s, I could not have been better
satisfied with my surroundings than I was at that moment. Agnes was not
two feet away! She was telling me that she cared for me! In a very few
words I assured her that I was uninjured. Then I was on the point of
telling her I loved her, for I believed that not a moment should be lost
in making this avowal. I could not die without her knowing that. But the
appearance of a mass of paper at the other end of the tube prevented
the expression of my sentiments. This was slowly pushed on until I
could reach it. Then there came the words: "Mr. Cuthbert, these are
sandwiches. Eat them immediately and walk about while you are doing it.
You must keep yourself warm until the men get to you."

Obedient to the slightest wish of this dear creature, I went twice
around the cave, devouring the sandwiches as I walked. They were the
most delicious food that I had ever tasted. They were given to me by
Agnes. I came back to the opening. I could not immediately begin my
avowal. I must ask a question first. "Can they get to me?" I inquired.
"Is anybody trying to do that? Are they working there by you? I do not
hear them at all."

"Oh, no," she answered; "they are not working here. They are on top of
the bluff, trying to dig down to you. They were afraid to meddle with
the ice here for fear that more of it might come down and crush you
and the men, too. Oh, there has been a dreadful excitement since it was
found that you were in there!"

"How could they know I was here?" I asked.

"It was your old Susan who first thought of it. She saw you walking
toward the shaft about noon, and then she remembered that she had not
seen you again; and when they came into the tunnel here they found one
of the lanterns gone and the big stick you generally carry lying where
the lantern had been. Then it was known that you must be inside. Oh,
then there was an awful time! The foreman of the ice-men examined
everything, and said they must dig down to you from above. He put his
men to work; but they could do very little, for they had hardly any
spades. Then they sent into town for help and over to the new park for
the Italians working there. From the way these men set to work you might
have thought that they would dig away the whole bluff in about five
minutes; but they didn't. Nobody seemed to know what to do, or how to
get to work; and the hole they made when they did begin was filled up
with men almost as fast as they even thr