A Maid of the Silver Sea

feguarding of the mines from ever-possible irruption of the sea. The great steam pumps kept the work

lateral galleries had, in some cases, run out seawa

he coast, he judged that the sea-bed was as seamed and

ng tunnels could hear the crash of the waves above their heads, and the

break through, the peril to li

me. The framework was fitted to the opening on the seaward side, in a groove cut deep into the rock round each side and top and bottom. The heavy iron door, when open, lay up against the roof of the tunnel and was supported by two wood

the rock, and that boring would be closed for ever. And if any man should be inside the tunnel when the sea broke through, there h

st caution on the men who undertook

irst sign of water in these undersea tunnels, make

ll these thin veins of silver had come, and hoping to strike them at every blow of h

, "it only wants finding," and he pushed ahead, here an

not for wages he wrought. Ever just beyond the point of his energetic pick la

d richer as he laid it bare. He believed it would lead him to the mother vein, and that to

n two and three feet wide, extended now several hundred feet under the

there, he had come upon curious little chambers like empty bubbles in one-time molten rock, ten feet across and as much in height, some

r to rediscover his vein on the opposite side. But he always found it in ti

e did all the work, picking and hauling the refuse single-handed. The work s

o loneliness because of the flame of hope that burned within him. Above him he could hear the long roll and growl of the wave-tormented boulders-now a dull, heavy fall

of rock till it was loosened from its ages-old bed, he felt it tremble under

would have given him notice by oozing round the rock as he loosened it. The brief rush of foul gas, which always followed

ick, he scrambled through into this cha

above his head, a million little eyes twinkled back at him as the rays shot to and fro on the poi

ed straight at him. Was it in mockery

veins ran thick as the setting of an ancient jewel, twisted and curling and

waited him, and this is he at last!" so those myr

d growl of the sea sounde

to himself, was the silver heart from which the scattered veins had been projected.

ut a moment's w

hin jets or streams from

n the same instant, as the crust of the chamber, no longer supported by

whirling vortex of bubbling green water, in

into the gallery. The wooden supports of the iron door

on was dead