"Send word at once to Lady Tressady," he said, in Madan's ear, drawing the manager to one side. "Tell her I have gone on a little farther, and may be another hour or two in getting back. If she is down at the bank, beg her from me to go home. Tell her the chances are that we may find the other men as safe as these." Madan acquiesced reluctantly. George then plundered him of some dry biscuits--of some keys, moreover, that might be useful in opening one or two locked doors farther up the workings. "Macgregor, you'll come?" "Aye, Sir George." "You, Mr. Burrows?" "Of course," said Burrows, carelessly, throwing back his handsome head. Some of the rescued men turned and looked hard at their agent and leader with their sunken eyes. Others took no notice. His prestige had been lost in defeat; and George had noticed that they avoided speech with him. No doubt this rescue party had presented itself to the agent as an opening he dare not neglect. "Come on, then," said George; and the three men turned back towards the interior of the pit. Old Moses, from whose clutch George had just freed himself, stopped short and looked after them. Then he raised a hoarse voice: "Be you going to the West Heading, Sir George?" "Yes," George flung back over his shoulder, already far away. "The Lord go with yer, Sir George!" No answer. The old man, breathing hard, caught hold of one of his stronger comrades and tottered on towards the shaft. Two or three of his fellows gathered round him. "Aye," said one of them, out of Madan's hearing, "ee's been a-squeezing of us through the ground, ee ave, but ee's a plucky lot, is the boss." "They do say as Burrers slanged 'im fine at the station yesterday," said another, hoarsely. "Called 'im the devil untied, one man told me." The first speaker, still haggard and bowed from the poison in his blood, made no reply, and the movement of old Moses' lips, as he staggered forward, helped on by the two others, his head hanging on his breast, showed that he was praying. * * * * * Meanwhile George and his two companions pushed cautiously on, Macgregor trying the roof with his lamp from time to time for signs of fire-damp. Two seams of coal were worked in the mine, one of which was "fiery." No naked lights, therefore, were allowed, and all "shots" or charges for loosening the coal were electrically fired.