There, too, he stayed motionless, for a time-perhaps a couple of minutes.

Then he raised his head, with a passionate broken ejaculation—

'O Father of mercies, wouldst Thou deceive?' and again he bowed his head for another minute.

Then he almost sprang to his feet, and paced to and fro. 'If I make any mistake, how am I to bear the truth afterwards?

If I tell them what I believe, and the event proves me a liar, will they not call me their worse than murderer, and say I have killed their souls ?

'O God, Thou wilt not mistake me if I do not now throw myself at Thy feet in a transport of gratitude and love, for the question is of Thy will, and what is Thy will with us all just now. But if this truly be Thy will, that Thou dost confirm what all my senses tell me that I heard but now, not once but thrice-measured blows-at equal and slow intervals of time-not in the least like the miner's blow when at work; if this be true, and we be saved, I here, in these dreadful deeps, vow to Thee to dedicate my whole future life, my knowledge gained or to gain, my skill, such as Thou hast given-in a word, the utmost effort of my whole being, to the helpless miners' cause; in the hope and assured belief that these calamities may absolutely be prevented, and the life of the miner made more worthy of Thee and of the infinite faculties Thou hast given him. Amen!'

Then once more he stooped to listen for several minutes. When he rose he was calm and collected, and went away to seek the Deputy and three or four of the miners, who could best be trusted with the supposed or real discovery.

They came, and one and all, in transports of joy, confirmed the fact that deliverers were near.

They would have replied-did, indeed, make feeble efforts that way, till satisfied that David spoke correctly when he said that it was perfectly useless, unless they could get a strong unenfeebled arm to handle the pick, and to

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strike with; whereas their strength was as a child's. Then, the sound passing outwards, he showed them, would be lost in the larger and more open space; while the sound passing in struck on a confined and bell-like space, that gave the greatest effect to the stroke, which yet they could only just hear.

He warned them, too, that there must be a dense mass of rock or coal between them and the party who were working for their relief, to cause the sound to be so low.

This incident infused new life into the Deputy's attenuated and trembling frame. But his use of the recovery was again to summon heavenwards the wandering thoughts and hopes and desires of the captive men. He demanded that they should be prepared at all hazards for either fate. He would listen to no assurances of speedy relief; for, if he believed, he gained nothing but a temporary and perhaps illusive comfort. He was compelled to point out to them, that as their knocking could not be heard, the conclusion, sooner or later, might be that they were all dead, and further efforts useless. He did not also say-what, however, he could not but think-how vitally Israel Mort's pecuniary position must press upon him, and influence him to stop the moment he could feel justified.

On the whole Rees Thomas refused either to believe or disbelieve, but was resolved as a Christian hero to wait till he knew the truth.

How long this knocking might have gone on no one could even guess. Of course every step nearer the deliverers made, the clearer and louder the knocking would become.

And so it proved hour by hour.

It was then resolved that all the men should be taken into counsel, if only to stimulate their flagging vital powers, so that they might live till relief came.

Boundless was the hope, the confidence, of the men; marvellous the effect in newly inspiriting them; fervid, indeed, the ensuing religious services, mixed, however, with an element of restless and agitating tumult, that hurt the Deputy till he found the reason :—

They wanted to be at the signal place, congregated together as near as they could get, to listen to the advance of the deliverers. It was as a dram to them, which they could not now live without.

There they sat, hour by hour, and day by day, unwilling to move, except for the most positive necessities, and immediately returning to listen to the music that thrilled through and possessed their whole souls-the measured strokes, yet far distant, of the friendly pick.

How dreadful to have to speak of their disenchantment!-of that fearful moment when on the fifth day of their captivity the accustomed tap was missed-when the excited watchers cried to each other: Oh, it is but a temporary accident!' and summoned all to be quiet.

They listened as men listen for the renewed beats of the heart of one dead, yet supposed still to be living,their alarm, distress, agony, rising minute by minute.

And still time passed on, and there was no sign.

And when one, two, three days passed, and the pick was still unheard, then there was a general giving way; and men bent low their heads, and felt their hearts broken, as they waited only now for the signals of that other deliverer-Death!

CHAPTER LIII.

WHY THE SIGNALS STOPPED.

FOR me it never rains but it pours,' said Israel, when the news of the inundation reached him; and that was his only verbal comment; but he set his teeth hard, and felt the fight betwixt himself and fate was now at its climax.

And with that thought, and the feeling that all men and all things were against him, his old stony hardness of spirit seemed to come back to him, and with that came all the old thirst to succeed-no matter at what cost, or through what obstacles.

So far as prudence and humanity went together, Israel was content to give full swing to the latter quality. So he set to work to get the mine emptied of the water as fast as possible, for that helped both aims.

But it was soon found that the pumps made no way against the inundation. Higher and higher rose the water in the shaft, till Israel knew that all the lower parts of the mine were submerged, including the district where the explorers had been at work at the time of the occurrence of the newer and more dreadful calamity.

He said to everyone from that time he was sure that not a living soul existed in the mine. Eight days had passed; no life could exist there so long. And there can be no doubt he persuaded himself so strongly into that belief as to give it a kind of honesty.

Were it but for Rees Thomas' sake alone, however, he felt bound for some time to persevere with operations evidently directed to save the unfortunates below, if any really lived.

But at the same time, for his own sake, and to satisfy his creditors, and those from whom he hoped for aid, he went on with increased vigour, and new and more powerful appliances, to redeem the mine from the water; expecting thus also to help to satisfy the popular craving for vigorous action.

But the craving was not to be stilled so easily. The cry rose, and grew louder every day and every hour, that the people inside would have got to the high levels, would live there in the constant hope of being relieved, and that they ought to be relieved they could be, they must be relieved, and some almost ventured to threaten Israel they should be relieved.

Many among the more clamorous of the colliers insisted that if Israel Mort chose he could open a route without encountering the waters of the inundation, by which to reach those higher parts where the living men would be surely found.

They also pointed out that those very parts were in close neighbourhood at one point to the stables, and to the

store-places for oil and candles, so that they might get abundance of food, which, however unsuitable, would still preserve life.

While Israel appeared still obdurate, news was brought to him that a meeting was to take place at one of the neighbouring chapels, where Rees Thomas often preached, and where friends of his would be present, to show how cruel, nay, how criminal, was his-Mort's-conduct; and to propose that a public and influential deputation should confront him at the mine.

Israel was shaken a little by this. His pecuniary position was so bad, and getting altogether so hopeless unless he could have the mine again at work, that to ask him to give money for experimentally humane purposes, was like asking him to give his blood, that he might die, and somebody else be nourished by it.

But he was shaken, where otherwise he would have been firm as adamant, by the thought of the Deputy; who had gone down for him, and in a spirit of so exalted a kind, that even Israel, stern as he seemed alike in exterior and heart, felt he could almost kneel down and worship him.

And when that first emotion died out, finding the soil so uncongenial, still he was haunted by thoughts of Rees Thomas that kept him in perpetual discomfort and selfwar, and would not be driven off by Israel's old-world philosophy.

The fact was, he loved the man better, perhaps, than he loved any other human being (the missing David being for the time out of the question), though the love might not amount to much, after all.

When he found himself pressed upon at once by the half-maddened people who had relatives in the mine, and by his own conscience, he, after a terrible struggle at the prospect of utter ruin which this new effort and expense seemed to make more certain, gave orders on the eleventh day to proceed in the way desired.

Israel's plans showed two things: first, a ground-plan, by which he was able to tell the precise districts where alone safety could have been found; and, secondly, a ver