sive or the
detonater. Then the shot-firer puts the primed charge in the hole,
jams the hole full of clay with a wooden tamper--a steel bar might
cause a spark and a premature explosion--tests for gas again, connects
the electric wires from a portable battery around the rib corner,
fires the shot, returns to the face and tests for gas again. Then, and
not until then, does the miner begin to dig the coal. That way, every
one in the mine is safe."

"Yes," growled the old miner, "and the shot-firer doesn't dig any
coal, nor do any hard work, an' gets paid more'n we do."

"He knows more than you do," Clem responded, "and he gets better pay
because his experience and prudence is worth a lot of money to the
mine. Just think what an explosion costs--to say nothing of the risk
of lives being lost! And you won't find experienced shot-firers or
mine-managers talking about gas sprites, Otto!"

"Better for 'em if they did!" the old man warned. "For I'm sayin' to
you again, what I said before--the spirits o' the mine is gettin'
hungry for blood!"

CHAPTER II

ENTOMBED ALIVE

"Danger! You're plumb crazy about danger, Clem!" Anton declared
impatiently.

The older lad gestured to the big building of the pit-mouth before
them, above which the spider-like legs of the headgear soared high,
surmounted by the huge double winding-wheels which give so
characteristic a note to a modern colliery.

"Any one who forgets that a coal-mine is dangerous is a fool," he
retorted sharply, "and keep that in your head, Anton, my lad. Not that
danger would ever stop me from mining. I like it. I like to feel that
I'm running a risk every time I go into an entry and every time
there's a blast. And I like to feel that I know enough about safety
methods to snap my fingers at the risk. There's excitement in that."

"There'll be excitement enough, if old Otto's warnings come true,"
returned Anton gloomily.

Two days had passed since the old miner's prophecy, two days without
any unusual incident. Clem had all but forgotten the evil presage, but
Anton was brooding over it. It was his work to load cars in the room
where Clem was mining, and the boy's superstitious nature made him
painfully aware that if any accident happened to his comrade, he would
probably be caught, too.

Anton had been working in the mine only a few weeks and he had not yet
been able to grasp the need of Clem's incessant teaching with regard
to the extreme prudence need