There were two ways, he explained in his broad north-country dialect, by which Number Three could be reached from the shaft. One was the intake, along which fresh air was conducted to the workings, and the other was the main road, which could be reached through any of the passages leading away from the face. The explosion in the main road had brought down the roof for a distance which might be almost anything. The intake was blocked too. It was some way from the scene of the explosion, but the props were gone, and the roof had come down from end to end, for all he knew. "Is there no other way out?" said Carthew. "None, sir." Carthew indicated the row of openings beside them. "Don't any of these lead anywhere?" "They all lead to the main road, except that one at the end, which leads to the intake. We have plenty of room to move about, and plenty of air; but we are shut in, and that's a fact, sir." "Is that your opinion too, Mr Wilkie?" "We canna get gettin' oot o' this, sir," replied the oracle with complacent finality. There was a deathlike silence. Then Master Hopper began to cry softly. He was going to die, he reflected between his sobs, and he was very young to do so. It was hard luck his being there at all. He had only joined the riot from youthful exuberance and a desire to be "in the hearse," as an old Scottish lady once bitterly observed of a too pushful mourner at her husband's funeral. He entertained no personal animosity against the owner of the pit: in fact he had never set eyes on him. His desire had merely been to see the fun. Well, he was seeing it. He wept afresh. Atkinson and Denton sat and gazed helplessly at Carthew. The part they had played in sealing up six souls in the bowels of the earth had faded from their minds: to be just, it had faded from the minds of their companions as well. The past lay buried with Renwick and Davies. The future occupied their entire attention. There was another danger to be considered--the suffocating after-damp of the explosion. Carthew inquired about this. Entwistle considered that the risk was comparatively slight. "The cloths hung across the approaches to the main road should keep it away," he said. "It's a heavy gas, and don't move about much, like. We shall be able to tell by the lamps, anyway." "Then what had we better do?" said Carthew briskly. "Dig?" One of the men--Atkinson--lifted his head from his hands. "Ah were saaved by t' Salvationists once," he said hoarsely. "Ah could put up a prayer." "I think we will try the effect of a little spade-work first," said Carthew. "_Laborare est orare_, just now!" he added to himself. * * * * *