_Pat and the Pick.--A dangerous Plan.--Undermining the very
Foundation.--A terrible Risk.--Something like an Earthquake.--A Way
opened.--They make an Ascent.--A sudden Stop.--The projecting
Log.--The Pickaxe.--Who shall go down?--A new Descent.--The Watch
of Bart.--Alarm.--A Call.--Silence.--Terror.--An Answer.--Fearful
Intelligence.--The very worst.--The Drain.--The rising Waters.--The Pit
flooded.--The impending Doom._
IN this way they went over all the logs, and at length reached the
lowest layer of all. At this point, Pat’s superior dexterity with the
pick enabled him to invent and to put in practice a plan which could not
have been used before, or with any of the logs except these lowest ones.
For beneath these was the earth, and Pat’s plan was the natural and
simple one of digging this earth away, and so undermining the log that
lay there. Pat worked nimbly and thoroughly, and as he loosened the
soil, Bart scraped it away with his hands. Pat dug down to the depth
of a foot all along, and then thrust the pick far in, scooping out the
earth that lay on the other side of the log. In this way they succeeded
in removing the earth that kept the log in its place, and at length they
were able to detach it, and draw it forth.
The removal of this one log served to make the removal of the others
possible. By diligent efforts the four logs which composed the lower
tier were detached. The side logs were too long for the pit, and
therefore had to be placed erect, and leaned against the side. The
end logs could lie down easily. The second tier then followed, and was
removed more easily than the first. Then the third tier was detached,
and the fourth. In each case the logs of the side had to be stood erect,
while the end logs were laid on the ground at the bottom.
A serious difficulty now appeared before the boys, and one, too, for
which they had not been prepared. The length of the side logs was a
very embarrassing circumstance. They were too long to be placed at the
bottom, and had to be stood up. But this took up space, and infringed
very seriously upon the narrow area in which their operations were
carried on. In passing from one side to remove the logs on the other,
they had to lift these backward and forward so as to get them out of
the way--a work which was most exhaustive, and at the same time hindered
them in their proper efforts. Still they kept on, until at length about
eight tiers of logs had been removed, and the longer ones filled up
so much space, that it was quite impossible to do any more. They still
worked away at those which were within reach, and managed to remove a
dozen logs more; but after this they could do nothing, for the bottom
of the pit was completely filled, and the staying was now a compact mass
from which nothing further could be detached until the logs were removed
which were covered up by those piled against it.
Bart and Pat were now compelled to desist for a time, and as they
felt quite exhausted, they raised themselves to the top of the pile of
upright logs, and there sat down. Scarcely had they done this, when they
were aware of a trembling all around, like an earthquake. In horror they
sprang to their feet. The sides seemed to be moving; the logs separated,
and descended, and through the crevices there protruded sand and clay.
It was as though the whole mass of the casing was falling in. In an
instant they knew what it was. In their thoughtlessness they had taken
away the foundations of this structure, and it was all falling in.
An involuntary cry of terror burst from both. They shrank together,
clinging to the pile on which they stood, and awaited their last hour.
But once again there was a respite. The movement ceased. The worst
seemed to be over, at least for the present. Yet the result of this
one movement was fearful as far as it went. All the logs of the casing
seemed severed and distorted, and had apparently descended as far as
they had dug away the foundations. Seeing this, another frightful
thought came--the broken beam above. They looked up fearfully. As yet,
however, the danger impending hesitated to strike, for there, across the
mouth of the hole, they saw the broken beam defined against the sky.
It did not appear to have moved; nor was there that appearance of
irregularity about the upper casing of the pit which now marked the
lower. It seemed to them as though the slighter staying of plank had
been put in the upper part of the pit, because it was clay, and needed
but little protection; but down below, where the soil was looser, stout
logs had been required. As they looked up, they saw that all this lower
casing of logs had fallen.
No sooner had they discovered this than they saw also something which
inspired them with hope. Not only had the lower staying of logs thus
descended, but it had also lost its cohesion, and the logs all seemed
to be separated by spaces of more or less width, while many of them
protruded into the pit as though thrust in by the pressure of the earth.
Now they recognized at a glance the tremendous risk that they had run
while removing the lowest logs; but at the same glance they perceived
that the immediate danger had passed, and that they were now at least
less helpless than before. For now, at last, there need be no difficulty
about climbing. Now the spaces between the logs were wide enough for
them to find something which they might grasp with their hands, and for
some distance up, at any rate, they could see what seemed like a ladder,
up which they might climb in search of escape from this fearful place.
No sooner had they made this discovery than they at once caught at this
prospect which thus had so unexpectedly opened before them, and began
to climb. The task was not very difficult. Each one took a corner of the
pit where the meeting of the two walls favored the ascent, and for some
time they continued to mount without much difficulty.
“Sure but I’m afraid this is too good to last,” said Pat.
Bart made no reply. That very fear was in his own mind. In that suspense
he could say nothing. At last they had mounted as high as the
place where the rope had broken. The end hung here suspended most
tantalizingly. O, what joy it would have been for them had it been the
rope alone which had thus broken,--if the beam had only continued sound;
but now that rope was useless, and they dared not touch it for fear lest
even a touch might bring down upon their heads the beam that hung there
impending over them. Fortunately they were able to ascend yet higher,
for still above them the log casing had been started asunder, and still
they found themselves able to grasp places of support. The staying had
certainly undergone a universal disintegration, and nothing but its
great compactness had prevented it from falling in ruin over their
heads, and burying them alive. It was with amazement and consternation
that they recognized their work, and these feelings would have
overwhelmed them had they not found the result, after all, so fortunate
for themselves. The risk had passed away. For the present, at least,
they were receiving the benefit.
The fear which Pat had expressed, and which Bart had felt without
expressing, that the ascent was too good a thing to last, was at length
proved to be only too well founded. After they had climbed some distance
farther, they found their ascent brought to an abrupt termination. For
here there was a kind of separation between the lower casing and the
upper; a log bulged forward about a foot, and above this there was a gap
in the casing about two feet in height which shoved the earth behind,
a kind of clay, and in this there was a cavity caused by the falling of
the casing. Above this the casing had held firm, but unfortunately they
had not reached the planks. They were the same round logs which rose
above them, and which would be as difficult to scale from this point as
they had proved from below.
Upon this ledge, formed by the bulging logs, they clambered, and seated
themselves, dejected at the termination of their ascent, yet relieved
slightly by the chance which was now afforded of some rest and breathing
space. Here they sat, and looked up.
“Sure an it’s hard, so it is,” said Pat, “to find an ind to it just
here, whin, if we’d only been able to climb twinty or thirty feet
further, we’d have got to the planks, an been all safe.”
“Yes,” said Bart, looking up, “there are the planks; and they’re not
more than thirty feet above us at the farthest.”
“An yit they’re as much out of our raich as though they were a hundred,
so they are.”
“I’d rather have the thirty feet, at any rate,” said Bart. “Come now;
can’t we manage to get farther up.”
“Nivir a farther,” said Pat. “We’ve got to the ind of our journey.”
“Come now,” said Bart. “See here, Pat. You spoke of a tunnel once. In
fact we came down here with the pickaxe on purpose to make a tunnel
to the money-hole. Well, we’re after something more precious than
money--life itself. Can’t we tunnel up to life?”
“Tunnel, is it?” cried Pat, in great excitement. “Of coorse we can.
Ye’ve jist hit it, so you have. It’s what we’ll do. We will thin.”
“The soil here seems like clay; and if we cut up behind this casing,
it’ll be comparatively safe,” said Bart. “We need only cut up to the
planks.”
“Sure an we’ll have to cut up to the top.”
“O, no! When we get to the planks, we can break through, and climb them
like a ladder to the top. Once up to the planks, and we’re safe.”
“Break through the plankin is it? Sure enough; right are you; that’s
what we’ll do, so it is.”
“And so that makes only thirty feet to cut away. It’ll be hard work
cutting upwards; but you and I ought to manage it, Pat, when our lives
are at stake.”
“Manage it? Of coorse; why not? Only we haven’t got that bit of a pick
with us, so we haven’t, for we left it down below; an sorra one of
me knows what’s become of it. It may be buried under the roons of the
fallin logs.”
At this Bart looked at Pat with something like consternation.
“Well,” said he at length, “we’ll have to go down again--one of us; we
must have that pickaxe. I’ll go.”
“Sure an you won’t,” said Pat; “meself’s the one that’s goin to go.”
“No, you shan’t. Poh! Don’t be absurd.”
“Sure I’m bound to go; and so don’t you go too. There’s not the laste
nicissity in life for both of us to go.”
“O, well, then,” said Bart, “we’ll have to toss up for it. That’s all.”