this crucial moment it came back to
him--the eyes of a girl out there had@
driven it home, with blue lightnings, that
he did not have to defy his teeth.

"Humph! I'm no quitter," he told
the piloting breast-ray, blazing its ruby
trail ahead. "Well-11! for the love of
Mike! Well! what do you know about
that?. ? ? What have we h-here?"

In answer to his gasping snort, as he
gaped and gasped there in the darkness,
the little safety lamp told him what it
made of it--of the staggering sight--it
made a pair of big feet in rough cowhide
boots tightly wedged by the ankles in a
buckling switch of rock where two sharp,
narrow ridges that formed the bottom
of the Tinker's Pot dovetailed into each
other,--after the manner of rails at a
switch.

Ruddy, the slipslop explorer, had gone
in heels over head, so to speak. He was
hanging by the heels now. Nothing vis-of
him but those pinioned feet!

[[151]]

p150 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p151w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p152

v?