However, the more they went on, the more alarmed the miners grew.
Whither was the old man leading them? What would happen if they lost
themselves in the labyrinth of these subterranean galleries, whose
silence had not been disturbed for long years? The darkness itself
seemed startled by the sight of this terrified crowd. The miners would
have gladly halted, but what would happen then? To go back was to go to
certain destruction. As long as they followed Ivan, they had a vague
hope of some mysterious aid, reckoning on the unknown power which
supported him and had restored to him for some hours a little of his
former vigour for the deliverance of his comrades perhaps. Those who had
no belief in this hesitated nevertheless to separate from the rest,
knowing not what to do in this silence and darkness. If they had to die,
they would die together. At any rate, they soon understood that they
would have inevitably perished in the gallery which they had just left,
for they had hardly been following the old man for an hour when a dull
and prolonged sound was heard in the distance. Then it came nearer, as
though it were pursuing them. Its last echo seemed to them quite close,
behind the wall they were skirting at that moment. It was evident that
the gallery where they worked, as well the one which they had just
quitted, had both fallen in. If they had remained there, they would have
shared the fate of those of their comrades whose hands and feet only
were projecting from the mass of earth which covered them.
The distant shock also re-echoed in the gallery they were traversing
when they heard it. Fragments of earth fell from the roof and a great
rock suddenly projected just above old Ivan's head, while the wall on
the right hand bulged out. The miners rushed forward terrified, but Ivan
stopped them and made them go more slowly. Some cowards flung themselves
on their stomachs and hid their faces, but they were lifted up and
obliged to proceed. The gallery they were now in became narrower and
narrower. After having begun their march five abreast, they could now
only go two by two with difficulty. A few minutes more, and they were
obliged to walk in single file. Then the chief miner let the rest go in
front of him and took the last place. He was among the few who had not
lost their heads and acted thus, lest some cowards might remain behind
stretched on the ground in an access of blind fear.
The gallery became ever more contracted. However, that did not seem to
trouble old Ivan, who continued to advance with confidence. He still
saw distinctly the white Apparition Who shed a mysterious radiance in
the darkness. From time to time he murmured, "Here I am Lord, here I
am!" and that renewed his strength.
Even now when his two elbows touched the walls, and the lowness of the
rocky roof above his head prevented him raising his torch which he was
obliged to hold in front of him a little slanted and at arm's length,
the old man never doubted that he was guided by our Lord in person, Who
pointed him out the way. Behind him the miners were half suffocated
because the thick smoke of the torches filled the narrow passage in
which it was difficult to breathe, as the confined atmosphere had been
unchanged for an immeasurable time. This was apparent by the way in
which the flames of the torches lengthened themselves, seeming to seek
the oxygen they required, and then burning dimly in the darkness.
All at once Ivan halted. He was confronted by a dead wall without any
apparent outlet. However, doubt was not possible for him, for he had
distinctly seen the white Apparition pass through the wall. Now it was
waiting for him on the other side of the wall which had so unexpectedly
intervened.
"He has stopped there; I have seen Him!" Ivan stretched out his lean arm
in front of him, no one knew why.
The chief miner decided to make a last attempt, "Let us dig, my
children! We must make a way for ourselves."
But though he gave the order, he doubted whether there was anything on
the other side of the wall but a mass of earth, rocks and ore.
Fortunately, just here the passage was a little wider and they could
work three abreast. They set to work bravely. However, the flames of the
torches exhausted the air and they grew very dim. Their smoke blinded
and half-choked the miners, but they persisted and dug huge holes in the
earth which was not very hard.
Leaning his back against a wall, Ivan looked straight in front of him.
He knew that behind this mass of earth and stones the Apparition which
he had known so well in his childhood awaited him.
"We are buried alive!" murmured one of the men.
"Are we making any way?" asked the chief miner, ignoring the remark.
But the men, with perspiration pouring from them, continued their work
without replying.