"No; it had spread over the bag when I caught sight of it. But I was reasonably certain there was more to it than we imagined when you asked Dominick if he met anyone in the level just before reaching the chutes." Steve nodded reflectively. "What do you infer from the fire starting on the under side of the dynamite bag?" "That someone had either accidentally or by design shoved a candle under the bag while Dominick was carrying it. That is the only way I can see that the fire might have started." "I think you are right about that. But it surely was an accident. No one would be willing to take such terrible chances. Why, it might have blown everyone up within a wide radius." "Yes, it would have done so." "And yet you were down on your knees, with your nose right over the stuff, as if it were so much clay. I have steady nerves myself, but I don't believe I should have had the pluck to do that. At least, I know I should have turned my head away." Steve laughed. "I am afraid that would not have helped you much if the stuff had gone off." "Rush, if you suspect anything keep your eyes open; that's all I have to say. What you don't see will not be worth the seeing." "Very well, sir; I will do as you request, but I have not much hope of getting at the truth." "I'll risk that. I am going to the lower level. There is some difficulty with the pumps there, the engineer tells me," said the superintendent, proceeding on his way. Steve had not very much to do, so he walked back to his old post on the seventeenth level to wait until Bob Jarvis should come along. Steve and the superintendent had no sooner left the spot where they had been talking than a figure slunk from a deserted drift near by, glanced up and down the level, then hurried away. The man's hat was pulled down, and the candle above aided in throwing his face into deep shadow, but the full beard was not hidden, had anyone been near by to observe it. Steve had been sitting on the platform at the chutes for about thirty minutes when the level's telephone rang. "Mr. Penton wants to see you on the lower level," said the telephone boy. "Where is he?" questioned Steve. "He says he'll meet you near the suction pipes." "Very good," answered the lad, rising. "If Mr. Jarvis comes along tell him where I have gone. If I get through in time I will meet him here and go up with him." Rush hurried over, signaled the cage tender that he wished to descend, and a short time afterwards was being plunged deeper into the mine. He left the cage at the sub-level just above the last level. The last level was flooded with water some twenty feet deep. All the water from the mine was drained down into the last level and from there pumped to the surface and thus disposed of. There were naturally no mining operations carried on down on the last level.