The Holbrook news., 1922-11-10
CHAPTER xI

They started forward then, making their way through the slime and silt of the drift flooring, slippery and wet from years of flooding On-on-they stopped.
 Progress had become impossible. Be- fore them. twisted and torn and piled about in muddy confusion, the tim bers of the mine suddenly showed in a perfect barricade, supplanted from behind by piles of muck and rocky refnse which left no opening to the chamber of the stope beyond. Har- rvs carbide went high in the air. and he slid forward, to stand a moment In Thought before the obstacle. At plate after place he surveyed it. finally to tiirn with shrug of his shoulders
 ''lt's going to mean more'n a month of the 'ardest kind of work, Boy" came his final announcement. "'Ow it could ave caved in like that is more than I know. I'm sure we timbered it good"
 There was only one thing to do turn back. Fifteen minutes more and they were on the surface, making their plans; projects which entailed work from morning until night for many day to come. Harry reached fcr new ax and indicated another.
 "We'll cut ties first" he announced.
 And thus began the weeks of effort, weeks in which they worked with <.yrda annIianoaS vraal-S in ,,-b;ob +Lo.. dragged the heavy stulls and other timbers into the tunnel and then low cred them down the shaft to the drift. two hundred feet below, only to follow them in their counterbalanced bucket and laboriously pile them along the sides of the drift. there to await use -ater on. Weeks in which they worked In mud and slime. as they shoveled out the muck and with their gad hooks tore down loose portions of the hang ing wall to form a roadbed for their new tram.
 It was a slow, galling progress. but they keft at It. Gradually the tram line began ,o take shape, pieced to- gether from old portions of the track which still lay in the drift and supple mented by others bought cheaply at that graveyard of miners hopes-the junk yard in Ohadi. At last it was finished; the worK of moving the heavy timbers became easier now as they were shunted onto the small tram truck from which the body had been dismantled and trundled along the rails to the cave-in, there to be piled fin readiness for their use. And final ay-
 A pick swung in the air. to give forth a chunky, smacking sound. as it struck water-softened. spongy wood. The attack against the cave-in had be- gUr- A foot at a time they tore away the old. broken. splintered timbers and the rocky refuse which lay piled be- hind each shivered beam; only to stop, carry away the muck. and then rebuild. Cold and damp. in the moist air of the tunnel they labored, but there was a Joy in it all. Down here they could forget Squint Rodaine and his chalky- faced son; down here they could feel that they were working toward a goal and lay aside the handicap which humans might put in their path.
 Day after day of labor and the in dentation upon the cave-in grew from d matter of feet to one O. yards. A week. Two. Then, as Harry swung his pick. he lurched forward and went co his knees. I've gone through! '" he announced in happy surprise i've gone through. We're at the end of it l'
 Up went Fairchild's carbide. Where the pick still hung in the rocky mass,