s breast. "What sort of an outlet?"

The faintest ray of hope had shot into his soul. Still he realized that
smoke might go where a human being could not pass. Nevertheless, with a
burning sensation of eagerness creeping over his hitherto chilled body,
he bent low and hastened onward into that low passage.

All the time he kept staring upward at the smoke.

Suddenly he stopped.

He had found the place where the smoke escaped!

It was directly over his head, a long crack across the roof, scarcely
wider than a man's hand. Into this the smoke was pouring in the same
slow, deliberate manner.

He stared at that crack in bitter, heart-crushed disappointment.

Smoke might escape through that narrow fissure, but a human
being--never!

The agony of disappointment that he felt nearly robbed him of his
strength and caused him to collapse. He fell back against the wall, a
groan coming from his parched throat.

"No chance!" he said hoarsely. "Ridgeway was right! We were both doomed
when the landslide came! But he is the better off, for his agony is
over!"

Then he thought of his pistol. As a last resort he could blow out his
brains and have it ended.

He thrust the deadly knife back into the bosom of his shirt,
straightened up, and thrust his fingers into the crack. He tried to
force his hand through, to reach up appealingly to the free world far
above.

A few pebbles and a little dirt came rattling down and rained over him,
bounding from his head and shoulders. Some of the tiny particles of
stone struck him on the face.

Then suddenly he began clawing like a madman at the crack, as if he
would pull the whole mountain down upon him.

His efforts brought down more stones and earth.

He found a niche into which he set the torch, and then he fell on his
knees, calling on the saints.

When he rose again to his feet he bethought himself of the knife and
once more took it from the place where it was hidden. With that knife he
began digging at the crack. He was compelled to stand in a cramped,
crouching position, but he worked fiercely, furiously.

More and more the earth rattled over him and the tiny pebbles rained
upon him. His eyes were filled and half blinded, his mouth and nostrils
inhaled the dust and caused him to cough. The smoke of the torch choked
him.

Still he worked on. It seemed a mad, hopeless task, for he knew that
above his head the slope of the mountain extended far upward. Should he
make an openi