ew out the stones and gravel. I
don't believe anything would have been done properly if your friend, Mr.
Burton, hadn't happened to come with two scientific gentlemen, and since
that he has been directing everything. You can't think what a splendid
fellow he is! I fairly adored him when I saw him giving his orders and
making everybody skip around in the right way."

"Tom is a very good man," said I; "but it is his business to direct that
sort of work, and it is not surprising that he knows how to do it. But,
Agnes, they may never get down to me, and we do not know that this roof
may not cave in upon me at any moment; and before this or anything else
happens I want to tell you--"

"Mr. Cuthbert," said Agnes, "is there plenty of oil in your lantern? It
would be dreadful if it were to go out and leave you there in the dark.
I thought of that and brought you a little bottle of kerosene so that
you can fill it. I am going to push the bottle through now, if you
please." And with this a large phial, cork end foremost, came slowly
through the tube, propelled by one of the soldering irons. Then came
Agnes's voice: "Please fill your lantern immediately, because if it goes
out you can not find it in the dark; and then walk several times around
the cave, for you have been standing still too long already."

I obeyed these injunctions, but in two or three minutes was again at the
end of the tube. "Agnes," said I, "how did you happen to come here? Did
you contrive in your own mind this method of communicating with me?"

"Oh, yes; I did," she said. "Everybody said that this mass of ice must
not be meddled with, but I knew very well it would not hurt it to make a
hole through it."

"But how did you happen to be here?" I asked.

"Oh, I ran over as soon as I heard of the accident. Everybody ran here.
The whole neighborhood is on top of the bluff; but nobody wanted to come
into the tunnel, because they were afraid that more of it might fall in.
So I was able to work here all by myself, and I am very glad of it.
I saw the soldering iron and the little furnace outside of your house
where the plumbers had been using them, and I brought them here myself.
Then I thought that a simple hole through the ice might soon freeze up
again, and if you were alive inside I could not do anything to help you;
and so I ran home and got my diploma case, that had had one end melted
out of it, and I brought that to stick in the hole. I'm so glad that it
i