At last in came a number of other men to relieve them—­men equally anxious and desperate as they, burning with the desire to get to grips with this calamity which had come upon two of their comrades.

“I’m no’ goin’ hame,” said Andrew decisively, “till I see Geordie out.”  He was almost dropping with exhaustion, but he could not think of leaving his dead friend in there.  So at last it was agreed that he should stay, and at least give the benefit of his advice.  The others, more tired than ever they had been before in all their experience of the mines, where hard work is the rule, trudged wearily home, to be met by the waiting groups of women and children, who at all times stood at the corners of the village eagerly asking for news, “If they’d been gotten yet.”

After a few minutes’ deliberation a plan was decided on by Andrew and his comrades of trying to choke up the hole in the roof with timber, and the work went on desperately, silently, heroically.  Time and again their efforts were baffled by new falls, but always the same persistent eager spirit drove them back to their toil.  So they worked, risking and daring things of which no man who never saw a like calamity has any conception, and which would have appalled themselves at any other time.

“Look out, boys,” called Tam Donaldson, springing back to the road as the warning noise again began, and great masses of rock came hurtling down, filling the place with dust and noise.

A cry of pain and horror broke upon them as they ran, and brought them back while the crumbling mass was still falling.

“Great God!  It’s wee Jamie Allan,” roared one man above the din.  “He’s catched by the leg!  Here, boys, hurry up!  Try an’ get this block broken afore ony mair comes doon.  God Almichty!  Are we a’ goin’ to be buried thegither?  This bit, boys!  Quick!” And they tore at the great masses of stone, the sweat streaming from every pore of their bodies, cursing their impotence as they smashed with big hammers the rock which lay upon Jamie’s leg.

“Mind yersel’s, laddies!” warned Jamie, as again the trickling noise began, heralding another fall.  “Leave me, for God’s sake, an’ get back!” But not one heeded.  Desperate and strong with the strength of giants, they toiled on, the sight of suffering so manifest in Jamie’s eyes, as he strove not to cry out, spurring them onward.

“Ye’ll never lift that bit, Tam,” said Jamie, as four of them tore at the block which lay upon his leg.  “It’s faur too big.  Take an ax an’ hack the leg off.  I doot it’ll be wasted anyway.  Oh, dear!  Oh, dear!” And unable longer to endure the pain, he roared aloud in agony, and tore at the stone himself with his fingers, like an imprisoned beast in a trap.

“Here, boys, quick!” cried Andrew, getting his long pinch in below the stone, upon a fine leverage.  “Put yir weight on this, Tam, an’ Jock an’ Sanny’ll try an’ pull Jamie out.  Hurry up, for she’s working for anither collapse.  A’thegither!” and so they tugged and tore, and strained and pulled, while the roars of the imprisoned man were deafening.