minute! You are tired: let me help you, old man," said a young
miner who had finished his work. The old man lifted his head, looked at
him for a moment, and sank down again. The younger laid hold of the
wheelbarrow, but Ivan took it brusquely from him, and shook his head
with an air of disapproval.

"What fly is buzzing in your head, comrade?" several of the other miners
said to the young one. "Have you forgotten the old man's habits? You
know that he never allows any one to enter his hole, nor to touch his
barrow, for he has heaped up riches in it. Since he has worked in the
mine, he has found so much gold that he has become a regular Croesus."

The miners laughed good-naturedly, tapping the old man's shoulder with
their horny fingers.

"March on in front, Ivan, and the other one will follow," they said to
soothe him.

Instead of answering, Ivan removed his old leather cap and commenced
bowing to right and to left as if to give his comrades a good view of
his bald head.

"That's enough, old man! Yes, we know your zeal!" said the miners,
laughing. "He is quite a child, eh?"

"He has forgotten how to talk," some one remarked.

"Yes, he is an innocent. Ah, my God! What is that?"

In the twinkling of an eye every one was on their feet. It seemed as
though the huge mountain was breathing with all its lungs. The noise
came from a distance and drowned all the others. The miners were
deafened. Suddenly a gust of wind rushed violently through the gallery,
extinguishing nearly all the lamps. Somewhere, one knew not where, rose
cries of anguish which were soon lost in an immense uproar. After
hurriedly re-lighting their lamps, the miners rushed in the direction of
the cries. A gleam of intelligence lit up the eyes of old Ivan as he
tottered after them on his feeble legs.

IV

In front of what had been the exit from the gallery the miners stood
silent. Others were running up from the more or less distant side
galleries; their steps could be heard approaching and their lamps seen.

"What has happened, sir?" they exclaimed in alarm, as they came staring
in a stupefied way at the place where a moment before had stood the
principal shaft of the mine.

If the vaulted roof of the gallery had resisted the formidable shock of
the collapse, it was only because it was part of the solid rock. Already
the miners' feet were standing in water which had been liberated by this
displacement of masses of earth and flowed into the