30 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
down No. 2 incline
to notify Lindsay and his companions of the outbreak of the fire, but
the smoke came up through the shafts so heavily that both were driven
back gasping for breath, and barely reached the surface before they
fell on the floor completely exhausted. For several minutes there was a
tension of waiting for some signal to hoist from Lindsay, or one of his
party, but none was given. Lindsay and his comrades must have been
close to the skip in the shaft when the fire started, and a signal bell
wire ran through the shaft close at hand. There was time enough for one
of the party who went down the shaft in the skip with Lindsay to climb
up the shaft by means of the timbers, a distance of 150 feet, and in
view of this, the failure of these men to get into the skip and ring a
signal to hoist is inexplicable. Seeing at once that ascent through No.
1 incline was probably hopelessly blocked by the outpouring
smoke, I hastened to the mouth of the other shaft (No. 1 incline
shaft). The smoke was also streaming out of this shaft in dense volumes.
The
signal to hoist men by ringing three bells was repeatedly given, but I
hesitated to give the order to hoist the skip, which was at the
600-foot level, as the risk of hoisting a skip-load of men through the
stifling smoke was appalling. On the other hand, it was impossible to
know at the surface in what desperate straits the men might be on the
600-foot level. So, before giving the signal to hoist, I took measures
to revive the men who would be overcome by the smoke in ascending the
shaft, and water was provided to dash on them if they came up with
their clothes on fire. It was a moment when no balancing of
probabilities could determine the decision. There was a desperate
chance of safety in the swift pulling up of the skip. I could not let
the piteous appeals go on apparently unheeded. I gave the signal to
hoist at top speed in response to the last pleading signal. When the
skip was about 300 feet from the surface, the wire winding rope parted.
The broken end came whizzing up through the shaft, but the skip with
its load of four poor victims fell crashing down to the sump at the
bottom of the shaft, a
