Grace Hope, by happy instinct, had sunk upon the ground to breathe in that stifling smoke.  Hope, who had collared Ben Burnley, had sunk to the ground with him, but still clutched the assassin.  These were the three left alive in the hall, and this was their first struggle for life.

As soon as it was possible to speak Hope took up his lamp, which had fallen, and holding it up high, he cried, “Grace, my child, where are you?” She came to him directly; he took her in his arms and thanked God for this great preservation.

Then he gave Burnley a kick, and ordered him to the right hand of the hall.  “You’ll keep to that side,” he said, “and think of what you have done; your victims will keep this side, and comfort each other till honest men undo your work, you villain.”

Burnley crouched, and wriggled away like a whipped hound, and flung himself down in bitter despair.

“Oh, papa,” said Grace, “we have escaped a great danger, but shall we ever see the light of day?”

“Of course we shall, child; be sure that great efforts will be made to save us.  Miners have their faults, but leaving other men to perish is not one of them; there are no greater heroes in the world than those rough fellows, with all their faults.  What you and I must do at once is to search for provisions and lamps and tools; if there are no poisonous gases set free, it is a mere question of time.  My poor child has a hard life before her; but only live, and we shall be rescued.”

These brave words comforted Grace, as they were intended to do, and she accompanied her father down the one passage which was left open after the explosion.  Fortunately this led to a new working, and before he had gone many yards Hope found a lamp that had been dropped by some miner who had rushed into the hall as the first warning came.  Hope extinguished the light, and gave it to Grace.

“That will be twenty-four hours’ light to us,” said he; “but, oh, what I want to find is food.  There must be some left behind.”

“Papa,” said Grace, “I think I saw a miner throw a bag into an empty truck when the first alarm was given.”

“Back! back! my child!” cried Hope, “before that villain finds it!”

He did not wait for her but ran back, and he found Ben Burnley in the neighborhood of that very truck:  but Burnley sneaked off at his approach.  Hope, looking into the truck, found treasures—­a dozen new sacks, a heavy hammer, a small bag of nails, a can of tea, and a bag with a loaf in it, and several broken pieces of bread.  He put his lamp out directly, for he had lucifer-matches in his pocket, and he hid the bag of bread; then he lighted his lamp again and fastened it up by a nail in the centre of the hall.

“There,” said he to Burnley, “that’s to light us both equally; when it goes out you must hang up yours in its place.”

“That’s fair,” said Burnley, humbly.