to cheer him, the majority said he was "as good a sort as that
sort can be," but shrugged their shoulders and remained obstinate. The
most that he did during the long afternoon and evening was to prevent
the worst; until, as he sat eating a slice of ham in a miner's kitchen,
there came the explosion: the accident or crime--which, like the lances
in an angry tumour, let out the fury, enmity, and rebellion, and gave
human nature its chance again. The shock of the explosion had been
heard at Glencader, but nothing was thought of it, as there had been
much blasting in the district for days.

"There's twenty men below," said the grimy manager who had brought the
news to Byng. Together they sped towards the mine, little groups
running beside them, muttering those dark sayings which, either as
curses or laments, are painful comments on the relations of life on the
lower levels with life on the higher plateaux.

Among the volunteers to go below, Byng was of the first, and against
the appeal of the mine-manager, and of others who tried to dissuade
him, he took his place with two miners with the words:

"I know this pit better than most; and I'd rather be down there knowing
the worst, than waiting to learn it up here. I'm going; so lower away,
lads."

He had disappeared, and for a long time there was no sign; but at last
there came to the surface three of the imprisoned miners and two dead
bodies, and these were followed by others still alive; but Byng did not
come up. He remained below, leading the search, the first in the places
of danger and exploration, the last to retreat from any peril of
falling timbers or from fresh explosion. Twelve of the twenty men were
rescued. Six were dead, and their bodies were brought to the surface
and to the arms of women whose breadwinners were gone; whose husbands
or sons or brothers had been struck out into darkness without time to
strip themselves of the impedimenta of the soul. Two were left below,
and these were brothers who had married but three months before. They
were strong, buoyant men of twenty-five, with life just begun, and home
still welcome and alluring--warm-faced, bonny women to meet them at the
door, and lay the cloth, and comfort their beds, and cheer them away to
work in the morning. These four lovers had been the target for the
good-natured and half-affectionate scoffing of the whole field; for the
twins, Jabez and Jacob, were as alike as two peas, and their wives were