Sure enough, there it was, the real black diamond stuff such as you shovel into the furnace--when you're lucky. I scaled off a piece and tested it with the lamp. And gradually I begun to revise my ideas of a coal mine. I'd always thought of it as a big cave sort of a place, with a lot of miners grouped around the sides pickin' away sociable. But here is nothing but a maze of little tunnels, criss-crossin' every which way, with nobody in sight except now and then, off in a dead-end, we'd get a glimpse of two or three kind of ghosty figures movin' about solemn. It's all so still, too. Except in places where we could hear the water roarin' there wasn't a sound. Only in one spot, off in what Llanders calls a chamber, we finds two men workin' a compressed air jack-hammer, drillin' holes. "They'll be shooting a blast soon," says Llanders. "Want to wait?" "No thanks," says I prompt. "Mr. Fiske is in a rush." Maybe I missed something interestin', but with all that rock over my head I wasn't crazy to watch somebody monkey with dynamite. The jack-hammer crew gave us a line on where we might find Bruzinski, and I expect for a while there I led the way. After another ten-minute stroll, durin' which we dodged a string of coal cars being shunted down a grade, we comes across three miners chattin' quiet in a corner. One of 'em turns out to be the mine-boss. "Hey, Joe!" says Llanders. "Somebody wants to see you." At which Waddy pushes to the front. "Oh, I say, Bruzinski! Remember me, don't you?" he asks. Joe looks him over casual and shakes his head. "I'm Lieutenant Fiske, you know," says Waddy. "That is, I was." "Well, I'll be damned!" says Joe earnest. "The Loot! What's up?" "That ring I gave you in Belgium," goes on Waddy. "I--I hope you still have it?" "Ye-e-es," says Joe draggy. "Fact is, I was goin' to use it tomorrow. I'm gettin' engaged. Nice girl, too. I was meanin' to----" "But you can't, Joe," breaks in Waddy. "Not with that ring. Miss Jedain gave me that. Here, I'll give you another. How will this do?" And Waddy takes a low set spark off his finger. "All right. Fine!" says Joe, and proceeds to unhook the other ring from his leather watch, guard. "But what's all the hurry about?" "Because she's here," says Waddy. "In Washington, I mean. The lovely Marcelle. Came over looking for me, Joe, just as she promised. Perhaps you didn't know she did promise, though?" "Sure," says Joe. "That's what she told all of us." "Eh?" gasps Waddy. "Some hugger, that one," says Joe. "Swell lady, too. A bear-cat for makin' love, I'll tell the world. Me, and the Cap., and the First Loot, and you, all the same day. She was goin' to marry us all. And the Cap., with a wife and two kids back in Binghamton, N. Y., he got almost nervous over it." "I--I can't believe it," says Waddy gaspy. "Did--did she give you a--a token, as she did to me?"