ring. The men knew that the
danger was at an end, threw off the covering from their heads, and
struck out the fire from their garments. Some were badly burned about
the legs, but any word or cry they may have uttered was drowned in the
tremendous roar which continued. It was the water from the Logan pit
rushing into the Vaughan. For five minutes the noise was like thunder,
then, as the pressure from behind decreased, the sound gradually
diminished, until, in another five minutes, all was quiet. Then the
party rose to their feet. The air in the next stall was clear and fresh,
for as the Logan pit had emptied of water, fresh air had of course come
down from the surface to take its place.

"We can light our lamps again safely now," Bill Haden said. "We shall
want our tools, lads, and the powder; there may be some heavy falls in
our way, and we may have hard work yet before we get to the shaft, but
the roof rock is strong, so I believe we shall win our way."

"It lies to our right," Jack said. "Like our own, it is at the lower end
of the pit, so, as long as we don't mount, we are going right for it."

There were, as Haden had anticipated, many heavy falls of the roof, but
the water had swept passages in them, and it was found easier to get
along than the colliers had expected. Still it was hard work for men
weakened by famine; and it took them five hours of labour clearing away
masses of rock, and floundering through black mud, often three feet
deep, before they made their way to the bottom of the Logan shaft, and
saw the light far above them--the light that at one time they had never
expected to see again.

"What o'clock is it now, sir?" Bill Haden asked Mr. Brook, who had from
the beginning been the timekeeper of the party.

"Twelve o'clock exactly," he replied. "It is four days and an hour since
the pit fired."

"What day is it, sir? for I've lost all count of time."

"Sunday," Mr. Brook said after a moment's thought.

"It could not be better," Bill Haden said; "for there will be thousands
of people from all round to visit the mine."

"How much powder have you, Bill?" Jack asked.

"Four twenty-pound cans."

"Let us let off ten pounds at a time," Jack said. "Just damp it enough
to prevent it from flashing off too suddenly; break up fine some of this
damp wood and mix with it, it will add to the smoke."

In a few minutes the "devil" was ready, and a light applied; it blazed
furiously for half a minute, sendin