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Anotherfroed himself slowly, uncertain of direction but determined to find out what possibility of escape his prison offered For two hundred yards the tunnel led forward and brought him up sharply at an impasse A cave-in blocked farther advance

"Check," Jack told hirimly

He kne that his situation was a very serious one, for he had been flung alive into a grave that offered only a slight prospect of escape He ithout food, effectually cut off from the surface of the earth, and none but those who had assaulted him knew that he was buried

The alternatives that lay before hiain to the tiht atte a way over the cave-in with his hands and his pocketknife, trusting that the tunnel led to another shaft The former was a chance pure and simple, and a slender one at that It was not likely that anybody would pass the mouth of a deserted shaft far up in the hills at this season of the year But it was quite within the probabilities that the tunnel led to soround drifts were connected by intercepting stopes of adjoining ht be safety beyond To go erous business, but the crisis was one that justified any risk

He took stock of his assets Fortunately he had bought at a lunch counter a haht trip This was still in his pocket, badly ars were in the case he carried and upon his person all told he found eleven h the tunnel and gave assurance that he would not die of thirst His pocketknife was a serviceable one and he had plenty of physical strength

Jack decided that he would eat half of the sandwich that day and reserve the rest for the second one His cigars were precious luxuries to be indulged in once every twenty-four hours after he had knocked off work

He attacked the cave-in with the cool energy that characterized him Out of a piece of board he fashioned a kind of shovel with his knife Bits of broken tied into the tunnel for fuel to feed a sht for the work All through the night and till noon the following day he dug a this débris away after he had loosened it with his bare hands