ou most heartily in his name for
your kind greeting. He wishes to say that, under God, his life, and the
lives of those with him, have been saved by the skill, courage, and
science of his under-viewer, Jack Simpson. Mr. Brook has consulted me on
the subject, and I thoroughly agree with what he intends to do, and can
certify to Jack Simpson's ability, young as he is, to fill any post to
which he may be appointed. In a short time I hope that the Vaughan pit
will be pumped out and at work again, and when it is, Mr. Jack Simpson
will be its manager!"

The story of the escape from death had already been told briefly by the
miners as they came to the surface, and had passed from mouth to mouth
among the crowd, and Mr. Hardinge's announcement was greeted with a
storm of enthusiasm. Jack was seized by a score of sturdy pitmen, and
would have been carried in triumph, were it not that the startling
announcement, coming after such a long and intense strain, proved too
much for him, and he fainted in the arms of his admirers.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

CHANGES.

Beyond the body of the crowd, outside the ring kept by the police, stood
Nelly Hardy, watching, without a vestige of colour in her face, for the
news from below. She had given a gasping sigh of relief as the names,
passed from mouth to mouth by the crowd, met her ear, and had leaned for
support against the wall behind her. So great was her faith in Jack's
resources and in Jack's destiny that she had all along hoped, and the
assertion that those who had first gone down to rescue the pitmen must
have fallen victims to the second explosion had fallen dead upon her
ears.

The school had been closed from the date of the accident, and had it not
been so, she felt that she could not have performed her duties. Hour
after hour she had sat in her cottage alone--for her mother had died a
year before--except when Mrs. Dodgson, who had long suspected her
secret, came to sit awhile with her, or Harry brought the latest news.
During this time she had not shed a tear, and, save for her white face
and hard unnatural voice, none could have told how she suffered. Harry
had brought her the news of the smoke being seen from the shaft of the
Logan pit before he carried it to Mrs. Haden, and she had at once thrown
on her bonnet and jacket and joined them as they started from the
village. When she reached the pit she had not attempted to approach, but
had taken her place at a distance. Severa