g volumes of light smoke up the
shaft.

"Flash off a couple of pounds of dry powder," Bill Haden said; "there is
very little draught up the shaft, and it will drive the air up."

For twenty minutes they continued letting off "devils" and flashing
powder. Then they determined to stop, and allow the shaft to clear
altogether of the smoke.

Presently a small stone fell among them--another--and another, and they
knew that some one had noticed the smoke.

CHAPTER XXVII.

RESCUED.

A stranger arriving at Stokebridge on that Sunday morning might have
thought that a fair or some similar festivity was going on, so great was
the number of people who passed out of the station as each train came
in. For the day Stokebridge was the great point of attraction for
excursionists from all parts of Staffordshire. Not that there was
anything to see. The Vaughan mine looked still and deserted; no smoke
issued from its chimneys; and a strong body of police kept all, except
those who had business there, from approaching within a certain distance
of the shaft. Still less was there to see in Stokebridge itself. Every
blind was down--for scarce a house but had lost at least one of its
members; and in the darkened room women sat, silently weeping for the
dead far below.

For the last four days work had been entirely suspended through the
district; and the men of the other collieries, as well as those of the
Vaughan who, belonging to the other shift, had escaped, hung about the
pit yard, in the vague hope of being able in some way to be useful.

Within an hour of the explosion the managers of the surrounding pits had
assembled; and in spite of the fact that the three volunteers who had
first descended were, without doubt, killed, plenty of other brave
fellows volunteered their services, and would have gone down if
permitted. But the repeated explosions, and the fact that the lower part
of the shaft was now blocked up, decided the experienced men who had
assembled that such a course would be madness--an opinion which was
thoroughly endorsed by Mr. Hardinge and other government inspectors and
mining authorities, who arrived within a few hours of the accident.

It was unanimously agreed that the pit was on fire, for a light smoke
curled up from the pit mouth, and some already began to whisper that it
would have to be closed up. There are few things more painful than to
come to the conclusion that nothing can be done, when women, ha