done.

In their work of clearing away the rubbish Ivan's men had very little
assistance from the company's men for this reason: the explosion had
taken place at the time when the miners were relieved. When men are
working in collieries it is usual to relieve them four times. It was
the time of the midnight relief when the accident happened. One party
of the miners had already gone down the shaft; they were undoubtedly
suffocated. The other party were on their way out, and were killed at
once by the explosion. There was another party who had only reached
the resting-stage, where neither the flames nor the fragments could
touch them. These men were buried alive. It therefore resulted that of
all the company's miners only from twenty to thirty were available.

The men who worked the forge were forbidden by the director to give
any help in the work of rescue. In all the ovens the metal was in a
liquid state; if it was not attended to it would turn into rammers.
The workmen give the name of _ram_, or _rammer_, to a solid mass of
iron, which, in consequence of faulty melting, cannot be removed from
the oven, and it and the oven have to be thrown away as useless
lumber. The forge-work was urgently needed. The railway greaves had to
be finished by a certain date, or a large fine would have to be paid.
Ivan therefore had to set his men almost unaided to the task of
clearing the pit. The women helped with all their strength. Their
husbands, the bread-winners, were underneath the ruins.

What a terrible undertaking! In consequence of the falling in of the
arches the roof had, at a distance of six feet, to be supported on
plugs, and a sort of street made through the ruins, where at every
corner a new enemy waited for the intrepid pioneers.

After the explosion the pit had been overflowed by water. The
water-pipes had to be set to work, and where these were not sufficient
the men were obliged to empty out the black slime in buckets, standing
for hours in stinking mud, breathing foul air, threatened with death
or mutilation from the constant falling of stones and wreckage.
Undaunted by these obstacles, the men made their way step by step into
the bowels of the earth.

In the afternoon Raune arrived. In the middle of a convivial festival
he had heard the news. He was raging. He came down the shaft and
cursed all the dead men.

"The scoundrels! They have cost the company a million of money! What
does it matter if they are all ki