. Are we
goin' peaceable, not liftin' a finger agin them as have got rich while
we starved?"

"But how are we helpin' ourselves by floodin' the mine?"