And the fat woman at a safe distance 
wrung her hands and uttered exclama- 
tions of horror and ill judged advice to 
our departing forms. 
Between the fright, the altitude, and 
the hill I had no breath left to speak 
with as I pounded on the door of the 
miner’s hut. Mountaineers sleep lightly 
and do not make toilets, so it was 
barely ten minutes from the time of the 
cave-in when three men were working 
at the tunnel’s mouth with pickaxes 
and shovels. 
The tunnel had not meant to be ma- 
licious, but merely to do the proper 
thing (it had not even disturbed the 
nitro-glycerine in the smithy). Not 
much earth had fallen, and in less than 
an hour we heard the shouts of the 
imprisoned men; in two hours they 
crawled into the air unhurt, and soon 
~cormmozma 23206 
<3 CO CO wT so rnw 
