Page:Clement Fezandié - Through the Earth.djvu/229

Rh "It's all my fault!" she cried in anguish, the natural spirit of self-condemnation of her sex rising to the surface. "If it had n't been for me, you would never have let William go; so if he is killed, all the blame will rest upon me!"

"Nonsense," said the doctor, kindly. "You had nothing whatever to do with the matter, Flora. I had fully made up my mind to let William go before you spoke a word. Besides, matters are not so bad as they seem. If the danger can only be warded off for half an hour more, William will be in safety on the other side. Every instant we gain now is so much toward his salvation. Come, dry your eyes; for I shall need you to help me watch the instruments, and on the promptness of our actions everything may now depend.

Thus admonished, Flora quickly brushed away her tears, for in the hope of being of use to our hero she would have risked anything and dared anything. But as she turned to the instruments, a cry of alarm from the doctor caused her to look up.

At the same moment an ominous rumbling was borne to her ears, and closely following it came a more pronounced irregularity in the working of the electric conductors which served to keep the tube from melting.