Forbidden by Susan Johnson (best feel good books txt) 📗

framework had been installed, its two doors pushed back against the tunnel walls. Built against such an eventuality as this, water always a threat in the Ruby mine, the doors were of heavy-gauge metal.

Trey noticed the seeping water first, a small puddle begin-ning to form a hundred yards past the doors, and in the short seconds it took to call attention to it, the puddle expanded rapidly. Would the water break through? Trey wondered. Everyone knew the possibility existed and they worked feverishly to pull the doors into place.

A muffled roar reverberated like a giant's rumbling tread, giving them only a moment's warning before the tunnel floor exploded in a geyser of water.

The new exploratory tunnels were more unstable than the established working ones, not shored up with the same amount of timbers, and Hazard's voice echoed everyone's apprehension when he said, "We haven't much time."

The weighty doors moved in creaking protest as the men all threw their weight against them, the water already lapping around their base, adding resistance. With the temperature and humidity hovering around the hundred mark, the men were soaked in sweat, sapped by the work they'd already accomplished in the sultry heat, unable to muster the strength necessary to swing the doors shut quickly. With their muscles pushed to the limit, the strain showed in every face as gritted teeth indicated each man's intense effort.

The water was nearly a foot deep now and rising so rapidly one could distinguish its upward progression without even using a reference point, the swiftly streaming tide from the breakthrough in the tunnel ahead gushing toward them like a river in flood. But their brute strength was bringing the doors slowly together despite the irresistible pressure of the rising water.

Only a narrow ten-inch gap remained with the water thigh-high, when a water-soaked timber—missed somehow in the cleanup—shot through the opening like a projectile, lodging itself with an explosive clang against one of the doors. The brawny men struggled and cursed, trying to heave the timber free, or force it back, but the timber had splintered on one side on impact and was hung up with deadly accuracy on the levered handle mechanism.

It was immovable.

The door, only inches from closing, couldn't be shut.

Water was sweeping through the gap with increasing momentum as two hundred feet of water pressure below propelled it upward.

"It's over," Hazard curtly said when the water reached his waist. "Everyone out." He couldn't risk so many lives. And as they waded back toward the hoist, their progress slow in the ris-ing water, Ruby Mine, a man-made invasion of the earth drilled and blasted out over the course of several years, began succumbing with horrifying speed to the more powerful forces of nature.

"We should—try—the pumps, boss," one of the miners suggested as the hoist came into sight, the kerosene lamps at the station glowing in the inky shadow.

"We'll try two of them—down at the 2200 level," Hazard replied, his breath, like all of the others', coming in labored gasps. "Maybe—we can control the rise."

The Duc didn't have to ask what would happen if they didn't contain the water. He could tell from the grim looks on everyone's faces.

In less than ten minutes, two deep-well pumps were dropped into the shaft, and twelve-inch pipes began drawing up the water, the turbine motors above ground operating at maximum speed. But the water continued climbing even with the pumps draining at full capacity.

If the water reached the pumps, everyone knew… the mine was lost.

The situation looked ominous, for the water was a foot deep already at the 2200 level, the pump platforms almost underwater.

"We could try opening the crosscuts over to Alaska shaft," Trey shouted above the sound of the driving pistons. They were all in the process of shoring up the pump platforms. "It would reduce the water pressure here."

"The cuts aren't through yet," Hazard shouted back, the sinews in his arms strained with the weight of the pump.

"Dynamite," Trey cried.

"I'll go too," Etienne yelled.

Trey shook his head no.

The Duc nodded back—yes.

Neither man wasted unnecessary words, both competent, capable, and familiar with taking on the world head-on.

"He'd better not go," Hazard cautioned Trey, after the pumps were raised another two feet above the water and the men were far enough away to speak in a more normal tone. "You'd better not," he declared, turning toward Etienne. "Daisy won't approve of you risking your life."

"I happen to know a little about dynamite," Etienne modestly replied, a faint smile on his face, "since I own a share of one of Nobel's Ballistite factories." His mind was made up; with or without Daisy's approval, he was going. "I can help. She won't know… and I don't intend to argue… there isn't time."

"I'll go too," a large blonde man interjected, understanding, as they all did, the rapidly rising water didn't allow lengthy discussion.

"Me too," another miner offered. "I'm a fast runner."

"Thanks," Trey said, smiling at Trewayne's realistic appraisal. They were all going to have to run like hell once the dynamite was lit, because if they were successful in blowing the crosscut open, a ten-foot wall of water would be racing them to the skip.

The decision made without further discussion, for time was at a premium, the men left the pumps and took the cage up to level six where another crosscut connected the two shafts.

"You and Trewayne blow the east side, and Lund and I will do the west," Trey explained. "You're sure you know what you're doing?" he added, gazing at Etienne. A strong affirmative would go far to assuage the measure of guilt he was currently feeling. Daisy would tear him apart, Trey thought, if she felt he'd encouraged the Duc in this foolhardy mission.

"I learned to use dynamite when we were blowing tunnels through the Alps for one of our railroads."

"This should be familiar then. Does Daisy know? About the tunnels?"

"It never came up," the Duc replied, but his tone suggested it had never come up for a reason.

"Sensible man," Trey