lf mad
with sorrow and anxiety, are imploring men to make an effort to save
those below.

Jane Haden, quiet and tearless, sat gazing at the fatal shaft, when she
was touched on the shoulder. She looked up, and saw Harry.

"Thou art not down with them then, Harry?"

"No; I almost wish I was," Harry said. "I came up with Jack, and hurried
away to get breakfast. When I heard the blow I ran up, and found Jack
had just gone down. If I had only been near I might have gone with
him;" and the young man spoke in regret at not having shared his
friend's fate rather than in gladness at his own escape.

"Dost think there's any hope, Harry?"

"It's no use lying, and there's no hope for Jack, mother," Harry said;
"but if any one's saved it's like to be your Bill. He was up in the old
workings, a long way off from the part where the strength of the blow
would come."

"It's no use telling me, Harry; I ask, but I know how it is. There ain't
a chance--not a chance at all. If the pit's afire they'll have to flood
it, and then it will be weeks before they pump it out again; and when
they bring Jack and Bill up I sha'n't know 'em. That's what I feel, I
sha'n't even know 'em."

"Don't wait here, Mrs. Haden; nought can be done now; the inspectors and
managers will meet this evening, and consult what is best to be done."

"Is your father down, Harry? I can't think of aught but my own, or I'd
have asked afore."

"No; he is in the other shift. My brother Willy is down. Come, mother,
let me take you home."

But Mrs. Haden would not move, but sat with scores of other women,
watching the mouth of the pit, and the smoke curling up, till night
fell.

The news spread round Stokebridge late in the evening that the managers
had determined to shut up the mouth of the pit, if there was still smoke
in the morning. Then, as is always the case when such a determination
is arrived at, there was a cry of grief and anger throughout the
village, and all who had friends below protested that it would be
nothing short of murder to cut off the supply of air. Women went down to
the inn where the meeting was held, and raved like wild creatures; but
the miners of the district could not but own the step was necessary, for
that the only chance to extinguish the fire was by cutting off the air,
unless the dreadful alternative of drowning the pit was resorted to.

In the morning the smoke still curled up, and the pit's mouth was
closed. Boards were placed o