But the chill of the water seemed to bring back concentration of purpose; and then, as though the darkness of the awful place were suddenly illumined by some glorious light, there came a thought of his father, a thought of Nest, a thought that this terrible way was after all the way to them: and from that moment the worst was passed.

He took care to go to the very farthest possible point where air remained betwixt the water and the roof, before letting his face be covered.

Then taking as deep an inspiration of breath as he could, he strode on, not attempting to swim, but moving swiftly, feeling sides and roof, restraining emotion, assuring himself every instant he could yet hold out without suffocation-that the space in the roof would soon be reached.

But his feet got unsteady, his hands began to be aimless; he felt that if his next, his last effort to reach the goal should prove a failure, he must turn and be drawn back -perhaps in death.

When he could bear no more, convulsively he lifted both his hands. Nothing opposed them. He stood up erect. He was able to breathe again. Then feeling a tug at the rope, he remembered his signal, and gave two pulls and rested.

A few seconds were thus spent; and with so much of relief that David guessed there must be some aperture for the entrance of air from a more open part of the mine. He felt for it, found it, and discovered there was an opening of some size, perhaps large enough for him to get through.

He felt hollows in the wall or side, which had doubtless been used before to climb by. By these he ascended, got through the hole, lighted his lamp by a match, both of which he had carefully packed in oil-cloth obtained from a miner's ragged waterproof, and then found himself master of all he had so much coveted; within a hundred and fifty yards of him were, as he well knew, the store-houses and the stables.

He removed the rope from his waist, and made it fast by tying it to a stick he found, and which he so placed

across the hole on the side away from the water that it could not be drawn through by Elliott, should he get alarmed about the long delay.

His first objects of search were for things that could be used as food. He found one horse still living, though lying half senseless on the litter. David did not hesitate a moment to play the butcher with a sharp clasp-knife, and put the poor creature out of its misery, while leaving it as a precious article of food. A large quantity of candles was in the store. Oil in abundance, also, David found. So there was that which would serve as food for all for many days, and also give light for all when light might be indispensable.

As he began to return, his ear caught the sound of trickling water. Eagerly he sought for it. And delightedly he drank. He wondered as to the origin of the water in the dip. It certainly had nothing to do with the inundation. And the water itself, by its comparative purity, showed the same. Surely there must be a vent from the dip, which had accidentally got stopped up. Imagine the power of such a thought at such a moment, suggesting as it did he might not again be obliged, cold and wet as he was, to retrace that dreadful way. To his unspeakable delight, alike as regarded himself and the little band of fellow-captives, he found the orifice, pulled out through the ooze one rag after another, till at last great part of a collier's jacket came away, and was followed by a rush of water, the noise of which seemed to David the very sweetest music it had ever been his fortune to listen to.

He thought now he would not attempt to go back till he could do so without danger or difficulty; so he roamed about arranging how he would bring all the men to this new place; where they should sit in their hours of rest, and lie when they slept; how they might best use their food, much of it so unpalatable; whether a fire were possible for cooking, and so on.

While he was thus luxuriating in the new domain he had conquered, he heard a voice so close to his ear, and so appalling in its suddenness and unexpectedness, that he

screamed out; then saw it was Elliott, tried to laugh off his fright, but was obliged to sit down and be silent awhile before he could rocover from the shock his whole system had received.

Elliott meanwhile explained how he had seen the water moving away, had guessed what David had done, had fastened his end of the rope, and guided by that had followed the water right to the hole where the rope ended, and where he knew David must have passed through.

How David hurried back with the news, how the whole available strength and skill of the buried captives was used to take every man in safety through the water, some requiring to be carried the whole way to the new quarters, need not be enlarged upon.

The change came just in time to save many, and among them the Deputy.

They were all now ill, weak, more or less desponding, but they had food, air, light as much as they dared to enjoy, knowing that every drop of oil burned to waste might mean in the end death brought an hour nearer to them, when the only hope was to hold out till relief came, if relief were possible.

CHAPTER LII.

DAVID'S VOW.

No more sad or fearful picture ever entered the mind of poet or painter than that which was presented when first oil became sufficiently plentiful among them for all to be able to supply their lamps; and when at the invitation of David, who thought the incident would do good both for the moment and afterwards when reflected on, they all lighted them, and thus were enabled after so many days to see each other's faces in their new place of shelter.

David, on the plea of economy and with an attempt to be jocular, instantly caused all the lamps but one- his own-to be put out again; but confessed afterwards to the

Deputy his motive, that he had been shocked at his own thoughtlessness, when he saw how ghastly were the faces and forms presented.

When all had been done that the Deputy and David had thought of any use: when all the available stores of the mine had been garnered up, and were fast being used; when it became clear that weeks might yet elapse before Israel and his helpers could descend through the bottom of the shaft and extricate them, so slowly did the water subside; when there was no longer hope of the Deputy's idea being realised of their opening out a communication with the surface that should evade the water; when even the morning,' 'afternoon,' and 'nightly' services-so called, though night might be day and day night for aught they knew-began to fail of their first inspiring effect, and chiefly through the Deputy's physical exhaustion ;when all these influences together began to press upon the unhappy miners, they seemed to abandon hope-to turn vengefully against even a suggestion inclining that way, and then was for the Deputy and David, too, as for the rest, what seemed the darkest hours.

So he and they thought. But they were mistaken. A startling incident occurred that roused the prostrate community from their death-like sleep and torpor, as effectually as if they had then heard the trumpet of the archangel at the last day calling them in common with the dead from their graves.

And yet the sound heard was perhaps the very faintest, feeblest that man ever listened to while his heart beat tumultuously and his soul cried out to him, "It is the voice of fate!'

David was lying alone on a slope, wondering whether Nest had any suspicion of his being there. Was she thinking he had played her a trick, unworthy perhaps, not altogether truthful, but which she might consider done in the purest spirit of self-sacrificing love. The letter he had written to her, and which the reader has seen, nowhere distinctly said he was not going down. If she noticed that fact, he feared she would refuse to believe he was still busy in the upper world. If, when the inundation became

known, she had had any suspicion of his being in the mine, she would have gone to Israel; and in her alarm perhaps let him guess or discover who the agent from London was; but as Israel himself knew nothing of his presence in the pit, Nest, of course, would go away relieved as to her fears for him.

This was the theme he was turning over, not once, but many times, languidly in his thoughts (for energy of any kind was no longer possible), trying to satisfy himself there was no mistake, and that, whatever his ultimate destiny, Nest would be spared at least the intolerable torture of suspense.

But somehow he was in a condition when suggestions of comfort of any kind seemed to be a poison, and poison of the most disgusting kind, and therefore to be unhesitatingly rejected.

Then if she did know or suspect he was in the mine, what would she do?

'Raise heaven and earth in his behalf if that were possible,' said David to himself, with a half-smile, but one which was wholly of intense bitterness.

For what could she do? Nothing! Israel, his father, saw no way to relief.

Nothing where

At that moment he felt as if a kind of supernatural, impalpable bullet had been fired right into his brain, and had electrified every nerve and muscle of his body.

It was a mere thought-the thought that at that instant of time he had heard the faintest echo of a tap. It seemed too delicate, too ethereal to be the tap itself, but was like its echo. Putting one hand to his forehead to quell the rising tumult there, he partly raised himself to a sitting posture with the other, and listened.

He sat-rigid, immovable-for, perhaps, five minutes. What awful minutes they were! each being interrogated as it passed, and each mutely passing on.

No repetition, no confirmation of the supposed sound

came.

Suddenly, with a cry of anger at his own folly, he turned, and prostrated himself at full length, with his brow tightly pressed against the ground.