George put all the power of his being into the effort to swallow a few drops. Still the anguish! "O God, my back! and the legs--paralysed!" The words were only spoken in the brain, but it seemed to him that he cried them aloud. For a moment or two the mind swam again; then the brandy began to sting. He slid down a hand slowly, defying the pain it caused him, to feel his right leg. The trouser round the thigh hung in ribbons, but the fragments lying on the flesh were caked and hard; and beneath him was a pool. His reason worked with difficulty, but clearly. "Some bad injury to the thigh," he thought. "Much bleeding--probably the bleeding has dulled the worst pain. The back and shoulders burnt--" Then, in the same hesitating, difficult way he managed to lift his hand to his head, which ached intolerably. The right temple and the hair upon it were also caked and wet. He let his hand drop. "How long have I--?" he thought. For already his revived consciousness could hardly maintain itself; something from the black tunnels of the mine seemed to be perpetually pressing out upon it, threatening to drown it like a flood. "Burrows!"--he felt again with his hand--"where's Macgregor?" A sob broke from the darkness beside him. "Crushed in an instant. I heard one cry. Why not we, too?" "It was such a bad fall?" "The whole mine seemed to come down." George felt the shudder of the huge frame. "I escaped; you must have been caught by some of it. Macgregor was right underneath it. But there was an explosion besides." "Macgregor's lamp? Broken?" whispered George, after a pause. "Possibly. It couldn't have been much, or we should have been killed instantly. I was only stunned--a bit scorched, too--not badly. You're the lucky one. I shall die by inches." "Cheer up!" said George, faintly. "I can't last--but they'll find you." "What chance for either of us," said Burrows, groaning. "The return must be blocked, too, or they'd have got round to us by now." "How long--" "God knows! To judge by the time I've been sitting--since I got you here--it's night long ago." "Since you got me here?" repeated George, with feeble interrogation. "When I came to I was lying with my face in a dampish sort of hollow, and I suppose the afterdamp had lifted a bit, for I could raise my head. I felt you close by. Then I dragged myself on a bit, till I felt some brattice. I got past that, found a dip where the air was better, came back for you, and dragged you here. I thought you were dead at first; then I felt your heart. And since we got here I've found an air-pipe up here along the wall, and broken it."