conclusions

Just as they were disappearing at the end of a gallery, a cracking was heard in the air, followed by tho prolonged uproar of the fall of some heavy body. A piece of the tubbing had given way, and was coming down a height of a hundred and eighty yards, bounding and rebounding against the sides of the shaft. Pierron and his mates just had time to get out
of the way, so that the piece of timber only smashed an empty truck. At the same time a large mass of water spouted forth as if escaping from a burst dyke, and poured down the shaft. Dansaert wanted to go up and see how things were, but while he was still speaking a second piece of timber came down with a crash. Confronted by this impending catastrophe, he no longer hesitated; but gave orders for the men to go up, and despatched viewers to call them together from the various cuttings.

Then began a terrible scramble. From each gallery the men arrived in bands, running for their lives and storming the cages. They were crushing, killing each other in their eagerness to go up first. A few, who had thought of getting away by the ladders, came back, shouting that the passage there was already blocked. The terror increased after each despatch of the cages. That one hàd passed; but would the next be equally fortunate, amidst the wreckage with which the shaft was already being encumbered ? Up above, the destruction was evidently working its way, for there came a series of distant detonations; stays split in two, and crashed down amidst the continuous and ever-louder roar of the water. One cage, nearly smashed, had already become useless; it no longer worked between the guides, which doubtless were also broken. The other rubbed so violently against the uprights that the cable would surely snap. Yet there still remained a hundred men or so to go up. They were shrieking, clinging to each other, half-drowned and bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. Two met their death by another fall of timber; a third, who had clung to the cage as it went up, dropped from a height of a hundred and fifty feet, and disappeared into the sump.
All the same, Dansaert tried to restore order. He had snatched up a pick and threatened to brain the first man who refused to obey him. He wanted to arrange them in single file, and shouted that the truckmen should go up last after despatching all their fellow-workmen. But he was not listened to. He had prevented Pierron, who stood by trembling and livid, from being one of the first to go up, and at each successive journey he had to drive him back with a blow. But his own teeth at last began to chatter with fear; another moment and he himself would be swallowed up. Everything was giving way up above, the rush of water was carrying all before it; there was a murderous fall of timber every moment. A few workmen were still trying to reach the shaft, when, mad with fright, he jumped into a truck, and allowed Pierron to get in behind him. The cage went up.
It was at that same moment that the gang to which Etienne and Chaval belonged arrived at the bottom of the shaft. They watched the cage disappear and made another desperate effort, but had to retreat before the final collapse of the tubbing. The shaft was blocked up; the cage would not come down again. Catherine burst into sobs; Chaval swore till he almost choked. They were twenty in all; would the swine up above abandon them like that ? Old Mouque had leisurely brought back Battle. Both he and the animal, whose bridle he still held, were stupefied by the rapid rise of the inundation. The water was already up to the men's waists. Étienne, speechless, his teeth tightly set, raised Cathcerine in his arms. And the score of them remained there shrieking, their faces turned upwards; they persisted in staring idiotically at the shaft, at that rapidly closing passage, which was vomiting forth a stream, and whence no help could ever come to them.