Sappers and Miners Part 50

He gazed piteously at Hardock, who seemed to be in a like hopeless plight, suffering as they both were from exhaustion.

"I--I'm not sure, sir, now. We went in and out of so many galleries, all ending just the same, that I'm afraid I've lost count."

"Oh, Hardock! Hardock!" groaned the Colonel, "this is horrible. We must not break down, man. Try and think; oh, try and think. Remember that those two boys are lost, and they are wandering helplessly in search of us. They will go on and on into the farther recesses of this awful place, and lie down at last to die--giving their lives for ours.

There, there, I am babbling like some idiot. Forward, my men; there is no time to lose. We must find them."

"Yes, sir; we must find them," cried Hardock; "which pa.s.sage shall we take?"

"Stop a moment," said the Colonel, in a voice which seemed to have suddenly grown feeble; and he signed to the mining captain to light a candle and place it where they stood, while he tremblingly wrote on another leaf of his pocket-book,--

"Make for the pit-shaft."

He tore out the leaf, and the men noticed how his hand trembled; and he stood waiting for it to be taken by Hardock, who had sunk on his knees and was holding the candle sidewise, so that a little of the grease might drip into a crack where he meant to stick the candle close to the side.

Hardock groaned as he rose and took the paper, staggering as he stooped again to place it by the candle. But he recovered his steadiness again directly, and looked, to the Colonel for orders.

"Which branch, sir?" he said.

"The largest," said the Colonel in a hollow voice; "it is the most likely because it goes nearly straight. Forward then."

They obeyed in silence, and for another couple of hours they went on, finding the gallery they had taken branch and branch again and again; but though they sent shout after shout, there was no reply but those given by the echoes, and they went on again, still leaving burning candles at each division of the way.

Then all at once, as the Colonel was writing his directions on the pocket-book leaf, Vores saw the pencil drop from his hand; the book followed, and he reeled and would have fallen had not the miner caught him and lowered him gently to the rocky floor.

"I knew it, I knew it," groaned Hardock. "He was dead beat when we got back, for we've had an awful day. It's only been his spirit which has kept him up. And now I'm dead beat, too, for I had to almost carry the Major when we were nearly back. It's like killing him to rouse him to go on again. Harry Vores, you're a man who can think and help when one's in trouble. There's miles and miles of this place, and the more we go on the more tangled up it gets. Which way are we going now:-- east, west, north, or south? Of course, n.o.body knows."

"What's that?" cried Vores, for a low deep murmur came upon their ears, and was repeated time after time. "I know; water falling a long way off. Then that's how it was so much had to be pumped out."

"Yes," said Hardock; "that's water, sure enough. I thought I heard it this morning. But look here, what shall, we do--carry the Colonel forward or go back?"

There was no reply; but the murmur, as of water falling heavily at a great distance, came once more to their ears.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

THE POSITION DARKENS.

"Isn't a flood coming to sweep us away, is it?" said Vores, in a low voice full of the awe he felt.

"Nay, that's no flood," said Hardock. "There'll be no flood, lads, that I can't master with my pumping gear. Now, look here, all of you; I want to try and find those boys, but we can't carry the guv'nor farther in.

What do you all say?"

The men gathered round him, a weird-looking company with their lanthorns, turned to Vores as their spokesman, and the latter took off his hat and wiped his streaming brow.

"And I want to find those two poor lads," he said; "but I want to go back, for it's turrerble work searching a place that you don't know, and in which you seem to lose your way. It's just madness to go on carrying the guv'nor with us; and the captain here is dead beat, so it's nonsense to let him go on."

"Then what must we do?" said Hardock, who looked quite exhausted.

"'Vide into two parties," said Vores. "One, headed by Sam Hardock, 'll take the guv'nor back to gra.s.s; t'other party, all volunteers, 'll choose a leader and go on searching till a fresh gang comes down and brings some grub for 'em. That's all I can say. If some 'un 'll make a better plan I'd be glad to hear it and follow it out."

There was a dead silence, during which every man thought of the frank lads, who had won the hearts of those who knew them, but no one spoke.

"Well, boys," said Hardock at last, "has anyone anything to say? As for me, I don't feel like sneaking out of it; I think I'll be for leading the search-party if anyone volunteers."

"Oh, some on us'll volunteer," said one of the men. "I don't feel like going home to my supper and bed--to can't eat, and to can't sleep for thinking of those two merry lads as I've often gone out to fish with and shared their dinner with 'em. Not me. I'll volunteer."

"Same here, my lads," said Vores; "I'm with you. That's two of us.

Anyone else say the word?"

"Ay!--ay!--ay!" Quite a chorus of 'ays' broke out as the miners volunteered to a man.

"Well done," cried Vores, "that's hearty; I feel just as if I'd had a good meal, and was fresh as a daisy. But we can't all stay. Sam Hardock, how many do you want to help carry the guv'nor back?"

"Three twos," said Hardock, "for I'm no use yet. I can only just carry myself."

"That's seven then, so pick your men and we'll stay, five of us, and find the lads somehow."

"I say that Harry Vores leads us," said the man who had first volunteered.

"Hear, hear!" was chorused, and a few minutes only elapsed before Hardock had chosen his party and turned to raise the Colonel, to go back.

"What's limpet-sh.e.l.ls and sand doing down here?" said Vores, as he held a lanthorn to light the men.

"Forsils," said Hardock, glancing at a couple Vores had picked up.

"Nay, they aren't stony sh.e.l.ls," said Vores. "I know; they used to eat 'em, and they're some the old chaps as did the mining brought down for dinner."

"Ready?" said Hardock.

"Ay, ay," cried the men, who had made what children call a dandy chair with their hands, and supported the Colonel, whose arms were placed about their necks.

"Then as he says, and I wish I could hear him say it now, 'Forward!'"

The men started, and Hardock turned to Vores.

"Seems like acting Tom Dina.s.sy, my lad," he said bitterly. "I don't feel as if I could go."

"Do you want to get up a row?" said Vores, sourly. "Be off and look after the guv'nor; don't stop putting us chaps out of heart and making us think you jealous of me doing your work."

Hardock held out his hand to his fellow-workman.

"Thank ye, my lad," he said. "Go on, then, and take care. I've kept just enough candle to last us to the shaft foot; don't go farther than you can find your way out."

"We're going to find those two boys," said Vores through his set teeth.

"By-and-by, if we don't come back, you send a fresh shift, and let 'em bring us some prog and some blankets; but I'm hoping you'll find them up at gra.s.s when you get there. Now off you go, and so do we."

They parted without another word, and the next minute the dim light of the lanthorns borne by the men were dying away in two directions--the party bearing the Colonel progressing slowly till he recovered himself somewhat and ordered them to stop.