When the men returned with the tools and the dinners, the latter done up
in handkerchiefs, Jack asked Mr. Brook to take charge of the food.
"There are just twenty of us, sir, without you, and nineteen dinners.
So if you divide among us four dinners a day it will last for five days,
and by that time I hope we shall be free."
Four men only could work at the face of the stall together, and Jack
divided the twenty into five sets.
"We will work in quarter-of-an-hour shifts at first," he said; "that
will give an hour's rest to a quarter of an hour's work, and a man can
work well, we know, for a quarter of an hour. When we get done up we
will have half-hour shifts, which will give two hours for a sleep in
between."
The men of the first shift set to work without an instant's delay. The
vigour and swiftness with which the blows fell upon the face of the rock
told that the men who struck them were working for life or death.
Jack took the others into the next stalls and set them to work to clear
a narrow strip of the floor next to the upper wall. They were then to
cut a little groove in the rocky floor to catch the water as it slowly
trickled in, and lead it to small hollows which they were to make in the
solid rock. The water coming through the two stalls would, thus
collected, be ample for their wants.
Jack then started to see how the men at work at the doors were getting
on. These had already nearly finished their tasks. On the road leading
to the main workings choke-damp had been met with at a distance of fifty
yards from the stall; but upon the upper road it was several hundred
yards before it was found.
On the other two roads it was over a hundred yards. The men had torn
strips off their flannel jackets and had thrust them into the crevices
of the doors, and had then plastered mud from the roadway thickly on.
There was now no reason to fear any new rush of choke-damp, unless,
indeed, an explosion should take place so violent as to blow in the
doors.
This, however, was unlikely, as, with a fire burning, the gas would
ignite as it came out; and although there might be many smaller
explosions, there would scarcely be one so serious as the first two
which had taken place.
The work at the doors and the water being over, the men all gathered in
the stall. Then Jack insisted on an equal division of the tobacco, of
which almost all the miners possessed some.
Now that they were together again, all the lamps were put out save the
two required by the men at work. With work to be done, and a hope of
ultimate escape, the men's spirits rose, and between their spells they
talked, and now and then even a laugh was heard.
Mr. Brook, although unable to do a share of the work, was very valuable
in aiding to keep up their spirits, by his hopeful talk, and by stories
of people who had been in great danger in many ways in different parts
of the world, but who had at last escaped.
Sometimes one or other of the men would propose a hymn, and then their
deep voices would rise together, while the blows of the sledges and
picks would keep time to the swing of the tune.
On the advice of Mr. Brook the men divided their portions of food, small
as they were, into two parts, one to be eaten every twelve hours; for as
the work would proceed night and day, it was better to eat, however
little, every twelve hours, than to go twenty-four without food.