CHAPTER LXI.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1592, 16 September 1882, Page 5

CHAPTER LXI.

When Jack Stepped out of the train ' in Melbourne, at eight o'clock that evening, the platform 1 was alive with 1 newsboys, who were vociferating, " 'Erald, , sfe'cbnd edition', a penny! Horful accident! A, -mine busted up!" Jack' bought aicopy; anH as 'he was going 'frown 'in the omnibus he' pulled it out' and read the* paragraph' 'which nearly every passenger was also scanning.' It ran thus: — a Awful accident 1" ',''''/ " A mine collapsed;!"'/* ' " A rfch reefer' buriedalive!" *** , " Terrible "excitement J" ,- ' * ' ) • ' '' ' ci •' pßy special' telegram^ Wl : „ '< >' .-', . , '-.- -;;H; ;H i,^. 4['»ii, (irit,'six o'docV ' * /'A' ! teiribl^e>^TosioW! ;i tooK^place f vin :the Hes^ejus'-ExtendeH'inine, this^ afternoon.*' 'It 3 's^ni'B^Mrr^'Mjadiah'^S^eetcoinfbrifc ' a^h'd "the*

i-l, would take days .jto get hirn^oufc. Mr. ; Snickers states that Mr. ,3weetcomfort , asked him to go for a pick in order to test some old ! stone on the hanging wall. Mr. Sweetcomfort was.sinoking a cigar, and had a lighted candle. Mr. Snickers warned, him to keep away from 1 the powder. - Ihe supposition is that he, was examuiing the magazine when some ,sparks, fromfpis cigar fell into the powder, or that he dropped his candle. , ,The timber was very much decayed, and must have been swept' away by the blast, the collapse of the .drive immediately following. Mr. Sweetcomfort was the wealthiest mine proprietor on Grit." "It is singular that several years ago in Grit, a miner named Meldon was buried alive in this mine; but he was rescued, and this gives hope to Mr. .Sweetconrfort's, friends." A mist rose before Jack's eyes. , Obadiah Sweetcomfort, dead 1 And to meet his death in so horrible a manner. Jack remembered well the awful peril he himself had escaped. At first a sort of exultation came into his mind, but he quickly repressed it, for he felt it was unbecoming a man, much less a Christian. But there was other business in hand, and great as was the impression this had on Jack's mind, he almost forget it in the prospect of meeting Bertha and his father.