CHAPTER XV.—( Continued.)

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 257, 5 April 1878, Page 5

CHAPTER XV.— ( Continued.)

" Aye, sure, but who'll be going down ? " " I shall," said the duke, firmly j and ,in, another moment he had entered the bucket ; and seizing the chain, gave the signal to lower away. " Grant ! " I exclaimed, " don't be so mad ; why the fellows will be here in a moment ; what can you do ? " v Leave go, Jack, it's all right ; I must see to those doqr.s." , " Is there danger, then ? " £ " To the hundred and eighty men. on the other side of the pit there is, if they are not out of the mine." "Letwujgo, 1 ! " Stuff ! - What could you do ? You don't know a door from a donkey." "But you?" 11 1 could find my way blindfolded. Why, Jack, I have planned the whole business : I've been in and out here a dozen times at least." I implored, but all in vain; he gave the signal, and' the man lowered the winch : Grant nodded to me with his bright, frank, fearless look, " All right, Jack ; say a Hail Mary," and he was out of sight. I tried to still my fears — fears of what ? After all, I knew not. I paced up and down, whether for hours or minutes I could not tell. At last, looking towards the hill, I caught the welcome sight of a dozen men descending the road towards the shaft. I waved my hat to urge them quicker, and in my impatience set out to meet them. We were nearing together when there was a low sound, as it were, far beneath my feet, a slight trembling of the eaxth, and a cry from the men. I sprang forward, crying, " The Duke ! the duke ! " " Where ? " said the overseer, who led the party. " In the shaft— alone." " Then God rest his soul 1 " he exclaimed, " that was an explosion," * * * * * * * We hastened to the shaft, and whilst some telegraphed for more aid, others prepared to clear the shaft and descend without loss of time. Before long the whole gang were on the spot ; for Leven's message to signal the men out of the mine had cleared the workings and saved the men from the danger. They were all there, the hundred and eighty men he had so nobly saved ; many of whom a short week before had been burning him in effigy. And as the rumour of the accident spread, and women and children came hurrying to the pit's mouth loud were the expression of joy and thankfulness to find fathers, sons, husbands all safe and sound. But how was it with Leven ? An hour or two of work sufficed to answer that question. The Bhaft was cleared, and when the working party who had volunteered to explore came to the surface, they bore him with them, and laid him on the grass, and in another moment I was kneeling beside him. Yes, he was dead. Not a mark of exterior injury. The breath of the fire had not touched him, A sweet smile on his face, a smile of inexpressible peace, but life had been extinct at least an hour. The cause of his death was not the actual combustion, but what miners call the " after-damp," that is, the mixture of bad gasses caused by the explosion, and resulting in suffocation. They laid him in one of the sheds, and we telegraphed to Glenleven and Oakham. I do not stop here to speak of my own feelings, or those of the men around me. Some sensations are not keenly felt from their very intensity. This blow had come with a shock which, for the time, stunned me. I could act, and speak, and give orders, but at first I could not think. Only gradually did the truth, the whole truth, break on me, and deluge me with its anguish ; and I understood that a noble life had been consummated by a death of sacrifice, and that in very deed and truth he had given his life for his brethren. ■ " -