In the excitement the next man who followed him up the shaft passed unnoticed. It was Sir John Carr. He saw the hooded motor standing apart, Mr Vick sitting motionless at the wheel. Next moment he was in beside the two women, overalls and all, holding Daphne's hands in a single grimy fist and telling them what we know already. "Is he _perfectly_ safe?" asked Nina for the tenth time. She did not possess Daphne's aristocratic composure under critical circumstances. "Yes--but very weak. I am sending him up second. The first is a pit-boy. When Carthew arrives you had better put him in the motor and take him straight home." "Jack!" said Daphne. She slipped out of the car and accompanied her husband into the darkness outside the radius of flaring lights. "Are you going down again?" she asked. "I am." "And when are you coming up?" The unflinching courage which upholds so many women in the face of danger had never failed Daphne during those long days and nights. But now the courage was receding with the danger. Juggernaut smiled. "When would you have me come up?" he asked. "Last," said Daphne, suddenly proud. "It is the only place for you. I will wait here. Nina can take her Jim home, and the car can come back later for you and me. Jack!" Her husband turned and regarded her curiously. Their eyes met. "Well?" he said. "Jack," continued Daphne in a low voice, "is there much risk down there--for you, I mean?" "There is always risk, of a sort, down a coal-pit," replied her husband pontifically. "A little explosive marsh-gas, or a handful of finely divided coal-dust lying in a cranny, might suddenly assert itself. Still, there are risks everywhere. One might be struck down by apoplexy at a vestry meeting." Daphne gave his arm a squeeze, an ingratiating childish squeeze, suggestive of the Daphne of old negotiating for extension of dress allowance. "Jack, stay up here! You have done enough." "_Post me, Satanella!_" smiled her husband. Then, more seriously: "Daphne, if I came to you and asked for orders _now_, where would you send me, I being what I am--the proprietor of the pit--and you being what you are--the proprietress of my good name?" Daphne's fit had passed. "I should send you," she answered bravely, "down the shaft, with orders to stay there until every one else was safely out." "I obey," said Juggernaut. "_Au revoir!_" "Jack!" said Daphne faintly. Her face was uplifted. "It will be a coaly one!" said her husband, complying. Then came an accusation. "Daphne, you are trembling! This is not up to your usual standard." "I can't help it," said Daphne miserably. "I am a coward. But I don't mind," she added more cheerfully, "so long as no one else knows. _You_ won't give me away!" At that Juggernaut held her to him a moment longer. "Daphne, my wife," he whispered suddenly--"thank God for you--at last!" Then they fell apart, and she ran lightly back to the motor and Nina.