a room for loading. Little as he knew of the noises below ground,
he sensed something strange. The deep silence of a coal mine is
generally broken only by the sharp report of a blast or the rattle of
cars, and this rumble did not resemble either sound.

A second or two later, a miner dashed past him, without his tools, his
safety-lamp swinging as he ran.

"The bank is coming down!" he yelled, and disappeared down the
gallery.

Almost at the same moment, another man came out of the entry, his
naked back gleaming as he passed under the electric light hanging at
the opening of the entry.

"Make for the shaft, kid!" he shouted, when he saw the shine of
Anton's lamp.

A sudden babble of excited cries, borne on the strong current of the
ventilating air, reached the boy's ears.

It was the doom of Otto's warning!

Shoving a lump of coal under the car-wheel, Anton whirled on his heel
to follow the escaping miners, when, like a blow, came the stunning
thought:

"Clem!"

He hesitated an instant, and, while he halted, a second and a louder
crash told him that the fall of rock--wherever it might be
happening--was not over. Every fraction of a second that he delayed
might ruin his chances of escape.

But Anton was of sturdy miner stock, and, in addition, was thoroughly
fatalistic. That very feature of his character which his older comrade
had blamed so often, now was to show its good side. If he were going
to be caught by the fall, there was no use in his trying to prevent
it, he thought.

In any case, no matter what might come, though the roof cracked above
him and the coal-ribs crushed beside him, he must warn his friend.

Turning his back to the way of hope, he tore at his utmost speed
towards the room where Clem was working, taking some small comfort, as
he ran, that the rumbling sounded farther and farther away.

"Clem!" he cried, panting, as he turned into the room where his friend
was digging coal, "run for your life!"

By the terror in Anton's voice, the young fellow realized the peril.
In his isolated room, he had not heard a sound.

Leaping to his feet and grabbing his safety-lamp from the prop, he ran
after Anton, who had started back on the road leading to the shaft.
Fleeter of foot than the boy, he caught up with him in a few yards.

"What is it?" he queried.

"The bank's down!"

"Where?"

"I don't know. Everywhere. The whole mine's smashing! Every one else
has got out long ago!"

An ominou