For the Allinson Honor. Harold Bindloss
he returned calmly; "not yet. In a sense, it's my mine; I must see the boys out."
A man near him raised a shout.
"What's the matter with the winch! Can't you heave on it?"
A deepening rush of water swirled about them and there were sharp cries:
"You above, get on to the handles! When's that rope coming? She ought to carry two!"
A man clutched at the rope, which fell among them but when another grasped it Andrew interfered.
"Steady, boys!" he said. "The winch won't lift you both. Being heaved up is too slow. Tell them to make the rope fast, and then climb; it's strong enough to carry two or three."
There was a growl of approval; instructions were shouted up; and while the water rapidly deepened, the group at the foot of the shaft decreased. Andrew, however, was above his waist before he clutched the ladder, while Carnally seized the rope. There was a man above him whose feet he must avoid, and he felt the timber shake, but it was with vast relief that he climbed out of the flood. He was near the top when a cross-batten broke and Grennan, the fellow above him, slipping down a foot or two, bruised Andrew's fingers with his heavy boot. For a brief moment Andrew clung by one hand, and then, his overtired arm suddenly relaxing, his fingers loosed their grasp and he fell, half dazed from pain and horror, into the swirling flood below. A crash of the timbers somewhere in the shaft preceded a fresh onrush of water. The flood was neck-deep and rapidly rising.
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