What puzzled Chet was the identity of the person who had been so recently working at the end of this abandoned tunnel. “What was he working here for?” demanded Dig. “There’s no sign of silver that I can see.” Both boys thought that they knew a good deal about pay ore, both gold and silver. They were so much about their fathers’ mine, and had heard so much miners’ talk, and had seen so many specimens of ore, that they felt they were not to be easily fooled. John Peep had nothing to say and the expression on his face did not invite questions. Chet and Digby threw off their coats and set to work. Chet first swung the pick, while Dig shovelled the earth away. In five minutes Chet’s pick rang on a rock in the wall. “Hello!” exclaimed his chum. “Did you hear that?” “I hit a rock.” “And somebody hallooed,” declared his chum, with confidence. “Was it a voice? Do you think so?” cried the excited Chet. “So soon?” “I bet you!” was the answer. Chet attacked the wall with renewed courage. The earth and small stones rattled down faster than Dig could shovel the rubbish aside. “Hold on! hold on!” gasped Dig. “Let’s take a breath. You’ll bury us both in this stuff, Chet. Wait till I shout again.” “Go ahead!” panted his chum, quite breathless. Digby raised his voice as loudly as possible. Immediately there was an answer—unmistakably a human voice! “They’re in there—and they are alive!” cried Chet, half sobbing. “Come on, Dig! maybe some of them are hurt! I want to hear my father’s voice!” CHAPTER VII—THE RESCUE—AND AFTERWARD The two boys went at the task of digging into the other mine with renewed vigour. A murmur of sound came through the intervening wall of earth—unmistakably the voices of the entombed miners. “Hurrah!” cheered Digby Fordham. “They hear us!” Chet’s heart was too full for him to speak. He worked at the wall of dirt and small stones furiously, and without regard to the bringing down of a possible avalanche upon his own and Digby’s heads. John Peep stood back and held the lantern so that they could see. He did not say a word after the chums began this second attack upon the wall. Again the muffled shouts were heard. The chums replied—screaming at the very tops of their voices. A mass of earth fell inward. “They are digging too! Keep it up, Chet,” called out his chum. “I’m—getting—wind—ed!” gasped Chet. “Let me take hold there!” cried the sturdy Dig. “You take the shovel.” They exchanged implements, and the furious excavating went on for several minutes. They were making a round hole about breast high in the wall of the tunnel. The noise of their own pick and shovel drowned other sounds. Suddenly the pickaxe in Dig’s hands clashed with another iron implement wielded by somebody on the other side of the wall! “Hurrah!” cried Dig Fordham. “We’ve found ’em, Chet!” Another mass of earth fell in and the boys saw a light twinkling ahead of them. “Is that you, Father?” called Chet Havens.