hink we can get away," said Frank, panting
from his exertion.

It seemed as if it was a mile back to the shaft, but it was only a few
hundred feet. The boys expected every minute to hear the shot ring out.
They caught the sounds of the footfalls of their pursuer and they
sounded nearer and nearer. He was familiar with the gallery and his
torch gave him better light to go by than did the candles give the boys.

Once more the angry miner's voice called:

"Hold on, whoever you are, or I'll shoot!"

"Quick! There's the shaft!" exclaimed Dick, pointing to where the big
bucket rested at the bottom of the opening.

The boys made a rush for it. At the same instant a shot rang out in the
darkness, the flash from the revolver lighting up the mine cavern with
sudden glare. They could hear the bullet strike far above their heads
with a vicious "ping!" Clearly, Smith was only firing to scare them, and
did not want to run any chances of hurting them, as he had aimed high.

Then a strange thing happened. The cable, attached to the bucket, began
to wind upward. There was considerable slack to it and the bucket did
not immediately follow. It was evident that the machinery at the shaft
mouth had started and that the ore-carrier was about to be hoisted up.
An inspiration came to Dick.

"Into the bucket!" he called. "It's big enough to hold us all and we'll
be hauled to the top! We can escape that way!"

Tim and Frank needed no further urging. They clambered over the iron
sides of the bucket, followed by Dick. And not a second too soon, for,
as he set his feet on the iron bottom, the cable tauted and the bucket
started upward.

"Come back here!" yelled Smith, reaching the bottom of the shaft just in
time to see the conveyor disappearing. He made an ineffectual grab for
it, but, as his torch flared up when he threw it on the ground, the
better to use his hands, Dick, looking over the edge of the iron
receptacle, saw that the ugly miner was fifteen feet below them.

"Pull your head in!" advised Frank. "He might shoot!"

But Smith had no such intentions. Making a sort of megaphone of his
hands, he shouted up the shaft:

"Nash! Nash! Stop the engine! Don't hoist the bucket! We're not in it!"

But the engineer at the mouth of the shaft never heard him. Higher and
higher went the bucket, carrying the boys. They looked up the black
opening and could see the moon shining overhead.

"Lucky escape!" murmured Dick. "I wonder how that