nothing but bewail him to his very face; but not even Death could be more resolved than he.

He stepped forward, recognised the man brought up, and could not for the moment restrain his emotion as he said, and felt sorry for the moment it was said—

For my sake, Israel?'

Israel would have lied then if he ever did lie. He could not be demonstrative-that was against his whole nature. Driven to reply something, he said, in the old harsh voice

'He's safe! Isn't tnat enough for you?'

The man was taken away by friends, and Israel and the Deputy stood face to face.

'Did I not tell thee,' began the Deputy, after gazing long and earnestly in Israel's face, and while tears were gathering in his eyes-Did I not tell thee what thou wert? Israel Mort, would I could also tell thee how I honour thee-how proud I shall be to become again thy servant, when thou hast become, as thou wilt, His servant. It is not for me to sing the praises of men, but of God. The best of us, what are we but worms in His sight? Yet if thou wert to die this hour, unconverted as thou art in forms of belief, something tells me that on Christ's bosom there would lie no dearer soul than thine.'

'Rees Thomas, what I am, I am. What I may be, I know not myself, therefore cannot own that you are likely to know. Suffice it to say, this language is inexpressibly painful to me, and that I will have no more of it. thou hear?

face.

Dost

Ay,' said the Deputy with a strange smile on his

Now then, to other matters. What brings you here? You cannot yet be fit to come out.’

'Am I not? We'll see that presently. Israel, I have been to seek my wife. She has gone to some relative, they tell me. Surely they would not deceive me. Does she live? Did she enquire after me while I lay in my long stupor? I am racked with anxiety and wonder about her and our little boy.'

'I heard your wife singing when last I was near her,' said Israel while meditating as to how he should act.

'Ay, a verse of a hymn; and since it moved me, you may judge how she sang.'

And she is well? And the child?'

'Ay,' said Israel, and cared for, till you are at liberty to seek them and bring them home. I thought it best to have you at my house with me, when we were both stricken down together; and I left all the rest to the doctor, who has seen to your wife's comforts, depend on that.'

The Deputy seemed as if his heart misgave him on this point, and yet that what he had come to do did not admit of any diversion of thought or energy. So presently

he said

'Now, Israel, I hope to lighten thy task. Many persons are below-some possibly that have life in them. Shall we go down together, or shall we take it turn by turn, just as thou hast so wisely arranged for the men ?' You shall do neither. Go home and get yourself strong, and then come to me.'

'Israel, dost thou know what thou meanest when thou sayest to a man, "I have made up my mind?" That, then, is my meaning, when I say the same to thee. So let us go down together.'

'That would be folly. A leader there must be. If I fall, you remain; that is for me a great comfort.'

You speak well, and have judged us both out of your own mouth. It is my turn now to go down. I claim my right.'

'I cannot-will not consent.'

‘Israel, are you not too ambitious of glory? Can you not let your poor brother have some little hope of his name being remembered after he has passed away? However, be it as you will; only, in any case, I go down.'

'You are as ever the most obstinate of men,' said Israel, and I must yield, I suppose. But I warn you, that if I go home, and once touch my bed, I doubt whether even another explosion fearful as the last would

waken me. I sleep now as I stand, as I walk-almost as I talk.'

'Thank God that I have come then to your relief in so timely a manner! Ah, friend, if only you could see, as I do, His hand in all this!"'

'Rees Thomas, a word with you. These calamities may affect me severely, perhaps fatally; if so, I shall have one regret, that I ought, I think, to speak of.'

"What is that?'

That I did not let you have your own way with regard to the prayers in the mine at the beginning of the day's work, when you first asked me, so many years ago.'

'But you did consent at last, and will abide by it in the future?'

'Ay, if there be any future.'

'Trust me-trust Him-there will be.'

And then we will talk about your position.'

My position! Trouble not about that. Make me your friend, let me do in God's cause, and for my Saviour, what I feel called to do, and you will accomplish one of the greatest of human achievements-you will have made not one, but two, fellow-creatures permanently happy, myself and my wife. Farewell, till we meet again.'

'Yes, till we meet again,' echoed Israel in a low sad voice, that seemed to hang on the words it was uttering, as if every moment new hopes and fears sprang into existence.

The Deputy put out his hand to shorten the delay that Israel, so unlike his ordinary self, seemed to want to make.

Israel took it, half unconsciously, and held it, while his face was more moved than the Deputy had ever before seen it.

Presently he passed his hand across his face, as if conscious of the display, and desirous to brush away from it all traces, and then spake

Friend Rees Thomas, it is somewhat late to begin to suspect, as I do now, that I have lived all my life not in

one kind of mine, as I fancied, but in two kinds; and that by far the darkest, deepest, most dangerous mine is not that you are about again to penetrate, but that other one -of the spirit—which you have penetrated; but only for the presence to enhance, by the very gleams you persist in shedding there, my own sense of the deep gloom in which you leave me. Farewell.'

'Once more, Israel, I say to you, wait-hope-trustand all shall be well. You are fighting the noblest of fights, and it is my privilege to stand by and see you conquer.'

Conquer! Conquer what? Myself? I am not worth any such pother. Farewell.'

There was in Israel's secret soul all through this conversation an intense desire to unburden himself of a perilous weight-his knowledge (already spoken of) of a still new and ever-pressing danger, created by his own. reckless selfishness-the danger of inundation. It was his constant thought-How long can the waters be kept out after the near approach we have made to them?

He knew he ought to tell this to the Deputy; not so much for the increased but unknown hazard to his own life-for on that point the men were at one, in their courage and their faith that it was their duty to run all conceivable risks for the salvation of life-but because the Deputy might have it in his power to guard against the consequences of so terrific a danger.

Why, then, did he not tell him?

Because he literally felt ashamed; and because he feared that the knowledge of such a crime—as the Deputy would be sure to think this to be-would lose Israel, the one man in the whole world whom he now most valued, most thought of, and whose counsel he most thirsted after. The good opinion of Rees Thomas had suddenly become a sort of necessity of life.

So he let him go-ignorant of that dread secret.

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE FATE OF THE EXPLORERS.

WHEN the Deputy relieved Israel from the arduous task of seeking for all those of the generous band of explorers who remained in the mine, he found himself at once faced by a great difficulty; he did not know how many persons had to be sought for.

The men originally in the mine on the night of Israel's and his Overman's tragical visit were thirteen or fourteen in number. These had nearly all been accounted for. The bulk of them had been found dead, and the remainder had been carried home, two only excepted. But the explorers who had accomplished this work, acting under the guidance of an agent from the Penman Coed Colliery, would not, as Israel heard with deep emotion, desist while even two remained. And thus they became victims to the second explosion.

The number of the explorers was known to have been twenty-seven; of these fourteen only had been found and taken to the surface by Israel: consequently nearly half the original number remained to be accounted for. Two more were discovered by the Deputy, lying dead in strange out-of-the-way places, where they had been blown by the explosion; but no efforts of exploration revealed to him the whereabouts or the fate of the remaining eleven. The chivalrous leader was unhappily among the dead.

But as time passed, and the knowledge of the Deputy's doings spread through the neighbourhood, fresh recruits offered; and he was speedily at the head of twenty hardheaded, strong-handed, energetic men, whom danger had long since ceased to appal.

And as these became exhausted with the severity of the labour imposed upon them, as much by their own earnest souls as by the Deputy's word of command, others were always ready to take their place.