Chapter 4. Down and...

The trapped hobbits had made quite a bit of progress; the hole was now head-high and they had to take turns working in it. First one would wield the pick, loosening all the dirt and rock at the bottom of the hole that he could, then the others would haul him up and another would jump down to shovel dirt into buckets, which he'd lift up to the waiting hands. There was not enough air for singing, anymore.

Reginard slid down next to the Thain. 'You still with us?' he asked hoarsely.

The other rolled his head to look over, attempting a grin. 'How could I tear myself away?' he whispered.

'Just how deep d'you think we have to go?' Regi asked.

The Thain made the effort to focus on the work at hand. 'My, you've delved deep,' he said in surprise. 'We've been here that long already?'

'O aye,' Regi returned. 'You know how the time passes when you've a pleasant occupation.' He coughed painfully. Breathing in didn't feel all that different from breathing out anymore.

'Can't be much further,' the Thain whispered.

'Too bad we didn't find a bit of rope,' Regi said. 'Would've made hauling the buckets of dirt out that much easier.'

'Ah,' the Thain said wisely. 'If you want rope you ought to talk to the Mayor. He twists his own, you know.'

'Aye, lad,' Regi said, squeezing the Thain's shoulder as he struggled to rise, to go back to the digging. He had to get the Thain to fresher air, and soon. For that matter, he needed to get himself to fresher air. He crawled back to the lip of the hole in time to grab the next bucket of dirt.

***

The three from Buckland poured over the plans while the foreman told of the rescue efforts thus far. 'We dug down from the top twice, to try to reach them that way, hit solid rock each time. We've still got a team trying to clear the corridor, but it's slow and treacherous work. We're even trying to dig inwards from the side of the hill.' He was tired, and he'd run out of ideas. He was no engineer, just the foreman of a digging crew. Now he lapsed into silence.

Doderic touched a spot on the page. 'What's this, here?' Berilac looked more closely, nodding. It looked like another possibility, if he was reading the plans right.

The foreman scratched his head. 'I don't rightly know,' he said.

'It looks like another tunnel, on a lower level,' Doderic said. 'This type of shading is used to imitate depth, show something below the level you're working at.'

'Is there another tunnel, or cave?' Merry asked.

'There might be...' the foreman said slowly.

A small voice spoke up behind them. 'There is!' Merry turned to see Faramir behind them, though he had been shooed away several times already. 'We're not supposed to play there; Father says it's dangerous.'

'What can you tell us about it, lad?' Merry asked.

'It goes back into the hill a ways. I think it was dug to keep ale cool, there's still bits of broken casks near the back,' Faramir said readily.

Berilac looked up. 'If this plan is right, it passes right under where the excavation stopped. We might have a better chance at reaching them from below; there's much less ground to get through.'

'Is it dirt or solid rock?' Doderic asked. He bent to the plan again. 'A mix, it seems.' He looked up. 'All right, let's get a team there, we'll send probes up through the ceiling of the tunnel, see if we can get one up all the way without being stopped by rock.' He looked to the foreman. 'Keep the other teams on the job, just in case...' In any event, they wouldn't leave the hobbits entombed there; they'd recover the bodies if they couldn't get there in time to rescue them alive.

He looked to the young Took. 'Can you take us to this tunnel of yours?' he asked. The boy nodded. 'All right, Doderic said, jumping to his feet. 'Let's go.'

***

For some time now, Pippin didn't know how long, the sound of the pick had changed. Instead of the dull thunking sound it made as it was buried in the dirt and pulled free again, he had been hearing a sharp metallic sound.

'Regi!' he called weakly. The other crawled to him. 'What's the matter with the pick?' he said. 'It doesn't sound right somehow.'

'We're digging as hard as ever,' Reginard answered. 'Just listen to that rhythm.'

The Thain shook his head. 'Something's amiss,' he maintained. 'Can ye not hear it?'

Regi stopped to listen; he'd been working automatically for so long now that the only sound he noticed was the silence if the work should be interrupted. As his brain slowly absorbed the implications of what he was hearing, his shoulders slumped. 'We've hit rock,' he said, heavily. As if the same notion had come to the pick wielder, the sound slowed and then stopped.

'Should've realized before,' the Thain muttered. 'Can't think... air's bad...' He sat suddenly upright, clutching at his cousin. 'Regi,' he said urgently. 'The air's bad!'

'I know, lad,' the other said soothingly. 'Not much we can do about it.'

'Who's in the pit? You've got to get him out; the bad air's heavier, he'll suffocate before the rest of us...' the Thain said wildly.

Regi nodded stupidly as the knowledge dimly penetrated his brain. 'I'll get right on't,' he said. He turned and crawled to the pit. Dinny and Seth lay on their faces where they had fallen near the lip. For a wonder, Len still held the guttering torch aloft, though it was tilted as if he could no longer manage to keep it upright. Regi peered over, to see Andy sprawled at the bottom of the pit. Regi turned so that he could go down feet first, might as well not break his neck at this late date. He took as deep a breath as he could, knowing that this air had to be better than what was down there, let himself fall. He picked up the other hobbit and thrust him over the lip of the pit, head bursting with the effort. It seemed too much trouble to climb out himself, but then he heard the Thain's call.

'Regi!' Pippin pushed himself away from the wall, falling forward, trying to crawl towards the pit.

Reginard made a last effort, hauling himself up over the lip before collapsing at the edge. He reached out his hand to the Thain, fingers barely brushing those outstretched towards him. He couldn't tell if Pippin were dead or merely unconscious. Staring into the unseeing eyes turned towards him, he said the words he'd left until almost too late.

'You made a fine Thain, cousin, the past six years. I only wish it could have been longer. It's been an honour...' Breath failed him; he laid his own head upon the ground and drifted off to sleep. As his eyes were closing, he saw the torch dip, then gracefully glide to the ground. Darkness claimed them once again.