Private Gold

Chapter 26

“You stay outside,” Joey urged Isobel. His face looked drawn from strain.

“But you’ll need help,” she protested, as he lowered the ladder down.

“I don’t know how strong the fumes are down there. One of us needs to stay out, to deal with the emergency services when they arrive.”

“OK,” she agreed reluctantly, feeling her heart clench with worry as he clambered down. She could hear a few faint cries coming from below, but she feared that he was right, and that many of the miners had already succumbed to the fumes.

“Keep away from the grate,” Joey warned. Then he disappeared into the smoky darkness.

Isobel glanced up at the grate, noticing the jagged metal along its edge, speckled with rust. She stepped hurriedly back, imagining it slamming down. What could she do? She thought she could hear Joey’s voice coming from far below, speaking gently.

She prayed the emergency services would come soon. With their supplies of oxygen and other equipment, the rescue might stand a chance. She ran down the tunnel and out into the night.

She thought she could see them, far away in the distance — a faint patterning of red lights cutting the humid air. It would take another few minutes for them to get close enough to see her.

Something crunched under her feet, and she bent to pick it up.

It was a cable tie.

But, when she looked at it more closely, she realized it wasn’t an unused one.

This tie had stretched and snapped, right next to its fastening. Horror flooded through her as she saw it. One had broken, stressed to its limits, creating a weakness that would allow more to follow.

Adrenaline surging through her, Isobel screamed, “Joey! Hurry!”

That single snapped tie meant that there might be only a few minutes left. Maybe less. She needed to buy more time...

The car jack!

It could prove useful now to keep that lethal wedge of metal suspended and prevent it crashing down again.

She grabbed the jack and sprinted down the tunnel. The wave of dizziness she felt from the fumes almost knocked her off her feet, but she struggled forward. Where, and how, to position it? If she wedged it as close as possible to the base of the grate, and then cranked it upward, that would create an additional support, and hopefully take some of the strain off the makeshift rope.

Fingers shaking with tension, Isobel cranked up the jack. One turn, two... It was holding now, and seemed to be wedged firmly enough in place that it wouldn’t shift. Hopefully, with this to support the grate, the rope would hold for long enough to get the miners out.

She could hear the sirens in the distance.

Running back to the entrance, hoping the gunman was not waiting and watching somewhere, Isobel headed out into the night.

“Here! Quick!” she screamed and waved her arms.

The sound of the sirens grew louder and headlights blazed in her eyes as the first ambulance sped toward her.