or
fissures in the metals, and spoke of this to Andrew Marshall a few
nights before; but he did not like to seem to make too much of it, and
the matter was passed over, till the day before, when Walker visited the
place for a few minutes, when Geordie accosted him.

"What way is my place going on?" he asked, and was told that it was a
corner in the barrier, which extended for one hundred yards and must go
on for that distance, and that there was really no danger, as the ground
below was solid.

So, busily working away, and finding still more rents in the floor and
roof, Sinclair thought it must just be as he had seen it in other places
of a like kind, the weight of the upper metals which were breaking over
the solid ground by reason of the hollow beneath between the stoops,
though in this case it did not amount to much as yet.

The coal was easy to get; he had one boy "forrit to the pick," with
Robert as "drawer," and his prospects seemed good, he thought, as he was
busily preparing a shot, ramming in the powder, and "stemming" up the
hole. He was busy ramming the powder in the prepared hole, while the
elder boy prepared clay, with which to stem or seal it up after the
powder had been pressed back, leaving only the fuse protruding.

"Here's a tree cracking," said the boy, drawing his father's attention
to a breaking prop; but as this is a common occurrence in all mines
where there is extra weight after development, Geordie thought nothing
of it at the time, intending merely, before he lighted his shot, to put
in a fresh prop.

"Bring in another prop, sonny," he said to the boy, "and I'll put it in
when I have stemmed this hole," and the boy turned to obey his order.

But suddenly a low crackling sound, caused by the breaking of more
props, was heard, then a roar and a crash as of thunder, followed by a
long rumbling noise, which left not a moment for the two trapped human
beings to stir even a limb or utter a cry. The immensity of the fall
created a wind, which put out little Robert's lamp; the great rumbling
noise filled him with a dreadful fear, and he sprang involuntarily to
his feet.

"Faither! Faither!" he called, terror in his voice and anxiety in his
little heart, but there was no reassuring answer. He felt his breathing
getting difficult; the air was thick with dust and heavy with the smell
of rotting wood and damp decaying matter.

"Faither! Faither!" he called again louder in his agony, darting
forw