ea of claiming the honor myself. Finally, after more
bantering, Rufus Darnley cried, "Who's afraid? I'll light it. Two
minutes is time enough to get out."

Rufus was not largely endowed with mother wit, or prudence. His brother
Newman and his sister Adriana did not like the idea of his setting off
the blast--in fact, none of us did; but Rufus wanted to show off a bit,
and he insisted upon going in. Thereupon Ben, the oldest of the young
fellows present, said quietly that he would go in with Rufus and light
the fuse himself while Rufus held the lantern.

"I'll shout when I touch the match to the fuse," he said, "so that you
can get away from the mouth of the cave."

They crept in, and the rest of us stood round, listening for the signal.
Several minutes passed, and we wondered what could be taking them so
long. At last there came a muffled shout, and all of us, retreating
twenty or thirty yards, watched for Ben and Rufus to emerge. Some of us
were counting off the seconds. We could hear Ben and Rufus coming,
climbing over the rocks. Then suddenly there was an outcry and the sound
of tinkling glass. At the same instant Ben emerged, but immediately
turned and went back into the cave.

"Hurry, Rufe!" we heard him call out. "What's the matter? Hurry, or it
will go off!"

Consternation fell on us, and some of us started for the mouth of the
cave; but before we had gone more than five paces Ben sprang forth. He
had not dared to remain an instant longer--and, indeed, he was scarcely
outside when the explosion came. It sounded like a heavy jolt deep
inside the mountain.

To our horror a huge slab of rock, thirty or forty feet up the side of
the Fall-off, started to slide with a great crunching and grinding;
then, gathering momentum, it plunged down between us and the mouth of
the cave and completely shut the opening from view. Powder smoke floated
up from behind the slab.

There was something so terrible in the suddenness of the catastrophe
that the whole party seemed crazed. The boys, shouting wildly, swarmed
about the fallen rock; the girls ran round, imploring us to get Rufus
out. Rufus's sister Adriana, beside herself with terror, was screaming;
and we could hardly keep Newman Darnley from attacking Ben Murch, who,
he declared, should have brought Rufus out!

At first we were afraid that the explosion had killed Rufus; but almost
immediately we heard muffled cries for help from the cave. He was still
alive, but we