There were plenty of men for the work of rescue; indeed, there were so many in each two-hour shift that they got in each other’s way. Chet Havens had put the situation concisely and to the point: It would take more than a week to dig down to the opening of Number Two tunnel; meanwhile, how would the entombed miners live without food or water? Mr. Fordham had not returned and there was nobody for the two boys to confer with. The mine foreman was doing all that seemed possible. It was a question whether what he did was of much use. Six men in a stoppered tunnel, with no ventilation and nothing to eat or drink, were not going to live long. Chet doubted if any of them would be alive at the week’s end. “Wait till father comes,” Dig said, almost sobbing, and seeing how badly his chum felt. “Perhaps he’ll know some other way to get into that drift.” “What way?” demanded Chet. “He doesn’t know any more about the mine than we do.” “Maybe from the old upper level—” “Bah! you know better,” Chet said sharply. “The pay-streak they followed first in this mine is only fifty feet down. It petered out before your father and mine bought into the Silent Sue—you know that, Dig. “No chance! The two levels have never been connected, save by the shaft itself. Your father can’t dig any faster than these men are digging. If there were only a way— “Say, Dig! there’s the Crayton Shaft. Don’t you remember it? Father told me the Number Two tunnel on the lower level was pretty close to the old Crayton diggings. He always said that if the Crayton people had kept on, they’d have struck pay-ore again. But they got cold feet and father bought a share in the claim cheap. Now there’s been a fellow around after it. I heard father talking about it.” “What good will it do to go down the Crayton shaft?” demanded Dig hopelessly. “I don’t know—I don’t know,” admitted Chet. “But I can’t stand here idle. I’ll go crazy—_crazy!_ I must do something! Maybe the wall between the tunnel of the Crayton mine and our Number Two is not very thick. I’ve got a compass, and I know this hill like a book. So do you. Let’s take a pick and shovel and ride over there.” “Oh, Chet! I’m afraid you’re stirring yourself all up over nothing,” returned his chum. “I’ll help you, of course; but I’m afraid it won’t help us any to go over there.” “We’ll not know till we try.” “Will you take some of the men to help us?” “Two can do all that can be done,” answered Chet, rather shrinking from taking even Rafe Peters into his confidence. It seemed such a forlorn hope! “If the blast went off at the end of the tunnel, it’ll be full of rubbish and take a lot of digging to get through it.” “No. Our tunnel isn’t going head-on into the Crayton drift. I understood father to say that Number Two tunnel passed the old diggings by. My goodness! if he only remembers it, and knows just where the Crayton tunnel is, maybe he and the boys will start digging that way at once. Come on, Dig! Let’s ride over.”