Page:Vagabond life in Mexico.djvu/200

198 the rope could prevent the strap that bound me from slipping to the bottom.

"Well, I suppose you are, unless the peon has done his business ill," replied the miner, in a calm tone; "but, should that not be the case, you can grasp the rope with your hands with all your might."

I clutched the cable convulsively. Unfortunately, I could hardly compass it with my two hands.

"How long shall we be in going up?"

"Twelve minutes commonly, but in this instance half an hour a favor which I have obtained solely on your account, to allow you more time to observe the wonders of the mine."

"And does any accident ever happen in the ascent?"

"Pardon me. An Englishman, who happened to be ill bound to the rope, fell almost from the top to the very bottom, and so suddenly and quietly that a fellow-workman of mine, who was his guide, had not remarked his disappearance till he was at the top of the shaft."

I thought it best to ask no more questions. When I considered that five minutes had elapsed since the first movement of the malacate, I ventured to look above and below me. The shaft seemed to be divided into three distinct zones. At my feet a thick darkness dimmed the horror of that gulf which no eye could fathom; white tepid vapors rose slowly from the dark bottom and mounted toward us. Around me, the guide's torch lighted up with a smoky glimmer the green walls of rock, cut and torn in all directions by the pickaxe and the wedge. In the upper region a column of thick mist pressed round the circle of light produced by our torch, and shut us out completely from the light of day. At this moment the machine