The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-05-04

ment Of DR.. Robertson's own story Of the
Moose River tragedy. etches the scene
with sharp. simple strokes.
BY DIR. d. E. ROBERTSON
HALIFAX, N. S., May 4.
We lay huddled to-
gether, our stone bed be-
coming increasingly I'M
comfortable. Water dripped
on us necessarily. We
thought we were keeping
time properly, identifying
each day and night.
ALT would make regular trips to
the opening of the landing shaft
and hur' down a rock, always re-
porting he could not hear
splash. In this wise he days
passed until Saturday, or what he
thought was Saturday.
ALI was complaining more and
more of nufnbness in his legs.
Both Magill and ALT complained
of pain around their joints and
groins and knees. To my surprise
I seemed to be in good physical
shape. Neither ALT nor I had a
cough.
Magill, however, did not appear
to be so rugged. Suddenly in the
middle of what I judged was
Saturday afternoon, he sat up
right and cried to me that he had
a dreadful pain in his stomach.
Passing my arm around him, I
felt his abdomen. 1t was alb
solutely rigid. We continued to
lie there, the three of us, on our
left sides. had my arm around
Magill, trying to restrain and con-
troll him. Rocks continued to fall.
DY this time it had become ap-
ID parent to me that Magill
had pneumonia in his left lung.
His pulse and his breathing were
almost twice as fast as mine.
The mine was full of noises, but
one noise stood out from the
others. 1t seemed to be boring
souno, a sound as if a rotary in
strument was working.
Presently red light burst forth
in the shaft just below our level.
There was an intense red glow
which lighted the whole place.
We thought fire had started, per-
haps from some dynamite. ALI
sprang Up and went over to the
shaft. We passed him a cup OF
water, with which he deluged the
fire.
We discussed the significance OF
the fire, but could attribute no
reasonable explanation.
WE were in for about six or
wv eight hours of peculiar &C.
currences. The compressed air was
turned on in one of the pipes and
was blown for a long period OF
time. We thought it was an en-
deavor of the engineering force to
get an air pump working. After
the compressed air had been
blown for a period, whistle was
blown. Following another dis
cussion of this phenomenon we
decided that they were in some
fashion trying to signal us. After
resuming our beating of the pipes,
we presently heard voice shout,
"Hellol"
We went to the landing stage.
ALT got down the ladder and found
that the voice was coming from
the opening where the fire had
made Its appearance. Through this
opening, which proved to be the
diamond drill opening made to
penetrate to the space where we
lay, we could converse directly
with the people above.
q
THROUGH this I was able al
Il most Immediately to speak to
my wife. Mrs. Magill called to her
husband, but he was too weak to
move from where he lay. We
asked for candles and food. A
rubber tube was passed down, an
ordinary garden hose. This held
some candles, some matches
wrapped in cellophane, and some
small walls containing chocolate.
We dragged the hose over to
where we lay. We lighted our can
dies. We tried the soup, which was
poured down the hose, but neither
Magill nor I was able to keep it
down. ALI, I think, got some bene-
fit from it. Later they lowered us
telephone.
During this time Magill was
getting very much worse. He had
an extremely high fever, with very
labored breathing. Suddenly he
sat up, demanding drink of
water. He drank It, fell back and
died.
He died in the dark. ALI and I
lighted our candles. BY Herculean
efforts we moved his body into the
north cut, where we placed it on
a board. We then returned to our
place Of rest. / slept.
-
In tomorrow's chapter DR.. Rob-
erts0n's story progresses to the
stf7rnnr1a STARE y fhn r,es.;na xv1erns,,