'You mean old Manack's escaped?' I shouted. 'And he's in the mine?'
'Yes,' she answered.
The strength drained suddenly out of my joints. I glanced into the dark tunnel that stretched away ahead of me. Any moment I expected to hear the roar of water. 'Listen, Kitty,' I said urgently. 'Go straight up to the surface. Understand? Get straight up to the surface.'
I didn't wait to hear her reply. I dropped the receiver and scrambled back along the ledge. Beyond the pit I dropped to the floor of the gallery and ran splashing and stumbling through the water down the long tunnel that led to safety.
CHAPTER TEN
Come Lucky
I thought that gallery would never end. My breath came in great gasps. I ran as I had never run before. The sweat poured from me. I got clear of the water as the gallery sloped upwards. But my gum boots were like lead. I had to stop and tip the water out of them. Those precious seconds wasted seemed like years. Any minute I expected to hear the distant thud of an explosion and the rumble of water tearing into the mine.
Suddenly a light showed ahead. I hadn't the strength to call out. It remained stationary as I pounded up the slope of the gallery. A voice called out, 'Is that you, Jim?' It was Kitty's voice. The little fool had stayed down.
'Get to the surface,' I gasped.
She didn't move.
'Get up to the surface,' I shouted again. The effort of speech hurt my throat. The blood was pounding in my ears and my chest heaved.
Still she didn't move. 'What's happened?' she asked as I came up with her. 'You look as though you've seen a ghost. What is it?'
'Come Lucky,' I answered, seizing her arm.
I saw her eyes widen as she realised what I meant. Then we were running side by side along the gallery. We reached the shaft that led up to the adit. I hesitated. But the desire to make height was overwhelming. I thrust her to the ladder. We climbed at a furious rate. Even so, she outstripped me. My limbs felt weighed down with a great weight. I'd been working steadily all day, and now this sudden demand on my strength. I felt so tired I thought I'd never make the top. The steady beat and thud of the pump coincided with the throbbing of the blood in my ears.
We made the top. At the same moment a voice shouted. A miner's lamp showed the great bob of the pump swinging rhythmically up and down. Then the lamp ducked under the bob and came running towards us. I have a fleeting recollection of old Manack's face, streaked with sweat and dirt and pallid with exertion. Then he brushed past us and another lamp appeared beyond the great bobbing beam of the pump. 'Stop him!' It was Captain Manack's voice.
His face was set and his eyes wild as he dashed past us after his father. I took Kitty by the arm and rushed her down the narrow cross-cut and out into the main adit. I could hear the sea slopping about in the adit cave, and behind me the pump beats thudded like the beating heart of the mine.
I turned up the adit towards the main shaft. Ahead of us the lamps of the two Manacks bobbed as they turned a bend. We followed. I couldn't hear the pump any longer. All I could hear was the heaving gasps that came from my mouth as I strained my last effort.
We rounded the bend. The lights had vanished. But a faint orange glow showed in the shaft that the old man used. We reached it and peered up. The lamps showed like glow-worms in the shaft. The old man was about forty feet above his son. Water glistened on the weed-grown rock. They were climbing at a furious rate. I thrust Kitty towards the ladders. She began to climb. I followed her.
I had barely set foot on the slimy rungs of the ladder when deep within the mine there was a muffled roar. It was far away, remote as the echo of a minor earthquake. I paused, listening for what I dreaded. A blast of air struck my face. It smelt stale and dank. It was like air that had been imprisoned long under ground. And then I heard it — a faint, rumbling roar. Another, lighter blast of air swept up the shaft behind us, bringing with it a choking cloud of dust. Deep in the mine the rumbling went on. It was like the rumblings of some giant's belly. It was crude and terrifying.
Something fell past me and hit the ground below with a splintering of wood. I glanced down. A length of ladder lay broken at the foot of the shaft, its rotten timbers shattered by the fall. High above us I saw the old man still climbing. But below his son had stopped. A great strip of laddering had been torn away.
And in that instant a sudden gush of dirty water spurted from the side of the shaft. I saw Captain Manack swept from his hold on the ladder, like a fly brushed off by a hose jet. Then the water hit me and I fell. A body crashed on top of me as my feet hit the ground. I fell, rolled over and fetched up with a terrific crack on my helmet against a rock wall.
Everything was black. The whole place was full of the sound of water pouring from a height. And behind that sound was the deeper, more distant rumbling of water tearing through the mine. Something heavy lay across my legs. It stirred. 'Jim?' It was Kitty's voice, strained to a shriek.
Are you all right?' I shouted.
'Yes. Oh, thank God you're all right.'
I found her hand and we got to our feet. The noise of the water was terrific. 'Quick,' I cried. 'That main shaft. Have you got a match?'
'I've got a torch,' she shouted back. The beam leapt out in the darkness, showing a solid fall of water pouring down the shaft. There was no sign of Captain Manack's body. He must have been swept away in the brown flood that poured down the adit. 'Run,' I shouted, and we started off up that adit to the main shaft.
As we ran the sound of the water pouring down the shaft lessened. Instead, the muffled roar of the Come Lucky flood ripping into Wheal Garth became louder. As we came to the main shaft a soft glow showed in the darkness ahead. I heard the rattle of the gig's wheels. The glow brightened. 'The gig's coming,' Kitty shouted. I flung myself at the lever which would stop it at our level. I threw all my weight on it, but it wouldn't budge.
The gig reached our level. I had a glimpse of Friar, Slim and Dave huddled together in the light of their miners' lamps. Slim had hold of the lever which kept the gig moving. That was why I hadn't been able to shift the lever at our own level. 'Stop,' I shouted. 'Friar! For God's sake stop.'
They saw us. I could see their eyes bright with fear. They saw us, but they didn't stop. Slim kept hold of the operating lever. Friar made a move towards the lever. Then he stopped, staring out at us with his mouth open and his eyes staring with horror. Dave stood there, biting his nails and making no move. The gig rattled past. The glow faded.
Rage dominated all other emotions. It swelled up inside me so that I felt I could tear down the timbers that formed the runway for the gig up the shaft. I stumbled to the framework and tore at the wood with my bare hands.
Then as the light of their lamps slowly dwindled up the shaft my rage subsided and cold fear took its place. I turned to Kitty. She was standing quite still as though stunned by what had happened. 'They've left us to die,' she said.
'Isn't there some other way up?' I cried. There must be some other way.'
She shook her head. There must be, but I don't know of any. There are plenty of shafts but none that we could climb without — " She suddenly broke off, listening.
The sound of the gig had ceased. Down the shaft came shouts. I peered upwards. The lights of their lamps were still visible. The gig was motionless. 'Pryce! Pryce!' one of them was calling.
'What is it?' I shouted back.
'The gig has stuck,' came back the answer faintly. Try to work it your end.'
I thrust over the lever. It went over quite easily now. But nothing happened. 'What's wrong?' Kitty asked. I tried the lever again. The water's got down to the bottom of the main shaft,' I told her. 'It's stopped the wheel from turning.' Then suddenly an idea burst upon me. Fool! Why hadn't I thought of that before? Except for odd shafts there was only that one way into the old workings by Come Lucky. I listened. The distant roar of water pouring through the mine seemed fainter. It was finding its way direct to the lower level. 'Quick,' I said, catching hold of Kitty's arm. 'The sea.' We started running down the adit. The shouts of the three men trapped in the main shaft faded. 'Can you swim?' I gasped out the question as we ran.