l try, sir," said Harry Vores.

"Forward!" cried the Colonel, abruptly; and once more they went on till
all at once, after leaving candle after candle burning, they reached a
part where the main lode seemed to have suddenly broken up into
half-a-dozen, each running in a different direction, and spreading
widely, the two outer going off at very obtuse angles.

Here they paused, unconscious of the fact that they had passed the spot,
only a couple of hundred yards back, where the boys had made their
heroic resolve to go on.

"Let me see," said the Colonel, excitedly; "it was the third passage
from the left that we took this morning."

Hardock raised his lanthorn and stared vacantly in his employer's face.

"No, sir, no," he cried breathlessly; "the third coming from the right."

"No, no, you are wrong. The third from the left; I counted them this
morning--six of these branches. Why, Hardock, there are seven of them
now."

"Yes, sir, seven, and that one running from the right-hand one makes
eight. I did not see those two this morning by our one lanthorn. There
are--yes--eight."

"What are we all to do? My head is growing hopelessly confused."

He gazed piteously at Hardock, who seemed to be in a like hopeless
plight, suffering as they both were from exhaustion.

"I--I'm not sure, sir, now. We went in and out of so many galleries,
all ending just the same, that I'm afraid I've lost count."

"Oh, Hardock! Hardock!" groaned the Colonel, "this is horrible. We
must not break down, man. Try and think; oh, try and think. Remember
that those two boys are lost, and they are wandering helplessly in
search of us. They will go on and on into the farther recesses of this
awful place, and lie down at last to die--giving their lives for ours.
There, there, I am babbling like some idiot. Forward, my men; there is
no time to lose. We must find them."

"Yes, sir; we must find them," cried Hardock; "which passage shall we
take?"

"Stop a moment," said the Colonel, in a voice which seemed to have
suddenly grown feeble; and he signed to the mining captain to light a
candle and place it where they stood, while he tremblingly wrote on
another leaf of his pocket-book,--

"Make for the pit-shaft."

He tore out the leaf, and the men noticed how his hand trembled; and he
stood waiting for it to be taken by Hardock, who had sunk on his knees
and was holding the candle sidewise, so that a little of the grease
might drip