Walking cautiously in the direction of the voices he was suddenly brought to a standstill by an apparently solid wall of earth. He groped around until there was no question but that he had reached the end of the drift, and when this discovery had been made he found a small aperture which opened into a gallery or chamber where were a dozen men, the lamps in their hats illumining the place sufficiently for Fred to distinguish the party. He had reached the limit of the abandoned drift, and was looking in upon a portion of the new mine. Even now he made no appeal for help. The conversation of the men caused him to listen with no thought of his own condition. "Unless we do the job to-morrow night there's little chance of gettin' through with it all right," one of the party was saying, and another replied with an oath: "There's no reason why we should wait. To-night would suit me." "I don't believe in it," a third man said. "What's to be gained by floodin' the mine, an' turnin' ourselves out of a chance to earn a living?" "You allers was chicken-hearted, Joe Brace. Haven't we put up with enough from the mine owners an' bosses? We work for starvation wages, while they can barrel money." "Would you say that if you hadn't been thrown out of a job?" "That's my business. Here's a crowd of us who have sworn to stick together, no matter what happens, an' five have been warned out. Are we goin' peaceable, not liftin' a finger agin them as have got rich while we starved?" "But how are we helpin' ourselves by floodin' the mine?" "Three or four of sich bosses as Donovan may be in the drift when with one stroke of a pick I let the water into the lower level, and that'll show the others we're men, even if they do treat us like brutes." "You will drown some of your own mates." "Them as are on the level must take their chances." "It's murder, that's what it is, an' I'll have none of it!" Brace cried, as he leaped to his feet, and in another instant the whole party were facing him who dared dispute their right to do wrong. For some moments our hero could not distinguish a word, so great was the confusion; but when the tumult subsided in a measure two men were holding Brace, while he who appeared to be leader stood before him in a threatening attitude. "You've sworn to go with the crowd, and know the penalty for traitors." "I know that I'll blow the whole business if I get the chance. I've got a brother in the lower level; do you think I'll stand by while he is bein' murdered?" "Better do that than turn agin us. We'll give you one chance; swear to hold your tongue, an' we'll do no more than make sure you can't betray us." "An' if I don't choose to swear?" "Then we'll leave you here lashed hand an' foot. When the mine is flooded this drift will be cut off, an' it don't need a lawyer to say what'll happen then." "So to spite them as have done you a bad turn you're willin' to murder me?" "That's about the size of it."