lanterns and candles and more shadowgees illuminated the rock in firelight , and as she passed into the main chamber , the whole of abandon overwhelmed her in a hundred-strong chorus of weeping and shouting and voices in varying strains of panic-bawling , terrified children ; mothers and fathers trying to comfort them , many failing to hold back their own tears ; a handful of men barking orders , attempting to manage the chaos ; huddles of roostered miners , cursing whatever breed of heathen dare descend into their canyon and making pronouncements of war and grandiose predictions of the hell they would unleash on any savage who breeched the iron door ; and emma ilg , flitting from person to person , a manic fly , asking if they 'd seen her husband .