prise or agitation. It seemed as if they were perfectly accustomed to
having light suddenly flashed into them. One of the men leaned forward
and began to run his hand this way and that over the hard dirt floor.

"Lost something?" said the other suddenly.

"Dropped my plug," said the first in a dull weary voice, and he
continued to feel for and repeatedly just miss a half-cake of
chewing-tobacco. Bubbles could see it distinctly, and another thing was
clear to him: the men were both blind.

With this knowledge certain frayed and tattered fragments of courage
returned to him, and, what was of much greater importance, his
presence of mind.

The excavation in which he stood was nearly forty feet square. His torch
showed him the passage by which he had entered, and opposite this a
flight of steps leading sharply upward. Here and there, leaning against
the walls, were picks and shovels and other tools used in excavating.
Near the centre of the passage was a tall pile of dirt and loose stones,
together with two small wheelbarrows of sheet-iron.

Just as Bubbles had ascertained these facts and got himself into a much
calmer state of mind, he had a fresh thrill of horror. The two blind men
sighed, and as if moved by a common impulse got up, and the little boy
saw that, like Blizzard, the beggar, they had no legs. With perfect
accuracy of direction they turned to the great pile of dirt, and taking
up two shovels which leaned against it began to fill the two little
wheelbarrows.

They labored slowly as if time was of no moment, as if the work in hand
was a form of punishment instead of something that it was intended
to complete.

Bubbles had begun to wonder what they were going to do with the dirt,
when one of them, having filled his barrow, trundled off with it into
the passageway leading to the river. And to Bubbles, feverishly
listening, there came after what seemed a very long interval a sound as
of earth being dumped into water.

The second excavator, having filled his barrow, waited the return of his
companion, since the passage was too narrow to admit of the two barrows
meeting and passing each other.

And that simple fact was very alarming to Bubbles, since virtually it
made a prisoner of him. One man with his barrow full or empty was always
in the passage.

Nor was there any possibility of escape by the flight of stairs which
he had noticed, for a hurried examination revealed a door of sheet-iron
which did not