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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Derrick Sterling, by Kirk Monroe
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Derrick Sterling
+       A Story of the Mines
+
+Author: Kirk Monroe
+
+Release Date: June 19, 2007 [EBook #21863]
+[Last updated on October 24, 2007]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DERRICK STERLING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Brett Fishburne, Mary Meehan
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            DERRICK STERLING
+
+                          A STORY OF THE MINES
+
+                             BY KIRK MUNROE
+
+                    Author of "THE FLAMINGO FEATHER"
+
+
+
+[Illustration: IN THE BURNING BREAKER.]
+
+
+
+NEW YORK AND LONDON
+HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
+COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY HARPER & BROTHERS
+COPYRIGHT, 19l6, BY KIRK MUNROE
+
+PRINTED IN THE U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. IN THE BURNING BREAKER
+
+II. A FEARFUL RIDE
+
+III. THE MINE BOSS TAKES DERRICK INTO HIS CONFIDENCE
+
+IV. INTRODUCING HARRY, THE BUMPING-MULE
+
+V. ATTACKED BY ENEMIES, AND LOST IN THE MINE
+
+VI. THE SECRET MEETING.--A PLUNGE DOWN AN AIR SHAFT
+
+VII. A CRIPPLE'S BRAVE DEED
+
+VIII. DERRICK STERLING'S SPLENDID REVENGE
+
+IX. SOCRATES, THE WISE MINE RAT
+
+X. IN THE OLD WORKINGS.--MISLED BY AN ALTERED LINE
+
+XI. A FATAL EXPLOSION OF FIRE-DAMP
+
+XII. THE MINE BOSS IN A DILEMMA
+
+XIII. LADIES IN THE MINE.--HARRY MULE'S SAD MISHAP
+
+XIV. A LIFE IS SAVED AND DERRICK IS PROMOTED
+
+XV. A "SQUEEZE" AND A FALL OF ROCK
+
+XVI. BURSTING OF AN UNDERGROUND RESERVOIR
+
+XVII. IMPRISONED IN THE FLOODED MINE
+
+XVIII. TO THE RESCUE!--A MESSAGE FROM THE PRISONERS
+
+XIX. RESTORED TO DAYLIGHT
+
+XX. GOOD-BY TO THE COLLIERY
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+In the burning breaker
+
+"Here, lad, lead this mule down the rest of the way, will ye?"
+
+Suddenly there came a blinding flash, a roar as of a cannon
+
+Good-by to the colliery
+
+
+
+
+DERRICK STERLING: A STORY OF THE MINES
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+IN THE BURNING BREAKER
+
+
+"Fire! Fire in the breaker! Oh, the boys! the poor boys!" These cries,
+and many like them--wild, heartrending, and full of fear--were heard on
+all sides. They served to empty the houses, and the one street of the
+little mining village of Raven Brook was quickly filled with excited
+people.
+
+It was late in the afternoon of a hot summer's day, and the white-faced
+miners of the night shift were just leaving their homes. Some of them,
+with lunch-pails and water-cans slung over their shoulders by light iron
+chains, were gathered about the mouth of the slope, prepared to descend
+into the dark underground depths where they toiled. The wives of the day
+shift men, some of whom, black as negroes with coal-dust, powder-smoke,
+and soot, had already been drawn up the long slope, were busy preparing
+supper. From the mountainous piles of refuse, of "culm," barefooted
+children, nearly as black as their miner fathers, were tramping homeward
+with burdens of coal that they had gleaned from the waste. High above
+the village, sharply outlined against the western sky, towered the huge,
+black bulk of the breaker.
+
+The clang of its machinery had suddenly ceased, though the shutting-down
+whistle had not yet sounded. From its many windows poured volumes of
+smoke, more dense than the clouds of coal-dust with which they were
+generally filled, and little tongues of red flame were licking its
+weather-beaten timbers. It was an old breaker that had been in use many
+years, and within a few days it would have been abandoned for the new
+one, recently built on the opposite side of the valley. It was still in
+operation, however, and within its grimy walls a hundred boys had sat
+beside the noisy coal chutes all through that summer's day, picking out
+bits of slate and tossing them into the waste-bins. From early morning
+they had breathed the dust-laden air, and in cramped positions had
+sorted the shallow streams of coal that constantly flowed down from the
+crushers and screens above. Most of them were between ten and fourteen
+years of age, though there were a few who were even younger than ten,
+and some who were more than sixteen years old.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: A law of the State of Pennsylvania forbids the employment
+of boys less than twelve years old in breakers, or less than fourteen in
+mines. This law is not, however, strictly enforced.]
+
+Among these breaker boys two were particularly noticeable, although they
+were just as black and grimy as the others, and were doing exactly the
+same work. The elder of these, Derrick Sterling, was a manly-looking
+fellow, whose face, in spite of its coating of coal-dust, expressed
+energy, determination, and a quicker intelligence than that of any of
+his young companions. He was the only son of Gilbert Sterling, who had
+been one of the mining engineers connected with the Raven Brook
+Colliery. The father had been disabled by an accident in the mines, and
+after lingering for more than a year, had died a few months before the
+date of this story, leaving a wife and two children, Derrick and little
+Helen.
+
+For nearly five years before his father's death Derrick had attended a
+boarding-school near Philadelphia; but the sad event made a vast
+difference in his prospects for life, and compelled his return to the
+colliery village that he called home.
+
+Mr. Sterling had always lived up to his moderate income, and though his
+salary was continued to the time of his death, the family then found
+themselves confronted by extreme poverty. They owned their little
+vine-covered cottage, at one end of the straggling village street, and
+in this Mrs. Sterling began to take boarders, with the hope of thus
+supporting her children. Her struggle was a hard one, and when one of
+the boarders, who was superintendent of the breaker, or "breaker boss,"
+offered Derrick employment in his department, the boy was so anxious to
+help his mother that he gladly accepted the offer. Nothing else seemed
+open to him, and anything was better than idleness. So, after winning a
+reluctant consent from his mother, Derrick began to earn thirty-five
+cents a day, at that hardest and most monotonous of all forms of
+youthful labor, picking slate in a coal-breaker.
+
+He had been brought up and educated so differently from any of his
+companions of the chutes that the life was infinitely harder for him
+than for them. He hated dirt, and loved to be nice and clean, which
+nobody could be for a minute in the breaker. He also loved the sunlight,
+the fields, and the woods; but no sunshine ever penetrated the thick
+dust-clouds within these walls. In the summer-time it shone fierce and
+hot on the long sloping roof, just above the boys' heads, until the
+interior was like an oven, and in winter they were chilled by the cold
+winds that blew in through the ever-open windows.
+
+Here, and under these conditions, Derrick must work from seven o'clock
+in the morning until six in the evening. At noon the boys were allowed
+forty minutes in which to eat the luncheons brought in their little tin
+pails, and draw a few breaths of fresh air. During the first few weeks
+of this life there were times when it seemed to Derrick that he could
+not bear it any longer. More than once, as he sat beside the rattling
+chute, mechanically sorting the never-ending stream, with hands cut and
+bruised by the sharp slate, great tears rolled down his grimy cheeks.
+Over and over again had he been tempted to rush from the breaker, never
+to return to it; but each time he had seemed to see the patient face of
+his hard-working mother, or to feel the clinging arms of little Helen
+about his neck. He would remember how they were depending on his two
+dollars a week, and, instead of running away, would turn again to his
+work with a new energy, determined that, since he was to be a breaker
+boy, he would be the best in the colliery.
+
+In this he had succeeded so well as to win praise, even from Mr. Guffy,
+the breaker boss, who usually had nothing but harsh words and blows for
+the boys who came under his rule. He had also been noticed by the
+superintendent of the colliery, and promised a place in the mine as soon
+as a vacancy should occur that he could fill. In the breaker he had been
+promoted from one seat to another, until for several weeks past he had
+occupied the very last one on the line of his chute. Here he gave the
+coal its final inspection before it shot down into the bins, from which
+it was loaded into cars waiting to carry it to cities hundreds of miles
+away. Above all, Derrick was now receiving the highest wages paid to
+breaker boys, and was able to hand his mother three big silver dollars
+every Saturday night.
+
+The first time he did this seemed to him the proudest moment of his
+life, for, as she kissed him, his mother said that this sum was
+sufficient to pay all his expenses, that he was now actually supporting
+himself, and was therefore as independent as any man in the colliery.
+
+It was a wonderful help to him, during the last few weeks of his breaker
+boy life, to think over these words and to realize that by his own
+efforts he had become a self-supporting member of society. It really
+seemed as though he increased in stature twice as fast after that little
+talk with his mother. At the same time his clothes appeared to shrink
+from the responsibility of covering an independent man, instead of the
+boy for whom they had originally been intended.
+
+Beside Derrick Sterling, that hot summer afternoon, sat Paul Evert, a
+slender, delicate boy with a fine head set above a deformed body. He did
+not seem much more than half as large as Derrick, though he was but a
+few months younger, and his great wistful eyes held a frightened look,
+as of some animal that is hunted. He too had been compelled by poverty
+to go into the cruel breaker, and try to win from it a few loaves of
+bread for the many little hungry mouths at home, which the miner father
+and feeble mother found it so hard to feed.
+
+For a long time the rude boys of Raven Brook had teased and persecuted
+"Polly Evert," as they called him, on account of his humped back and
+withered leg, and for a long time Derrick Sterling had been his stanch
+friend and protector. While the even-tempered lad used every effort to
+avoid quarrels on his own behalf, he would spring like a young tiger to
+rescue Paul Evert from his persecutors. Many a time had he stood at bay
+before a little mob of sooty-faced village boys, and dared them to touch
+the crippled lad who crouched trembling behind him.
+
+On this very day, during the noon breathing-spell, he had been compelled
+to thrash Bill Tooley, the village bully, on Paul's behalf. Bill had
+been a mule-driver in the mine, but had been discharged from there a few
+days before, and taken into the breaker. He now sat beside Paul, and
+during the whole morning had steadily tormented him, in spite of the
+lad's entreaties to be let alone and Derrick's fierce threats from the
+other side.
+
+That Derrick had not escaped scot-free from the noon-hour encounter was
+shown by a deep cut on his upper lip. That Bill Tooley had been much
+more severely punished was evident from the swollen condition of his
+face, and from the fact that he now worked in sullen silence, without
+attempting any further annoyance of the hump-backed lad beside him. Only
+by occasional glances full of hate cast at both Derrick and Paul did he
+show the true state of his feelings, and indicate the revengeful nature
+of his thoughts.
+
+This was Paul's first day in the breaker, where he had been given work
+by the gruff boss only upon Derrick Sterling's earnest entreaty. Derrick
+had promised that he would initiate his friend into all the details of
+the business, and look after him generally. He had his doubts concerning
+Paul's fitness for the work and the terrible life of a breaker boy, and
+had begged him not to try it.
+
+Paul's pitiful "What else can I do, Derrick? I have got to earn some
+money somehow," completely silenced him; for he knew only too well that
+in a colliery there is but one employment open to a boy who cannot drive
+a mule or find work in the mine. Therefore he had promised to try and
+secure a place for his crippled friend, and had finally succeeded.
+
+Paul was struggling bravely to finish this long, weary first day's work
+in a manner that should reflect credit upon his protector; but the hours
+seemed to drag into weeks, and each minute he feared he should break
+down entirely. He tried to hide the cruel slate cuts on his hands, nor
+let Derrick discover how his back ached, and how he was choked by the
+coal-dust. He even attempted to smile when Derrick spoke to him, though
+his ear, unaccustomed to the noise of the machinery and the rushing
+coal, failed to catch what was said.
+
+While the crippled lad, in company with a hundred other boys, was thus
+anxiously awaiting the welcome sound of the shutting-down whistle, at
+the first blast of which the torrents of coal would cease to flow, and
+they would all rush for the stairway that led out-of-doors, the air
+gradually became filled with something even more stifling than
+coal-dust--something that choked them and made their eyes smart. It was
+the pungent smoke of burning wood; and by the time they fully realized
+its presence the air was thick with it, and to breathe seemed wellnigh
+impossible. Then, just as the boys were beginning to start from their
+seats, and cast frightened glances at each other, the machinery stopped;
+and amid the comparative silence that followed they heard the cry of
+"Fire!" and the voice of the breaker boss shouting, "Clear out of this,
+you young rascals! Run for your lives! Don't you see the breaker's
+afire?"
+
+As he spoke a great burst of flame sprang up one of the waste chutes
+from the boiler-room beneath them, and with a wild rush the hundred boys
+made towards the one door-way that led to the open air and safety.
+
+Obeying the impulse of the moment, Derrick sprang toward it with the
+rest. Before he could reach it a faint cry of "Derrick, oh, Derrick,
+don't leave me!" caused him to turn and begin a desperate struggle
+against the mass of boys who surged and crushed behind him. Several
+times he thought he should be borne through the door-way, but he fought
+with such fury that he finally won his way back out of the crowd and to
+where Paul was still sitting.
+
+"Come on, Polly," he cried, "we haven't any time to lose."
+
+"I can't, Derrick," was the answer; "my crutch is gone."
+
+Surely enough, the lame boy's crutch, which had been leaned against the
+wall behind him, had disappeared, and he was helpless.
+
+At first Derrick thought he would carry him, and made the attempt; but
+his strength was not equal to the task, and he was forced to set his
+burden down after taking a few steps towards the door.
+
+He called loudly to the last of the boys, who was just disappearing
+through the door-way, to come and help him. At the call the boy turned
+his face towards them. It was that of Bill Tooley, and it bore a grin of
+malicious triumph.
+
+The next instant the great door swung to with a crash that sounded like
+a knell in the ears of Derrick Sterling, for he knew that it closed with
+a powerful spring lock, the key of which was in Mr. Guffy's pocket.
+
+The crash of the closing door was followed by a second burst of flame
+that came rushing and leaping up the chutes, and above its roar the boys
+heard shrill voices in the village crying, "Fire! Fire in the breaker!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A FEARFUL RIDE
+
+
+As Derrick and Paul realized that they were left alone in the burning
+breaker, in which the heat was now intense, and that they were cut off
+from the stairway by the closed and bolted door, they remained for a
+moment speechless with despair. Then Derrick flung himself furiously
+against the heavy door again and again, with a vague hope that he might
+thus force it to give way. His efforts were of no avail, and he only
+exhausted his strength; for the massive framework did not even tremble
+beneath the weight of his body.
+
+Still he could not believe but that somebody would open it for them, and
+he would not leave the door until tiny flames creeping beneath it warned
+him that the stairway was on fire and that all chances of escape in that
+direction were gone. He tried to make himself seen and heard at one of
+the open windows, but was driven back by the swirling smoke. Then he
+turned to Paul, who still sat quietly where he had been left. The
+crippled lad had not uttered a single cry of fear, though the eager
+flames had approached him so closely that he could feel their hot
+breath, and knew that in another minute the place where he sat would be
+surrounded by them.
+
+As Derrick sprang to his side, with the intention of dragging him as far
+as possible from them, he said,
+
+"The slope, Derrick! If we could only get to the top of the slope,
+couldn't we somehow escape by it?"
+
+"I never thought of it!" cried Derrick. "We might. We'll try anyhow, for
+if we stay here another minute we shall be roasted to death."
+
+Stooping, he lifted Paul in his lithe young arms, and with a strength
+born of despair began to carry him up the long and devious way that led
+to the very top of the lofty building. He had scarcely taken a dozen
+steps, and was already staggering beneath his burden, when he stumbled
+and nearly fell over some object lying on the floor. With an
+exclamation, he set Paul down and picked it up.
+
+It was the crutch, Paul's own crutch; and it was so far above where they
+had sat at work that it seemed as though it must have been flung there.
+
+The boys did not pause to consider how the crutch came to be where they
+found it, but joyfully seizing it, Paul used it so effectively that they
+quickly gained the top of the building and stood at the upper end of the
+long slope.
+
+It was a framework of massive timbers supported by high trestle-work,
+that led from the highest point of the breaker down the hill-side into
+the valley, where it entered the ground. From there it was continued
+down into the very lowest depths of the mine. On it were double tracks
+of iron rails, up which, by means of an immensely long and strong wire
+cable, the laden coal cars were drawn from the bottom of the mine to the
+top of the breaker. As a loaded car was drawn up, an empty one, on the
+opposite track, went down. The angle of the slope was as steep as the
+sharply pitched roof of a house, and its length, from the bottom of the
+mine to the top of the breaker, was over half a mile.
+
+This particular slope was provided with a peculiar arrangement by which
+a car loaded with slate or other refuse, after being drawn up from the
+mine to a point a short distance above the surface, could be run
+backward over a vertical switch that was lowered into place behind it.
+This vertical switch would carry it out on the dump or refuse heap. The
+top of the dump presented a broad, level surface for half a mile, on
+which was laid a system of tracks. Over these the waste cars were drawn
+by mules to the very edge of the dump, where their contents were tipped
+out and allowed to slide down the hill-side. During working hours a boy
+was stationed at this switch, whose business it was to set it according
+to the instructions received from a gong near him. This could be struck
+either from the bottom of the mine or the top of the breaker, by means
+of a strong wire leading in both directions from it. One stroke on the
+gong meant to set the switch for the mine, and two strokes to set it for
+the dump. A flight of rude steps led up along the side of the slope from
+the mouth of the mine to the top of the breaker.
+
+Derrick and Paul thought that perhaps they might make their way down
+this flight of steps and thus escape from the blazing building; but when
+they reached the end of the slope, and looked down, they saw that this
+would be impossible. Already the steps were on fire, and the whole
+slope, as far as they could see, was enveloped in a dense cloud of
+smoke. Through it shot flaming tongues that were greedily licking the
+timbers of the tall trestle-work.
+
+If Derrick had been alone he would have made the attempt to rush down
+the steps, and force his way through the barrier of smoke and flame; but
+he knew that for his companion this would be impossible, and that even
+to try it meant certain death.
+
+As he hesitated, and turned this way and that, uncertain of what to
+attempt, an ominous crash from behind, followed by another and another,
+warned them that the floors of the building were giving way and letting
+the heavy machinery fall into the roaring furnace beneath. They knew
+that the walls must quickly follow, and that with them they too must be
+dragged down into the raging flames.
+
+Paul, sitting on the floor, buried his face in his hands, shutting his
+eyes upon the surrounding horrors, and prayed.
+
+Derrick stood up, gazing steadily at the rushing flames, and thought
+with the rapidity of lightning. Suddenly his eye fell upon an empty
+coal-car standing on the track at the very edge of the slope, and he
+cried,
+
+"Here's a chance, Paul! and it's our only one. Get into this car, quick
+as you can. Hurry! I feel the walls shaking."
+
+As Paul clambered into the car in obedience to his friend's
+instructions, though without an idea of what was about to happen,
+Derrick sprang to one side, where a brass handle hung from the wall, and
+pulled it twice with all his might; then back to the car, where he cast
+off the hooks by which the great wire cable was attached to it. Again he
+pulled furiously, twice, at the brass handle.
+
+He had done all that lay in his power, and was now about to make one
+last, terrible effort to escape. The red flames had crept closer and
+closer, and were now eagerly reaching out their cruel arms towards the
+boys from all sides. Beneath them the supports of the building tottered,
+and in another moment it must fall. Down the slope the shining rails of
+the track disappeared in an impenetrable cloud of smoke, and Derrick
+could not see whether his signal to the switch-tender had been obeyed or
+not.
+
+As Paul crouched on the bottom, at one end of the car, his companion
+said,
+
+"I'm going to push her over and let her go down the slope, Polly. If the
+trestle hasn't burned away she'll take us through the fire and smoke
+quick enough. If there's anybody down there and he's heard the gong and
+set the switch, we'll go flying off over the dump. I guess I can stop
+her with the brake before she gets to the edge. It's half a mile, you
+know. If the switch is open, we'll go like a streak down into the mine
+and be smashed into a million pieces. It won't be any worse than being
+burned to death, though. Now good-by, old man, if I don't ever see you
+alive again. Here goes."
+
+"Good-by, dear Derrick."
+
+Then the crippled lad closed his eyes and held his breath in awful
+expectation. Derrick placed one shoulder against the car, gave a strong
+push, and, as he felt it move, sprang on one of the bumpers and seized
+the brake handle that projected a few inches above its side.
+
+In the mean time the two boys had been missed in the village, and as it
+became known that they were still within the breaker, the entire
+population, frenzied with excitement, gathered about the blazing
+building, making vain efforts to discover their whereabouts, that they
+might attempt a rescue.
+
+No men on earth are braver in time of danger, or more ready to face it
+in rescuing imperilled comrades, than the miners of the anthracite
+collieries. Had they known where to find Derrick and Paul, a score of
+stalwart fellows would willingly have dashed into the flames after them.
+As it was, no sign that they were still in existence had been
+discovered, and the spectators of the fire were forced to stand and
+watch it in all the bitterness of utter helplessness.
+
+One man indeed ran up the blazing stairway, and with a mighty blow from
+the pick he carried crashed open the door against which Derrick had so
+vainly flung himself. Only a great burst of flame leaped forth and drove
+him backward, with his clothing on fire and the hair burned from his
+face. He was Paul Evert's father.
+
+Upon receipt of the tidings that her boy was shut up in the burning
+breaker, without any apparent means of escape, Mrs. Sterling had fallen
+as though dead, and now lay, happily, unconscious of his awful peril.
+Little Helen sat by her mother's bedside, too stunned and frightened
+even to cry.
+
+In Paul's home a crowd of wailing women surrounded Mrs. Evert, whose
+many children clung sobbing to her skirts.
+
+Suddenly two sharp strokes of a gong rang out, loud and clear, above the
+roar of the flames and the crash of falling timbers. The crowd of
+anxious spectators heard the sound, and from them arose a mighty, joyous
+shout. "They're alive! They're alive! They're at the top of the slope!"
+
+But what could be done? The trestle was already blazing, and the upper
+end of the slope was hidden from the view of those below by dense
+volumes of ink-black smoke.
+
+Again the gong rang out, "one, two," and one man of all that throng
+thought he knew what it meant. Springing to the mine entrance, the old
+breaker boss threw over the switch bar, and set the vertical switch for
+the dump.
+
+Then came a crash of falling walls, and out of the accompanying burst of
+fire and smoke, down along the shining track of the slope, shot a
+thunder-bolt.
+
+It seemed like a thunder-bolt to the awe-stricken spectators, as it
+rushed out of the flames, leaving a long trail of smoke behind it. In
+reality it was a coal-car, bearing in one end a crouching figure and a
+crutch. At the other end stood Derrick Sterling, bareheaded, with rigid
+form and strained muscles, and with one hand on the brake handle.
+
+With a frightful velocity the car crossed the vertical switch and shot
+out over the level surface of the dump. Derrick felt the strength of a
+young giant as he tugged at that brake handle. The wood smoked from the
+friction as it ground against the wheel; but it did its duty. On the
+very edge of the dump, half a mile from the vertical switch, the car
+stopped, and Derrick sat down beside it, sick and exhausted from the
+terrible nervous strain of the few minutes just past.
+
+It seemed hours since the machinery had stopped in the breaker and the
+rush of boys had been made for the door-way; but it was barely ten
+minutes since the first alarm had been given. From the time he stood
+face to face with death at the top of the slope, and started that car on
+its downward rush through the flame and smoke, less than two minutes had
+passed, but they spanned the space between life and death.
+
+As yet Derrick could not realize that they had escaped nor did he until
+he felt a pair of arms thrown about his neck and heard Paul's voice
+saying,
+
+"Derrick, dear Derrick! you have saved my life, and as long as it lasts
+I shall love you. If ever I have a chance to show it, you shall see how
+dearly."
+
+Then Derrick stood up and looked about him. A crowd of men and boys were
+running along the top of the dump towards them. In another minute they
+had both been placed in the car, and amid the joyous cries and exultant
+cheers it was being rapidly rolled back towards the village.
+
+When Mrs. Sterling began to recover consciousness she smiled at the boy
+whom she saw standing beside her, and said, faintly,
+
+"I've had an awful dream, Derrick, and I thank God it was only a dream."
+
+And Derrick said, "Amen, mother."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE MINE BOSS TAKES DERRICK INTO HIS CONFIDENCE
+
+
+In a mining community serious accidents, and even terrible disasters,
+are of such frequent occurrence that in Raven Brook the burning of the
+old breaker soon ceased to furnish a topic of conversation.
+
+It was not until the day after that of the fire that Derrick learned of
+the presence of mind displayed by the old breaker boss in comprehending
+his signal on the gong and setting the vertical switch for the dump. As
+soon as the old man came home that evening, Derrick went to his room
+prepared to pour out his heartfelt thanks. He had hardly begun when the
+breaker boss interrupted him with,
+
+"There, that'll do, an' I don't want to hear no more on it. Any fool
+knows that two gongs means 'dump switch,' an' when one's been in the
+mines forty year, man an' boy, as I have, he don't take no credit to
+himself for doing fool's work. When you get older you'll know better'n
+to mention sich a thing."
+
+"But, Mr. Guffy--"
+
+"That'll do, I tell ye!" roared the irascible old man. "Clear outen
+here, and go over to Warren Jones's; he wants to see ye. Hold on!" he
+added, as Derrick was about to leave the room. "On your way stop and
+tell that hunchback butty[2] of yourn to be on hand in the new breaker
+at sharp seven to-morrow morning, if he wants to keep his job. Do ye
+hear?"
+
+[Footnote 2: Butty is the word used by miners to denote helper or
+partner.]
+
+As he went out Derrick smiled to think of the old man's pride, which
+would not allow him to accept thanks or praise from a boy for performing
+a creditable action.
+
+At the same time the breaker boss was muttering to himself, "He's a fine
+lad. If he'd 'a' come to grief through any fault of mine I'd never got
+over it. 'Twon't do, though, to let him see that I think more of him
+than of any others of the young scoundrels. Boys allus gets so upperty
+if they thinks you're a-favorin' of 'em. They must be kep' down! Yes,
+sir! kep' down, boys must be."
+
+Derrick could not help wondering why he too had not been ordered to
+report at the new breaker the next morning, but thought it better not to
+ask any questions. After supper he went over to see Mr. Jones, in
+obedience to the instructions received from the breaker boss.
+
+Warren Jones, the assistant superintendent, or, as he was generally
+termed, the "mine boss," of the Raven Brook Colliery, was a
+pleasant-faced, outspoken young man of about thirty. At present he was
+acting as superintendent, and the burden of responsibility bore heavily
+upon him. He had a host of warm friends, but had made some bitter
+enemies among the miners by his direct honesty of purpose and
+determination to deal out even-handed justice to all over whom he
+exercised authority. Although generally good-natured and slow to find
+fault, he could be quick and stern enough when occasion demanded.
+
+Such was the man who greeted Derrick Sterling cordially that evening,
+showed him into his library, and made him sit down, saying that he
+wished to have a little talk with him. He spoke in terms of such praise
+of Derrick's behavior on the previous day as to bring a blush of
+pleasure to the boy's cheeks.
+
+"By-the-way, Derrick," he asked, "how did the breaker catch fire?"
+
+"I haven't the least idea, sir," answered Derrick, looking up in
+surprise.
+
+"Oh, all right," said the other, carelessly. "I didn't know but what you
+might have heard something said about it."
+
+"No, sir, I haven't; that is, not anything that I thought amounted to
+anything. I have heard some of the boys talking about 'Mollies,' and
+saying that they beat the world for floods and fires. What are 'Mollies'
+anyway, Mr. Jones?"
+
+The mine boss looked at him curiously for a moment before replying,
+
+"If you really don't know, it's time you did, for you're likely to see
+and hear a great deal of them if you decide to make mining your business
+in life. All that I know about them is this:
+
+"Many years ago a young woman named Mary, or Mollie Maguire, was
+murdered in Ireland, and several young fellows belonging to an order
+called 'Ribbonmen' bound themselves by an oath to avenge her death and
+kill her murderer. They succeeded so well in this undertaking, and
+escaped detection so easily, that they proceeded to redress other
+wrongs, real and fancied. They were joined by other men of their own way
+of thinking, and finally they became a widely spread and powerful
+society. In course of time, whenever anybody was mysteriously killed in
+Ireland, it came to be said that the Mollie Maguires had done it, and so
+the name clung to them.
+
+"At last the murderous order was introduced into this region by some
+Irish miners who wished to get rid of an objectionable overseer, and
+also to control the labor unions among the miners. It has so spread that
+now its members are known to exist in every mining community of the
+anthracite country. It is one of the most cowardly organizations ever
+formed by men, and one of the most cruel. Its victims are given no
+warning of the fate in store for them, but are struck down in the dark,
+or from an ambush, by unseen hands.
+
+"Often the murderer has no previous acquaintance with, or knowledge of,
+the man whom he kills. He blindly obeys the command of his infernal
+order, and is thus made a tool to avenge some petty grievance or fancied
+injury.
+
+"The Mollies have become a plague-spot that threatens the health and
+life of this region. It is the duty of every honest man and boy who is
+brought into any sort of contact with them to thwart their evil designs
+in every possible way."
+
+"Well," said Derrick, drawing a long breath, "I had no idea that there
+were such wicked men in this country."
+
+"No," he answered the mine boss, "you are but a boy, and have had but
+little experience in the wickedness of this world; but I know you are
+brave, and I believe you to be honest and loyal. I am therefore going to
+trust you, and tell you something that I had no intention of mentioning
+when I sent for you this evening. It is this:
+
+"I have every reason to believe the Mollies are strong in this colliery,
+and that they intend to make trouble here. I have lately received
+several anonymous letters making demands that cannot possibly be
+granted, and containing vague threats of what will happen in case they
+are not satisfied. This morning I found this note pinned to my door."
+
+Here Mr. Jones opened a drawer of his desk, and took from it a dirty
+sheet of paper, which he handed to Derrick. On it was scrawled the
+following:
+
+     "Bosses take Wornin'. New breakers can burn as well as old. Fires
+     cost munny. Better pay it in wage to
+
+     "MOLLIE."
+
+As the boy finished reading this strange communication which was at the
+same time an admission and a threat, he looked up in surprise and began,
+"Then you think, sir--"
+
+"Yes," interrupted the mine boss. "I not only think, but I feel
+convinced, that the mischief has begun. Moreover, I am determined that
+it shall end before it goes any further. I am most anxious to discover
+who is at the bottom of it, and in this I want you to help me."
+
+"Want _me_ to help!" exclaimed Derrick, in astonishment.
+
+"Yes, you," answered Mr. Jones, smiling. "Your very youth and
+inexperience will render you less likely to be suspected than an older
+person. I am certain that I can count upon the son of my old friend
+Gilbert Sterling to perform truly and faithfully any duty which his
+employers may see fit to intrust him with. Is it not so, Derrick?"
+
+"Yes, sir, it is," cried the boy. "Just tell me what you want me to do,
+and if I don't succeed it won't be because I haven't tried my best."
+
+"That is just what I expected you to say," remarked the mine boss,
+quietly. "Now we will lay our first plans. I suppose you have had enough
+of the breaker, haven't you?"
+
+"Indeed I have, sir."
+
+"Very well. For a change I am going to offer you a job in the mine where
+I will give you a bumping-mule to drive. Your wages will be five dollars
+a week."
+
+"A bumping-mule?" queried Derrick, in a tone of perplexity not unmixed
+with disappointment. From the preceding conversation he had expected to
+be intrusted with something very different from mule-driving; nor had he
+any idea what sort of an animal the one in question might be.
+
+This time Mr. Jones not only smiled but laughed outright; for, from the
+boy's face and tone, he easily understood what was passing in his mind.
+
+"A bumping-mule," he explained, "is the animal that draws the loaded
+coal-cars from the chambers, or breasts, to where they are made up into
+trains. These trains are then hauled by a team of mules to the foot of
+the slope. Then, when the empty cars are brought back, the bumping-mule
+distributes them to the several places where they are required. I
+suppose his title comes from his causing the cars to bump together as he
+makes them up into trains. In attending to your duties as driver of this
+most important mule, I can assure you that your time will be fully
+occupied from the minute you go into the mine until you leave it.
+
+"I suppose," he added, with a humorous twinkle in his eyes, "that our
+conversation led you to think you were to be appointed 'air boss' of the
+mine, or placed in charge of a gang at the very least?"
+
+"No, sir," answered Derrick, a little hesitatingly; "I ain't quite such
+a greeny as that. But I don't see how I can help you very much by just
+driving a bumping-mule."
+
+"You can help me in two ways: first, by doing your duty so faithfully
+that I may be able to depend on you at all times; second, while I am in
+doubt as to whom I may trust, it will be of great assistance to me to
+know that there is at least one person constantly in the mine who will
+be true to the interests of his employers, and on the alert to detect
+any attempt to injure them."
+
+"I hope you don't mean that I am to be a spy in the mine, sir?"
+
+"No, my boy, I do not. I want you to attend strictly to your duties as
+driver of a bumping-mule. At the same time I want you to consider that
+your eyes and ears are acting in the place of my eyes and ears. If at
+any time they see or hear anything which according to your best judgment
+I ought to know, I hope you will be man enough to tell me of it."
+
+"Well, sir," answered Derrick, "I am glad of a chance to go into the
+mine and to earn five dollars a week. If you will let me do whatever I
+think is right about telling you things without making any promises, I
+will keep my eyes and ears wide open."
+
+"That is all that I want you to do, my boy."
+
+"All right, sir, then I'll do my best; and I hope I sha'n't have
+anything to tell you except about the bumping-mule."
+
+"So do I hope so with all my heart, Derrick," said the mine boss,
+gravely; "for I am inclined to think that if you have anything else to
+tell me it will be something very serious and unpleasant. Now you may
+take this order for a pair of rubber boots and a miner's cap and lamp
+over to the store and get the things. Be on hand to go down with the
+first gang of the morning shift. You will find me in the mine, and I
+will see that you are properly set to work. Good-night."
+
+"Good-night," answered Derrick, as, with the store order in his hand,
+and his mind full of conflicting emotions, he left the house.
+
+Several miners of the day shift were in the store when Derrick went to
+present his order. By questioning him as to what he wanted with mine
+clothes, they soon learned that he was to begin life underground the
+next day as driver of a bumping-mule.
+
+"De young bantam'll find it a tougher job than riding empty cars down de
+slope," sneered one big ugly-looking fellow, whose name was Monk Tooley,
+and who was Bill Tooley's father.
+
+"I reckon you've laid in a big supply of cuss-words as a stock in trade!
+Eh, lad?" asked another.
+
+"No, I haven't," said Derrick, flushing hotly. "I don't believe in
+swearing, and if I can't drive a mule without it I won't drive him at
+all."
+
+"Then I reckon you'll hunt some other business putty quick," answered
+the miner with a coarse laugh in which the others joined. "Mules won't
+work without they hears the peculiar langwidge they's most fond of."
+
+"Well," said Derrick, "we'll see." And leaving the store with his
+purchases he started homeward. On the way he stopped to deliver Mr.
+Guffy's message to Paul Evert, and to tell his friend the great news
+that on the following day he was to begin the life of a miner.
+
+"I wish I was going with you," said Paul.
+
+"I wish you were, Polly," answered Derrick. "Perhaps there will be a
+chance for you down there before long, and by that time I will have
+learned all the ropes, and can tell you what's what."
+
+Although Derrick had lived much among collieries, he had never been
+allowed to go down into a mine. His parents had kept him as much as
+possible from associating with the rough mine lads of the village. Thus,
+until he went into the breaker to earn his own living, he had held but
+slight intercourse with them. His friend Paul, being the son of a miner,
+knew far more of underground life than he, and often smiled at his
+ignorance of many of the commonest mine terms.
+
+Derrick was a peculiar boy in one respect. He disliked to ask questions,
+and would rather spend time and patience in finding out things for
+himself, if it were possible for him to do so. What he thus learned he
+never forgot.
+
+He was thoroughly familiar with the surface workings of a colliery, and
+could explain the construction of the great pumps that kept the mine
+free from water, the huge, swiftly revolving fan that drew all foul air
+from it, or any of its other machinery. His father's profession had long
+seemed to him a most desirable one, and he spent much of his spare time
+in studying such engineering books as still remained in the house. He
+loved to pore over his father's tracings and maps of the old workings.
+With these he had become so well acquainted that he believed he could
+locate on the surface the exact spots beneath which ran the gangways,
+headings, and breasts of the abandoned portions of the mine.
+
+By means of these old maps he had also discovered on the mountain side,
+more than a mile away, the mouth of a drift leading into a vein worked
+out and abandoned more than twenty years before. This discovery he kept
+to himself as a precious secret bequeathed to him by his father, though
+he had not the slightest idea that it would ever be of any practical
+value to him.
+
+After leaving Paul, Derrick hurried home to tell his mother the great
+news that he was to work in the mine and earn five dollars a week, and
+to show her his mine clothes. He was greatly disappointed that instead
+of rejoicing over his brightening prospects she only gazed at him
+without speaking, until the tears filled her eyes and rolled down her
+pale cheeks.
+
+"Why, mother," he said, "aren't you glad? Only think--five dollars a
+week!"
+
+"Oh, my boy, my boy," she exclaimed, drawing him to her, "I can't let
+you go down into that horrible place! 'Twas there your father met his
+death."
+
+"Shall I go back to the breaker, then, mother?"
+
+"No, no; I didn't mean what I said. God has delivered you from one
+fearful peril, and he can guide you safely through all others. Yes, I am
+glad, Derrick--glad of any step that you take forward; but oh, my boy,
+be very careful wherever you go. Remember how precious your life is to
+me."
+
+Dressed in his new mine clothes, Derrick hurried through breakfast the
+next morning, and started for the mouth of the slope bright and early.
+
+On his way he met Bill Tooley, who stopped him by calling out, "Look
+a-here, young feller. They say yer a-going down ter drive my mule."
+
+"Didn't know you had a mule," answered Derrick, pleasantly.
+
+"Well, I did have a mule; an' what's more, I'm going ter have him again.
+Any feller that goes to driving him before I get back will be sorry he
+ever done it, that's all. I don't care if he is the bosses' pet, and did
+take a ride in a hand-car."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+INTRODUCING HARRY, THE BUMPING-MULE
+
+
+As Derrick walked towards the entrance to the mine, he wondered what the
+bully whom he had just met meant by what he said. He did not then know
+that Bill Tooley had been discharged from the mine by Mr. Jones for
+brutal treatment of the mule he had driven, and for general laziness and
+neglect of his duties.
+
+At the mouth of the "travelling-road," down which the early arrivals
+were compelled to make their way into the mine, Derrick was greeted by a
+little group of miners who were lighting their lamps and preparing to
+descend.
+
+"'Tis bonny to see thee, Derrick lad," called out one of them.
+
+"'Twill be luck to the mine to have such as you in her," said another.
+
+"My lad would ha' been your age an' he'd lived," said a third. "'Twould
+ha' been a proud day for me to ha' seen him alongside o' thee, lad,
+lighting his bit lamp, and ready to take up the life of an honest
+miner."
+
+In the group was Tom Evert, Paul's father, a brawny, muscular man, who
+was considered one of the best miners in Raven Brook. Taking Derrick a
+little to one side, he said,
+
+"They tell me, lad, thou'rt to drive Bill Tooley's mule."
+
+"I don't know anything about Bill Tooley's mule," answered Derrick. "I
+only know that Mr. Jones said I was to drive a bumping-mule, and I
+intend to do exactly what he tells me."
+
+"Of course, lad, of course; but the bumping-mule he has in mind will be
+Bill Tooley's, I doubt not, and I'd rather 'twould be another than you
+had the job. Bill Tooley, with his feyther to back him, is certain to
+take it out, some way or another, of the lad that steps into his place."
+
+"I'm not afraid of Bill Tooley, as you ought to know, Mr. Evert," said
+Derrick, somewhat boastfully, as he thought of the thrashing he had so
+recently given the young man in question.
+
+"Of course not, lad, of course not. I know you can lick him fast enough
+in fair fight. My poor little Paul can bear ready witness to that, for
+which I'm under obligations to you. It's not fair fighting I mean; for
+when it comes to argyfying with them Tooleys, it's foul play you must
+look out for; and what the young un lacks in pluck he makes up in
+inflooence."
+
+Derrick was about to ask what he meant, but was interrupted by a
+movement of the miners towards the entrance. In another moment he found
+himself rapidly descending the steep steps of the travelling-road, and
+feeling that the attempt to keep pace with the long-limbed fellows ahead
+of him must certainly result in his pitching headlong into the unknown
+depth of blackness.
+
+The travelling-road was a gigantic stairway, leading at a steep angle
+directly down into the earth. It was high enough for a man to stand
+upright in without hitting his head against the roof, and it was
+provided with steps. They were cut or dug out of the rock, earth, or
+coal down through which the road passed, and were very broad and very
+high. The front edge of each was formed of a smooth round log. From the
+roof and sides of the road dripped and trickled little streams of water
+that made everything in it wet and soggy, and rendered the edges of the
+steps particularly slippery.
+
+The air in the road was chilly in comparison with that of the warm
+summer's morning in which the outside world was rejoicing, and Derrick
+shivered as he first encountered its penetrating dampness. Of course the
+darkness was intense, but at first it was partially dispelled by the
+lights of the half-dozen miners in whose company he had entered the
+road. As they gradually left him behind, their twinkling lights grew
+fainter and fainter, until at last they vanished entirely, and Derrick
+found himself stumbling alone down the apparently interminable stairway.
+
+While yet in company with the miners, he had passed through one door
+made of heavy planks, that completely closed the road, and now he came
+to another. Through its chinks and cracks there was a rush of air from
+outside inward that hummed and whistled like a small gale. It took all
+of Derrick's strength to pull this door open, and it closed behind him
+with a crash that reverberated in long, hollow echoes down the black
+depths before him.
+
+Some distance below he was startled by a heavy booming sound from above,
+which was followed by a tremendous clattering, mingled with shouts and
+cries. In the first of these sounds he recognized the closing of the
+door through which he had recently passed, but he could not account for
+the others.
+
+They were continued, and grew louder and louder as they approached,
+until at length they were close at hand, and he saw lights and a
+confused mass of struggling forms directly above him. Stepping to one
+side, Derrick flattened himself against the wall to let them pass; but
+just as the miner who came first reached that point, he tossed the end
+of a rope into the boy's hands, saying, "Here, lad, lead this mule down
+the rest of the way, will ye? I'm in a powerful hurry myself."
+
+[Illustration: "HERE, LAD, LEAD THIS MULE DOWN THE REST OF THE WAY, WILL YE?"]
+
+In another instant he had gone, leaping with immense strides down the
+precipitous steps, and Derrick found himself staring into the comical
+face of a large mule which, with his fore-feet on one step and his hind
+ones on that above, looked as though he were about to stand on his head.
+
+"Go on, can't yer!" called out an impatient voice from behind the mule.
+"Do ye think I can hang onto this 'ere blessed tail all day? A mule's no
+feather-weight, let me tell yer."
+
+Then Derrick realized that another man held the mule by the tail, and
+was exerting all his strength to prevent him from going down too fast.
+Accepting the situation, he started ahead, encouraging the mule to
+follow; but this arrangement did not seem to suit the animal, for he
+refused to budge a step from where he stood, nor could the man in the
+rear push him along.
+
+"Here, you!" the man called out to Derrick, "come back here and steer
+him while I take his head. When he gets started, hang on to his tail
+with all your might, and hold back all yer can."
+
+So they changed places, and the mule was so greatly pleased at having
+got his own way that he began to plunge down the stairs with great
+rapidity. Derrick felt almost as though he were being rushed through
+space on the tail of a comet, and shuddered to think of the broken limbs
+and general destruction that must inevitably follow such reckless
+travelling. The mule, however, seemed to know what he was about as well
+as the man who led him, and took such good care of himself that Derrick
+soon plucked up courage, and even began to enjoy the situation.
+
+As he was thinking that they must be somewhere near the centre of the
+earth, the mule gave an unusually violent plunge forward, and then
+stopped so suddenly that poor Derrick found himself sprawling on the
+animal's back, with both arms clasped tightly about his neck. With this
+the mule began to caper and shake himself so violently that the boy was
+forced to loose his hold and fall to the ground, amid roars of laughter
+from a score of miners who witnessed the scene.
+
+Greatly confused, Derrick scrambled to his feet, gave a reproachful
+glance at the mule, which was calmly gazing at him with a wondering look
+in his wide-open eyes, and turned to see in what sort of a place he had
+been so unceremoniously landed. At the same moment Mr. Jones, dressed in
+miner's costume, and looking as grimy as any of the others, stepped from
+the laughing group and said,
+
+"My boy, I congratulate you on being the first person who ever rode into
+this mine on mule-back, I am glad you found the travelling-road so good.
+Came on your own mule too. How did you know this was the bumping-mule
+you were to drive?"
+
+"I didn't know what sort of a mule he was until just as we got here and
+he bumped me off his back," replied Derrick; "and I begin to think that
+he knows more about driving than I do."
+
+"Well, you have made a notable beginning," said the mine boss, "and I am
+sure you two will get along capitally together. Harry Mule, this is
+Derrick Sterling, who is to be your new driver, and I want you to behave
+yourself with him." Then to Derrick he said, "Harry has the reputation
+of being the most knowing, and at the same time the most perverse, mule
+in the mine. I believe though he only shows bad temper to those who
+abuse him, and I have selected you to be his driver because I know you
+will treat him kindly, and give him a chance to recover his lost
+reputation. If he does not behave himself with you, I shall put him in
+the tread-mill. Now stand there out of the way for a few minutes, and
+then I will show you where you are to work."
+
+Derrick did as he was directed, and quickly found himself intensely
+interested in the strange and busy scene before him. The travelling-road
+entered the mine in a large chamber close beside the foot of the slope
+that led upward to the new breaker. From this chamber branched several
+galleries, or "gangways," in which were laid railway-tracks. Over these,
+trains of loaded and empty coal-cars drawn by mules were constantly
+coming and going. By the side of the track in each gangway was a ditch
+containing a stream of ink-black water, flowing towards a central well
+in one corner of the chamber, from which it was pumped to the surface.
+Opposite to where he stood, Derrick saw the black, yawning mouth of
+another slope, which, as he afterwards learned, led down into still
+lower depths of the mine. The men around him were handling long bars of
+railroad iron, which they were loading with a great racket on cars, and
+despatching to distant gangways in which new tracks were needed. Two
+large reflector lamps in addition to the miners' lamps made the chamber
+quite bright, and with all its noise and bustle it seemed to Derrick the
+most interesting place he had ever been in. He was sorry when the mine
+boss called and told him to bring along his mule and follow him.
+
+They entered one of the gangways, leading from the central chamber,
+which the mine boss said was known as Gangway No. 1. He also told
+Derrick something about his mule, and said that by its last driver, Bill
+Tooley, the poor animal had been so cruelly abused that he had sent it
+to the surface for a few days to recover from the effects.
+
+"I guess he has recovered," said Derrick, "judging from the way he
+brought me into the mine."
+
+They had not gone very far before they came to a closed door on one side
+of the gangway beyond which the mule absolutely refused to go, in spite
+of all Derrick's coaxings and commands.
+
+"It is the door of his stable," said the mine boss, who stood quietly
+looking on, without offering any assistance or advice, waiting to see
+what the boy would do.
+
+Tying the end of the halter to one of the rails of the track on which
+they were walking, Derrick started into the stable, where he quickly
+found what he wanted. Coming out with a handful of oats, he let the mule
+have a little taste of them; and then, loosening the halter, tried to
+tempt him forward with them. This plan failed, for Harry declined to
+yield to temptation, and remained immovable. Then Derrick turned a
+questioning glance upon the mine boss, who said,
+
+"Never again hitch an animal to a track along which cars are liable to
+come at any moment. Now, why don't you beat the mule?"
+
+"Oh no, sir!" exclaimed Derrick, in distress. "I don't want to do that."
+
+"Neither do I want you to," laughed the other. "I only asked why you
+didn't?"
+
+"Because," said Derrick, "I want him to become fond of me, and my mother
+says the most stubborn animals can be conquered by kindness, while
+beatings only make them worse."
+
+"Which is as true as gospel," said the mine boss. "Well, the only other
+thing I can suggest is for you to go into the stable, get the harness
+that hangs on the peg nearest the door, and put it on him."
+
+Acting upon this hint, Derrick had hardly finished buckling the last
+strap of the harness when the mule began to move steadily forward of his
+own accord.
+
+"That's his way," said the mine boss. "In harness he knows that he is
+expected to work, but without it he thinks he may do as he pleases."
+
+Presently the mule stumbled slightly, and again he stopped and refused
+to go ahead.
+
+"Do you know what is the matter now, sir?" asked Derrick.
+
+"I think perhaps he wants his lamp lighted," replied the mine boss.
+
+A miner's lamp, attached to a broad piece of leather, hung down in front
+of the mule from his collar.
+
+The boy lighted this lamp, and immediately the mule began to move on,
+showing that this was exactly what he had wanted.
+
+"Seems to me he knows almost as much as folks," cried Derrick, highly
+delighted at this new proof of his mule's intelligence.
+
+"Quite as much as most folks, and more than some," answered his
+companion, dryly.
+
+During their long walk they passed through several doors which, as
+Derrick was told, served to regulate the currents of air constantly
+flowing in and out of the mine, and kept in motion by the great fan at
+its mouth. Whenever they approached one of these the mine boss called,
+loudly, "Door," and it was immediately opened by a boy who sat behind it
+and closed it again as soon as they had passed. Each of these boys had
+besides his little flaring lamp, such as everybody in the mine carried,
+a can of oil for refilling it, a lunch-pail and a tin water-bottle, and
+each of them spent from eight to ten hours at his post without leaving
+it.
+
+Finally Derrick and the mine boss came to a junction of several
+galleries, a sort of mine cross-roads, and the former was told that this
+was to be his headquarters, for here was where the trains were made up,
+and from here the empty cars were distributed. At the farther end of
+each of the headings leading from this junction two or more miners were
+at work drilling, blasting, and picking tons of coal from between its
+enclosing walls of slate. They were all doing their best to fill the
+cars which it was Derrick's business to haul to the junction and replace
+with empty ones. There were also a number of miners at work in breasts,
+or openings at the sides of the gangways that followed the slant of the
+coal vein, who expected to be supplied with empty cars and have their
+loaded ones taken away by Derrick. These breast miners filled their cars
+very quickly, as the moment they loosened the coal it slid down the
+slaty incline, above which it had been bedded, to a wooden chute on the
+edge of the gangway that discharged it directly into them.
+
+As Derrick was told of all this, he realized that he and Harry Mule
+would have to get around pretty fast to attend to these duties, and
+supply empty cars as they were needed.
+
+What interested him most in this part of the mine was an alcove hewn
+from solid rock near the junction, in which was a complete smithy. It
+had forge, anvil, and bellows, and was presided over by a blacksmith
+named Job Taskar, as ugly a looking fellow, Derrick thought, as he had
+ever seen. Here the mules were shod, tools were sharpened, and broken
+iron-work was repaired. It was a busy place, and its glowing forge,
+together with the showers of sparks with which Job Taskar's lusty blows
+almost constantly surrounded the anvil, made it appear particularly
+cheerful and bright amid the all-pervading darkness. Nearly every man
+and boy in that section of the mine was obliged to visit the smithy at
+least once during working hours. Thus it became a great news centre, and
+offered temptations to many of its visitors to linger long after their
+business was finished.
+
+After pointing out to Derrick the several places at which his services
+would be required, the mine boss left him, and the boy found himself
+fully launched on his new career.
+
+He soon discovered that Harry Mule knew much more of the business than
+he did, and by allowing him to have his own way, and go where he thought
+best, Derrick got along with very few mistakes. Among the miners upon
+whom he had to attend he found brawny Tom Evert, stripped to the waist,
+lying on his side, and working above his head, but bringing down the
+coal in glistening showers with each sturdy blow of his pick. When he
+saw Derrick he paused in his work long enough to exchange a cheery
+greeting with him and to dash the perspiration from his eyes with the
+back of his grimy hand; then at it he went again with redoubled energy.
+
+At the end of one of the headings Derrick found another acquaintance in
+the person of Monk Tooley. He scowled when he saw the new driver, and
+growled out that he'd better look sharp and see to it he was never kept
+waiting for cars, or it would be the worse for him.
+
+Twice Derrick started to leave this place, and each time the miner
+called him back on some trivial pretext. The boy could not see, nor did
+he suspect, what the man was doing, but as he turned away for the third
+time, Monk Tooley sprang past him with a shout, and ran down the
+heading. Derrick did not hear what he said, but turning to look behind
+him, he saw a flash of fire, and had barely time to throw himself face
+downward, behind his car, when he was stunned by a tremendous explosion.
+Directly afterwards he was nearly buried beneath an avalanche of rock
+and coal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ATTACKED BY ENEMIES, AND LOST IN THE MINE
+
+
+Although Derrick was terribly frightened by the explosion, and
+considerably bruised by the shower of rocks and coal that followed it,
+the car had so protected him that he was not seriously hurt. Had his
+mule started forward the heavily loaded car must have run over and
+killed him. Fortunately Harry was too experienced a miner to allow such
+a trifling thing as a blast to disturb his equanimity, especially as the
+two false starts already made had placed him at some little distance
+from it. To be sure, he had shaken his head at the flying bits of coal,
+and had even kicked out viciously at one large piece that fell near his
+heels. The iron-shod hoof had shattered the big lump, and sent its
+fragments flying over Derrick, but in the darkness and confusion the boy
+thought it was only part of the explosion, and was thankful that matters
+were no worse.
+
+As Derrick cleared himself from the mass of rubbish that had fallen on
+him, and staggered to his feet, he was nearly suffocated by the dense
+clouds of powder-smoke from the blast. He was also in utter darkness,
+both his lamp and that of Harry Mule having been blown out. In his
+inexperience he had not thought to provide matches before entering the
+mine, and now he found himself in a darkness more dense than any he had
+ever dreamed of, without any means of procuring a light. His heart grew
+heavy within him as he realized his situation, for he had no idea
+whether the miner who had played so cruel and dangerous a trick upon him
+would return or not.
+
+An impatient movement on the part of Harry Mule suggested a plan to him.
+Casting off the chain by which the mule was attached to the car, and
+holding the end in his hand, he said, "Go on, Harry, and take me out of
+this place." At this command the intelligent animal started off towards
+the junction as unhesitatingly as though surrounded by brightest
+daylight, and Derrick followed.
+
+They had not gone far before they met Monk Tooley, leisurely returning
+to the scene of his labors.
+
+"Hello! Mr. Mule-driver," he shouted, "what are you a-doing here in de
+dark, an' how do yer like mining far as ye've got? Been studying de
+effect of blarsts, and a-testing of 'em by pussunal experience?"
+
+Derrick felt a great lump rising in his throat, and bitter thoughts and
+words crowded each other closely in his mind. He knew, however, that the
+man before him was as greatly his superior in wordy strife as in bodily
+strength, so he simply said,
+
+"The next time you try to kill me you'd better take some surer means of
+doing it."
+
+"Kill you! Who says I wanted to kill you?" demanded the miner, fiercely,
+as he stopped and glared at the boy. "Didn't I holler to ye to run?
+Didn't I give yer fair warnin' that I was shootin' a blarst? Didn't I?
+Course I did and yer didn't pay no 'tention to it. Oh no, sonny! 'twon't
+do. Ye mustn't talk 'bout killin' down in dese workin's, cause 'twon't
+be 'lowed. Come back now, an' git my wagon. Here's a light for yer, but
+don't let me hear no more talk 'bout killin', or ye may have a chance to
+wish yer was dead long before yer really is."
+
+Derrick made no reply to this, but turning Harry Mule about, they went
+back after the car. He was convinced that this man was his bitter and
+unscrupulous enemy, and made up his mind that he must be constantly on
+his guard against him. He did not tell anybody of this startling
+incident of his first day's experience in the mine for a long time
+afterwards; as, upon thinking it over, he realized that the peril, which
+he had so happily escaped might readily be charged to his own
+carelessness.
+
+At lunch time he let Harry Mule make his own way back to the mine stable
+for oats and water. He had been told by the mine boss that the knowing
+animal would not only do this, but would afterwards return to his place
+of duty when started towards it by one of the stable-boys. While the
+mule was gone, his young driver went into the blacksmith's shop to eat
+his own lunch in company with Job Taskar, who had invited him to do so.
+Job questioned Derrick closely as to his acquaintance among the men and
+boys of the colliery, and asked particularly in regard to his likings or
+dislikings of the several overseers.
+
+"I hear thee's a great friend o' t' mine boss," said Job.
+
+"Not at all," answered Derrick. "Mr. Jones was a friend of my father's,
+but I hardly know him."
+
+"All says thee's boss's favorite."
+
+"I'm sure I don't know why they should. Of course it was good of him to
+give me a job; but he had to get somebody to drive the mule. It doesn't
+seem to me that I've got any easier place than anybody else."
+
+Here Derrick put one hand up to his badly aching head, which had been
+bruised by a flying chunk from Monk Tooley's blast.
+
+Noting the movement, Job asked what was the matter, for although he had
+heard about the blast from Monk Tooley, he wanted to learn what the boy
+thought of it.
+
+"I got hit by a falling chunk," replied Derrick, guardedly.
+
+"Humph!" growled Job; "better keep clear o' they chunks. One on 'em
+might hit ye once too often some time."
+
+Job held no more conversation with the boy, but lighted his pipe, and
+sat at one side of the forge, scowling and smoking. Derrick also kept
+silence, as he sat on the opposite side of the forge, rubbing his aching
+head with a grimy hand.
+
+While they sat thus, several miners dropped in for a smoke and a chat.
+They all looked curiously at Derrick, but none of them spoke to him.
+Thus neglected, he felt very unhappy and uncomfortable, and was glad
+when the jingling of Harry Mule's harness outside gave notice that it
+was again time to go to work.
+
+The rest of the day passed uneventfully and monotonously, for, with the
+exception of burly Tom Evert, who gave the lad a cheery word whenever he
+passed him, nobody spoke to him. Even Harry Mule seemed to realize that
+his young driver was not having a very pleasant time, and rubbed his
+nose sympathetically against his shoulder, as much as to say, "I'm sorry
+for you, and I'll stand by you even if nobody else does."
+
+At last, in some mysterious way, everybody seemed to know all at once,
+that it was time to quit work, and Harry Mule knew it as quickly as
+anybody. Before Derrick noticed that the miners had stopped work, this
+remarkable animal, having just been unhitched from a car, threw up his
+head, uttered a prolonged and ear-rasping bray, and started off on a
+brisk trot, with a tremendous clatter and jingling of chains, towards
+his stable.
+
+The door-boys heard him coming, opened their doors to let him pass,
+closed them after him, and started on a run for the foot of the slope.
+
+Of course Derrick followed his charge as fast as possible, calling, as
+he ran, "Whoa, Harry! Whoa! Stop that mule, he's running away!" Neither
+Harry nor anybody else paid the slightest attention to him, and when he
+finally reached the stable he found his mule already there, exchanging
+squeals and kicks with several other bumping-mules that had come in from
+other parts of the mine.
+
+Then he knew that it was really quitting-time, and went to work, as
+quickly as his inexperience would allow, to rub Harry down, water and
+feed him, and make him comfortable for the night. Everybody else who had
+stable-work to do finished it before he, and when at last he felt at
+liberty to leave the mine and start towards the upper world and the
+fresh air he longed so ardently to breathe again, he was alone.
+
+Derrick found his way without difficulty to the large chamber at the
+foot of the slope. There, as he did not see any cars ready to go up, he
+turned towards the travelling-road, with the intention of climbing the
+steep stairway he had descended that morning.
+
+Suddenly there arose cries of "There he is! There he is! Head him off!"
+
+Before the startled lad knew what was about to happen, he was surrounded
+by a score of sooty-faced boys. Cutting him off from the
+travelling-road, these boys pushed him, in spite of his opposition and
+protests, into a far corner of the chamber, where, with his back against
+the wall, he made a stand and demanded what they wanted of him.
+
+"A treat! a treat!" shouted several.
+
+Then room was made for one who seemed to exercise authority over them,
+and who, as he stepped forward, Derrick recognized with surprise as Bill
+Tooley, ex-mule driver, and now breaker boy.
+
+"What are you down here for, and what does all this mean, Bill?" asked
+Derrick, as calmly as he could.
+
+"It means," answered Bill, putting his disagreeable face very close to
+Derrick's, "dat yer've got ter pay fer comin' down inter de mine, an'
+fer takin' my mule, when I told yer not ter; dat's what it means. An' it
+means dat we're goin' ter initerate yer inter de order of 'Young
+Sleepers,' what every boy in de mine has got ter belong ter."
+
+Derrick had heard of this order of "Young Sleepers," and knew it to be
+composed of the very worst young rascals in the coal region. He knew
+that they were up to all kinds of wickedness, and that most of the petty
+crimes of the community were charged to them. In an instant he made up
+his mind that he would rather suffer almost anything than become a
+member of such a gang.
+
+While these thoughts were passing through his mind the cry of "A treat!
+a treat!" was again raised, and Bill Tooley again addressed Derrick,
+saying,
+
+"Ter pay yer way inter de mine, de fellers says yer must set up a kag er
+beer. Ter pay fer drivin' my mule, I say yer got ter take a lickin', an'
+after that we'll initerate yer."
+
+Now, both Derrick's father and mother had taught him to abhor liquor in
+every form; so to the boy's first proposition he promptly answered,
+
+"I haven't got any money, and couldn't afford to buy a keg of beer, even
+if I wanted to. I don't want to, because I'm a blue ribbon, and wouldn't
+buy even a glass of beer if I had all the money in the world. I won't
+join your society either, and I don't see how you can initiate me when I
+don't choose to become a member. As for a licking, it'll take more than
+you to give it to me, Bill Tooley!"
+
+With these bold words the young mule-driver made a spring at his chief
+tormenter, in a desperate effort to break through the surrounding group
+of boys. In the distance he saw the twinkling lights of some miners, and
+thought if he could only reach them they would afford him protection.
+
+Derrick's defiant speech for an instant paralyzed his hearers with its
+very boldness; but as he sprang at Bill Tooley they also made a rush at
+him with howls of anger. He succeeded in hitting their leader one
+staggering blow, but was quickly overpowered by numbers and flung to the
+ground, where the young savages beat and kicked him so cruelly that he
+thought they were about to kill him.
+
+He tried to scream for help, but could not utter a sound, and the miners
+who passed on their way to the slope thought the fracas was only a
+quarrel among some of the boys and paid no attention to it.
+
+At length Bill Tooley ordered the boys to cease from pummelling their
+victim, and stooping over him, tied a dirty cloth over his eyes; then he
+gave a whispered order, and several of the boys, lifting the helpless
+lad by his head and feet, bore him away.
+
+After carrying him what seemed to Derrick an interminable distance, and
+passing through a number of doors, as he could tell by hearing them
+loudly opened and closed, his bearers suddenly dropped him on the hard
+ground. Then Bill Tooley's voice said,
+
+"Yer'll lie dere now till yer make up yer mind ter jine de Young
+Sleepers. Den yer can come an' let me know, an' I'll attend ter yer
+initeration. Till then yer'll stay where yer are, if it's a thousand
+years; fer no one'll come a-nigh yer an' yer can't find de way out."
+
+While Bill was thus talking the other boys quietly slipped away. As he
+finished he also moved off, so softly that Derrick did not hear the
+sound of his retreating footsteps. It was not until some minutes had
+passed that he realized that he had been left, and was alone.
+
+Meantime those who had thus abandoned their victim to the horrors of
+black solitude, in what to him was an unknown part of the mine, were
+gathered together at no great distance from him. There they waited to
+gloat over the cries that they hoped he would utter as soon as he
+realized that he was abandoned. In this they were disappointed, for
+though they lingered half an hour not a sound did they hear; then two of
+the boldest among them decided to take a look at their prisoner.
+Shielding the single lamp that lighted their steps so that its rays
+should not be seen at any great distance, they crept cautiously to where
+they had left him.
+
+He was gone!
+
+This had not been expected, and with an ill-defined feeling of dread
+they hurried back to the others and made their report.
+
+"Oh, well, let him go!" exclaimed Bill Tooley, brutally. "'Twon't hurt
+him to spend a while in de gangway. Let's go up to supper, and
+afterwards come down an' hunt him."
+
+As none of them dared to object to any proposal made by the bully, the
+whole gang of begrimed and evil-minded young savages hurried to the foot
+of the slope. Here they tumbled into a car, and in a few minutes were
+drawn up to the surface, where they scattered towards their respective
+homes and waiting suppers.
+
+Paul Evert, who ever since work had ceased in the breaker, more than an
+hour before, had lingered near the mouth of the slope, waiting for the
+appearance of his friend, ventured to ask one of them if he had seen
+Derrick.
+
+"Don't know nothing about him," was the reply, as, greatly alarmed to
+find the lad whom he had helped to persecute already made an object of
+inquiry, the Young Sleeper hurried away.
+
+Bill Tooley had overheard Paul's question, and stepping up to him, he
+said, "Look a-here, young feller, yer ain't got no call as I knows on to
+be a meddling wid what goes on in de mine and don't concern you. I don't
+mind tellin' yer, though, that yer butty's doin' overwork, and mebbe
+won't come up all night. I heerd one of de bosses orderin' him to it."
+
+Although Paul thought this somewhat strange, he knew that the miners
+frequently stayed down to do overwork, and was much relieved at such a
+plausible explanation of his friend's non-appearance. On his way home he
+stopped to tell Mrs. Sterling what he had heard. He found her very
+anxious, and just about to go out and make inquiries concerning her boy.
+The information that Paul brought relieved her mind somewhat, and
+thanking him for it, she turned back into the house with a sigh, and
+gave little Helen her supper, at the same time setting aside a liberal
+portion for Derrick when he should come.
+
+Until nearly ten o'clock she waited, frequently going to the door to
+look and listen; then she could bear the suspense no longer. Throwing a
+shawl over her head, and bidding Helen remain where she was for a few
+minutes, the anxious mother started to go to the house of the mine boss
+to gain certain information of her boy. As she opened her own front
+door, something that she saw caused her to utter a cry and stand
+trembling on the threshold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SECRET MEETING--A PLUNGE DOWN AN AIR-SHAFT
+
+
+What Mrs. Sterling saw was her own son Derrick, who was just about to
+enter the house. As the light from behind her shone full upon him, he
+presented a sorry spectacle, and one well calculated to draw forth an
+exclamation from an anxious mother. Hatless and coatless, his face
+bruised, swollen, and so covered with blood and coal-dust that its
+features were almost unrecognizable, he could not well have presented a
+more striking contrast to the clean, cheerful lad whom she had sent down
+into the mine with a kiss and a blessing that very morning.
+
+"Why, Derrick!" she exclaimed, the moment she made sure that it was
+really he. "What has happened to you? has there been an accident? They
+said you were kept down for overwork. Tell me the worst at once, dear!
+Are you badly hurt?"
+
+"No, indeed, mother," answered the boy in as cheerful a tone as he could
+command. "I am not much hurt, only bruised and banged a little by a
+blast that I carelessly stayed too close to. A little hot water and soap
+will put me all right again after I've had some supper; but, if you love
+me, mother, give me something to eat quickly, for I'm most starved."
+
+By this time they were within the house, and as Mrs. Sterling hastened
+to make ready the supper she had saved for Derrick, he dropped into a
+chair utterly exhausted. He might well be exhausted, for what he had
+passed through and suffered since leaving home that morning could not
+have been borne by a boy of weaker constitution or less strength of
+will. He was greatly revived by two cups of strong tea and the food set
+before him. After satisfying his hunger he went to his own room, and
+took a bath in water as hot as he could bear it, and washed his cuts and
+bruises with white castile-soap, a piece of which Mrs. Sterling always
+managed to keep on hand for such emergencies. It was fortunate for her
+peace of mind that the fond mother did not see the cruel bruises that
+covered her boy's body from head to foot.
+
+The bath refreshed him so much, and so loosened the joints that were
+beginning to feel very stiff and painful, that Derrick believed he was
+able, before going to bed, to perform the one duty still remaining to be
+done. Mrs. Sterling thought he had gone to bed, and was greatly
+surprised to see him come from his room fully dressed. When he told her
+that he must go out again to deliver an important message to the mine
+boss, she begged him to wait until morning, or at least to let her carry
+it for him. Assuring her that it was absolutely necessary that he should
+deliver the message himself that very night, and saying that he would be
+back within an hour, Derrick kissed his mother and went out.
+
+On the street he met with but one person, a miner hurrying towards the
+slope, to whom he did not speak, and who he thought did not recognize
+him.
+
+Mr. Jones had closed his house for the night, and was about to retire,
+when he was startled by a knock at the outer door. Recent events had
+rendered him so suspicious and cautious that he stepped to his desk and
+took from it a revolver, which he held in his hand as he stood near the
+door, and without opening it, called out,
+
+"Who's there? and what do you want at this time of night?"
+
+As softly as he could, and yet make himself heard, Derrick answered,
+
+"It is I, sir, Derrick Sterling, and I have got something important to
+tell you."
+
+At this answer a man who had stolen up behind Derrick, unperceived by
+him in the darkness, slipped away with noiseless but hurried footsteps.
+
+"Is anybody with you?" demanded the mine boss, without opening the door.
+
+"No, sir; I am all alone."
+
+Then the door was cautiously opened, Derrick was bidden to step inside
+quickly, and it was immediately closed again and bolted. Leading the way
+into the library, the mine boss said, not unkindly, but somewhat
+impatiently,
+
+"Well, Sterling, what brings you here at this time of night? working
+boys should be in bed and asleep before this."
+
+While Derrick is explaining to the mine boss why he is not abed and
+asleep, and giving his reasons for disturbing him at that late hour, we
+will return to the mine, and see for ourselves what befell him there,
+after the events narrated in the last chapter.
+
+The Young Sleepers had left him blindfolded, alone, and in total
+darkness, lying on the floor of an unfamiliar gangway. The boy's first
+impulse, when he realized that his persecutors had departed and left him
+alone, was to tear the bandage from his eyes and fling it far from him.
+Of course this did not enable him to see anything, but he felt more free
+now that the cloth was removed, and was thankful they had not bound his
+wrists so that he could not have reached it.
+
+His next impulse was to shout for help, but an instant's reflection
+decided him not to do so. It was not at all probable that anybody except
+his tormentors would hear him, and they would only rejoice at this
+evidence of his distress. He knew that all his shoutings would not bring
+them to him until they were ready to come, and he felt that he had too
+little strength left to waste it thus uselessly.
+
+He could not bear to remain where he was without at least making an
+attempt to help himself; so he rose to his feet, and feeling his way
+very cautiously, began to walk along the gangway. Although he did not
+know it, he involuntarily turned in the opposite direction from the
+place where Bill Tooley and his companions were waiting and listening to
+hear from him.
+
+For some time Derrick expected to reach a door, behind which he should
+find a boy, or to meet a train of mule-cars, or a miner who would lead
+him to the foot of the slope. At length, however, when he had walked a
+long distance, and yet found none of these, his courage began to leave
+him and a wild terror to take its place.
+
+Suddenly, like a flash, it occurred to him that he had not struck any
+rails in walking, nor felt any indications of a car-track. Filled with a
+new dread, he stooped down, and with trembling hands felt every inch of
+the wet floor from one side of the gangway to the other. There was no
+sign of a track, and he knew, what he had already suspected, that it had
+been torn up, and that he was in an abandoned gangway, which another
+human being might not enter for years.
+
+This revelation of the full horror of his situation was too much for the
+overstrained nerves of the poor lad. He uttered a loud cry, which was
+echoed and re-echoed with startling distinctness through the silent,
+rock-walled gallery, flung himself on the wet floor, and burst into
+bitter sobbings.
+
+How long he lay there, in a sort of semi-stupor after this first
+outburst of his despair, he had no means of knowing, but he was finally
+roused into an attitude of eager attention by what sounded like a
+distant murmur of voices. He sat up, and then sprang to his feet,
+rubbing his eyes and staring in a bewildered manner into the darkness of
+the gangway ahead of him. Did he see a light only a few paces before
+him? It seemed so. Yet he was not sure, for it was not a direct ray, as
+from a lamp, but a sort of dim, flickering radiance that appeared to
+rise from the very floor almost at his feet.
+
+For several minutes Derrick stared at it incredulously, unable to fathom
+the mystery of its appearance. Was it a light produced by human agency,
+or was it one of those weird illuminations that sometimes arise from the
+dampness and foul air of old mines? He stepped towards it to satisfy
+himself of its true character, and as he did so was confronted by a
+danger so terrible that, although he had escaped it, his heart almost
+stopped beating as he realized its full extent.
+
+By the vague light proceeding from it he saw a pit-hole occupying the
+entire width of the gangway, and apparently of great depth. Around its
+edge had been built a barrier of logs breast-high. Through age these had
+so decayed and fallen that, had Derrick continued a few steps further on
+his way, instead of stopping to indulge his grief, he must have walked
+into the pit and fallen to the bottom.
+
+The sound of voices that he had heard came up through this opening, and
+he was just about to call for help, to whoever was down there, when his
+attention was arrested by one voice louder and harsher than the others.
+It sounded like that of Job Taskar, the blacksmith, and it said, as
+though in settlement of some dispute,
+
+"I don't care a rap who does it, or how it is done, Jones must be put
+out of the way somehow or other."
+
+Another voice, which was hardly audible, asked, "What about the kid?"
+
+To this came answer in a voice which there was no mistaking for other
+than Monk Tooley's,
+
+"De Young Sleepers is lookin' arter him. Dey're givin' him a big scare.
+Blinded him, and toted him back and for'ard, going in and out t'old
+gangway door between whiles to make him think he was a long ways off.
+Den dey left him just inside t'old gangway, nigh de slope. He thinks
+he's at de far end of nowhere by dis time. Dey'll soon drive him from de
+mine."
+
+"If they don't, others will," said Job Taskar's voice. "We don't want no
+boss's pets spying round this mine. Now, lads, we'll get out of this.
+Remember, next regular meeting's on the 27th. We'll fix then how all's
+to be done."
+
+There was a confused murmuring after this, but Derrick could make
+nothing out of it, and in a few minutes a strong draught of air sucked
+down the hole over which he hung, and the dim light disappeared. As it
+did so, the poor lad gave one wild cry for help. It only reached the
+ears of the last of those below as he was leaving the chamber in which
+they had held their meeting. To him it sounded so awful and supernatural
+that he was greatly frightened, and hurried on after the others, leaving
+the door open behind him, whereby the strong draught down the air-shaft
+was continued.
+
+For a few minutes Derrick thought he was indeed lost, and gave himself
+up to despair. Then he gradually recalled the words of Monk Tooley that
+referred to himself, and received a gleam of hope from them. If indeed
+he had been left just inside the door of an old gangway, near the foot
+of the slope, might he not find his way back to it and escape? He
+shuddered as he thought of the long walk through the awful darkness, but
+he was no better off where he was. So, with much thinking and
+hesitation, he finally started back on the road he had come, carefully
+feeling his way and making but slow progress.
+
+He thought he should never reach the end; but at last he came to a door,
+beyond which he heard the sound of human voices, and through the
+crevices of which air was rushing outward. Cautiously he pulled it open,
+fearing lest some of his late persecutors might be waiting to seize him.
+The way was clear, and though he saw several lights in the distance,
+none was near him. Gently closing the door, he darted towards the
+travelling-road down which he had come that morning, and entered it
+without having been observed.
+
+The climb up the gigantic stairway was a tedious one for the weary lad,
+and called for such frequent rests that it occupied him nearly an hour.
+When he finally reached the top he had barely strength enough left to
+drag himself home.
+
+This was the story that Derrick Sterling told the assistant
+superintendent in the library of the latter's house that night.
+
+Mr. Jones listened to it with the gravest and most earnest attention,
+only interrupting now and then to ask a question concerning some point
+that was not made quite clear, or to give utterance to an expression of
+sympathy as Derrick related some of his sufferings.
+
+The brave lad had not intended to say anything regarding his treatment
+by the Young Sleepers, but was obliged to do so in answer to questions
+as to how he happened to be left in the old gangway.
+
+When he had finished, the mine boss grasped him warmly by the hand, and
+said,
+
+"My boy, by this timely information, so miraculously obtained, you have
+doubtless given me a chance for my life which I should not otherwise
+have had. Your adventures have been most thrilling, and your deliverance
+wonderful. Now go home and to bed; you must not think of going to work
+again until I give you permission to do so."
+
+Once more Derrick found his mother anxiously awaiting his return. He
+told her that the mine boss had been very kind to him, and that as he
+was not going to work the next day she need not waken him in the
+morning. Then he threw himself, all dressed as he was, upon his bed, and
+while trying to relate to her some of the events of his first day in the
+mine, fell into a profound sleep.
+
+Meantime other events, equally thrilling with those just related, were
+taking place in the mine.
+
+Bill Tooley's brutal disposition was mainly the result of his home
+training and influences, for he could not remember having had a single
+gentle or kind word spoken to him in all his stormy life. In spite of it
+he was troubled with some prickings of conscience, and a sort of pity
+that evening, as he reflected upon the unhappy condition of the lad whom
+he had left to wander alone amid the awful blackness of the abandoned
+gangway. He had not intended to do anything so cruel as this when he
+first left Derrick where he did. He thought the boy would certainly cry
+out for help, and after allowing him to suffer thus for a short time he
+meant to go to him and offer to release him upon condition of his
+joining the Young Sleepers. This plan had been upset by Derrick's
+disappearance, and then it was more to assert his authority over his
+companions than with the idea of inflicting further cruelty upon their
+victim that he had ordered him to be left for a while. Now he began to
+feel anxious concerning the fate of the lad, and eager to effect his
+release.
+
+Feeling thus, as soon as he had finished an uncomfortable supper in his
+wretched home, filled with quarrelling children, and ruled by a
+slatternly, shrill-voiced mother, he hurried out to try and induce some
+of his companions to accompany him down into the mine in a search for
+Derrick. He had some difficulty in doing this, for the other boys were
+badly frightened by what had taken place, and dreaded to return into the
+mine. It was more than an hour after he started out before he had
+persuaded four of the boldest among them to join him in the proposed
+search.
+
+As this little party gathered at the mouth of the slope, and prepared to
+descend in a car that was about to start down with some timbers for
+props, a timid voice said,
+
+"Can't I go too, Bill? Please let me! I know you are going to look for
+Derrick. Please, Bill!"
+
+It was Paul Evert, who, with an undefined feeling of dread and fear for
+the safety of his friend, had hung on the outskirts of various groups of
+boys in the village street until from their conversations he had learned
+the whole story. With senses sharpened by anxiety and love, he had
+discovered that Bill Tooley and his companions were going in search of
+the missing lad. Now, with his father's mine cap bearing its tiny lamp
+on his head, he begged to be allowed to go with them.
+
+Bill hesitated for a moment, and then, for fear lest if he refused Paul
+would spread the story of what he had discovered, or perhaps, moved by
+some better feeling, he said, "Yes, pile in if yer want to, dough I
+don't see what good you can do."
+
+Overjoyed to receive this permission, Paul hastily scrambled into the
+car just as it began to move, and in a few minutes was landed with the
+rest at the foot of the slope.
+
+Some time before this Derrick had emerged from the old gangway, and
+turned into the travelling-road, up which he was now laboriously making
+his way.
+
+There did not happen to be an overseer at the bottom of the slope just
+then, and to the one or two men who observed them the presence of boys
+in the mine at all hours of the day and night was too common to attract
+comment; so the little party had no difficulty in entering the old
+gangway without being noticed or questioned.
+
+For some reason which he could not explain Paul had brought with him a
+new clothes-line, which he now carried, coiled and hung about his neck.
+Bill Tooley took the lead, and Paul, with the aid of his crutch, hobbled
+along close after him, while the others walked fearfully in a bunch at
+some little distance behind.
+
+They had not gone far when Bill stopped and picked up a piece of cloth
+from the ground.
+
+"Here's what was over his eyes," he said, "an' as it's a bit furder dan
+where we left 'im, it shows he's gone furder in."
+
+The boys gazed at the cloth in awe-struck silence, as though it were
+something to be dreaded; and, when Bill called out, "Come on, fellers,
+yer won't never find nothing a-standin' dere like a lot o' balky mules,"
+they followed him even more reluctantly than before.
+
+Lighted by their lamps, they made far more rapid progress than poor
+Derrick had in the darkness, and soon approached the place where he had
+discovered the dim, reflected light above the mouth of the old
+air-shaft. Just here the oil in their leader's lamp began to give out,
+and its flame to burn with a waning and uncertain light.
+
+All at once a strong draught of air extinguished it entirely. He took a
+step forward in the darkness towards a log which he had barely seen, and
+thought might be Derrick Sterling lying down. Then came a terrible cry,
+and Paul's light showed nothing in front of him save the yawning mouth
+of the shaft down which Bill Tooley had pitched headlong!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A CRIPPLE'S BRAVE DEED
+
+
+As Bill Tooley thus met the fate Derrick had so narrowly escaped, and
+the Young Sleepers who followed him were left without a leader, they
+were thrown into a sad state of confusion. Two of them started to run
+back, another threw himself on the floor and burst into loud
+lamentations, while the fourth stood motionless and silent from fear. Of
+them all, only Paul Evert, the crippled lad, retained his presence of
+mind.
+
+As upon all such occasions he who retains full command of his faculties
+and remains calm at once assumes the position of a leader, so it was
+now.
+
+In a voice that sounded loud and stern as compared with his ordinary
+gentle tone, Paul commanded the runaways to stop and return at once.
+They hesitated a moment and then obeyed him. He ordered the boy who lay
+upon the floor to cease his outcries and get up. Then the little fellow
+approached as close to the air-shaft as he dared, and lying down, with
+his head beyond its edge, he listened. In a moment he was rewarded for
+his pains, for he heard a faint moan. There came another more
+distinctly, and he knew that wherever Bill Tooley was he was still
+alive, and might possibly be saved.
+
+Taking the lamp from his cap, and the coil of line from about his neck,
+where it seemed to have been placed for this very emergency, he tied the
+one to an end of the other and gently lowered it into the shaft. Before
+doing this he ordered two of the boys to hold him tightly by the legs,
+and thus prevent him from slipping over the edge. Quieted, and with some
+of their courage restored by his coolness, they did as he directed, and
+held him with so firm a grip that for many days afterwards his legs bore
+black and blue imprints of their fingers.
+
+As the little lamp swung downward the draught of air caused it to flare
+and flicker as though it were about to be extinguished, but it was
+nearly full of oil, and the wick had just been pricked up, so it
+continued to burn and throw an uncertain light upon the glistening
+masses of coal that formed the sides of the shaft. It had not been
+lowered more than ten feet when its feeble rays disclosed a dark object,
+apparently suspended in mid-air, in the centre of the shaft. It was Bill
+Tooley, and Paul saw that by some means his downward plunge had been
+arrested, and that he was now clinging to an invisible support.
+
+Hastily pulling up the lamp, Paul replaced it on his cap, and doubling
+his line, made one end of it fast to an old timber prop or support of
+the gangway roof that stood a short distance from the shaft. Knotting
+the loose end about his body, and bidding the boys place one of the old
+logs close to the edge of the shaft and hold it there to prevent the
+rope from being chafed or cut, the brave little hump-backed lad, who,
+like most of those in his condition, was unusually strong in his arms,
+swung himself into the dark hole. Down he slid into the blackness,
+slowly and cautiously, until he came to the object of his search. It was
+Bill Tooley's limp body hanging across a stout timber brace, which,
+extending from side to side of the shaft and firmly bedded in its walls
+at each end, had been left there by the miners who cut this air-channel.
+
+As Paul's withered leg was of no assistance to him in clinging to the
+timber, he lashed himself securely to it before attempting to do
+anything for the boy who had so recently been his enemy and tormentor,
+and was now dependent upon his efforts for even a chance for life. Bill
+was not unconscious, though so weak from pain and fright as to be nearly
+helpless. Under the influence of Paul's cheering words, and after the
+line had been securely fastened about his body, he was induced to let go
+his desperate hold of the timber and grasp the rope. Then Paul called
+out to the boys above to pull up very slowly and carefully, as the least
+carelessness might result in dashing both Bill and him to the bottom of
+the shaft.
+
+Bill Tooley was a heavy weight for the frightened boys at the top to
+manage, and several times, even in the short distance of ten feet, his
+upward progress was arrested, and Paul feared that they were about to
+let him slip back. Obeying his instructions, two of the boys walked away
+with the rope, instead of trying to pull up hand-over-hand, while the
+other two held the log at the edge in place, and made ready to catch
+hold of Bill's arm as soon as he should come within reach.
+
+Finally his head appeared above the surface, and he was dragged,
+screaming with pain, over the edge, and laid groaning on the floor of
+the gangway. Then the rope was again lowered to the brave little fellow
+who was clinging in perfect darkness--for his light had at length blown
+out--to the timber brace in the shaft. He was drawn to the surface much
+more quickly and easily than Bill Tooley had been; but when he found
+himself once more in safety, a reaction from the nervous strain of the
+past half-hour set in. Throwing himself down beside Bill, he began to
+sob so violently as to greatly astonish the boys, who beheld but could
+not comprehend this weakness in one whose strong will had but a minute
+before so completely mastered theirs.
+
+In a few moments Paul recovered his composure sufficiently to ask two of
+the boys to go to the chamber at the foot of the slope and procure
+assistance to carry Bill Tooley, who was evidently unable to walk. After
+a long delay these two returned, in company with several miners, who
+brought a stretcher such as is often kept in coal mines in readiness for
+the accidents that are so common to them.
+
+From what the messenger boys had told them, these men knew most of the
+facts connected with the accident. They were so loud in their praise of
+Paul for his brave deed that he became greatly confused, though it must
+be confessed that praise from these great strong men, any one of whom
+would be proud to have done what he had, sounded very pleasantly to the
+crippled lad. In order to have a little time to think it all over, he
+hobbled on ahead of the others, who moved but slowly with their burden.
+
+When he was thus alone with his thoughts, Paul suddenly remembered the
+object for which he had entered the mine. It had been completely lost
+sight of in the excitement of the past hour, but now he realized that
+they had discovered nothing concerning Derrick's fate. He grew faint and
+cold at the remembrance of the air-shaft. Did his dear friend's body lie
+at the bottom of it? He trembled as he thought how very possibly this
+might be the case, and waiting for the men to overtake him, he asked if
+they knew anything of Derrick Sterling.
+
+"Yes," answered one of them, "I saw him come out of his mother's house
+as I was passing on my way to the slope, more'n half an hour ago."
+
+"Are you sure?" asked Paul, in great surprise.
+
+"Certainly I am. Why not? was there anything strange in that?"
+
+"Yes, we thought he was lost in the mine, and have been hunting for
+him."
+
+"Well, you were mistaken, that's all, and you've had your hunt for
+nothing."
+
+Paul was made very happy by this news, though it greatly puzzled him.
+The other boys were relieved to hear that Derrick was safe, but greatly
+alarmed as to what fate was in store for them as a punishment for the
+injuries they had inflicted upon him. Judging from what they would have
+done under similar circumstances, they did not doubt that Derrick had
+already spread the story of his wrongs through the village, together
+with the names of all those who had persecuted him.
+
+At length the party reached the foot of the slope, and Bill Tooley, with
+his head resting in Paul Evert's lap, and moaning with pain, was sent in
+an empty car to the surface. The bully had made himself so unpopular by
+his cruelty, and by his overbearing ways, that nobody except Paul felt
+very sorry for him. When it was learned that he had received his
+injuries in consequence of his persecution of Derrick Sterling, the
+general verdict was that he was rightly served.
+
+The injured boy was carried to his home, whither Paul accompanied him;
+but the latter was so frightened by the outcries of Mrs. Tooley when she
+learned what had happened that he hurried away without entering the
+house. On his way home he stopped at the Sterlings' to inquire if
+Derrick were really safe, and was much comforted to learn that he had
+just come in and gone to bed--"Where you should be yourself, Paul," said
+Mrs. Sterling, kindly, as she bade him good-night.
+
+As the tired but light-hearted boy hobbled into his own home, his
+father, who had sat up waiting for him, without knowing where he had
+been, roughly ordered him to bed, saying it was no time of night for
+lads like him to be prowling about the street.
+
+The sensitive little fellow went up-stairs without a word, all his
+light-heartedness dispelled by this harsh reception, and the tears
+starting to his eyes. His back ached so from his unwonted exertions that
+even after he got to bed he tossed and tumbled feverishly for several
+hours before falling into a troubled sleep.
+
+Tom Evert left his house earlier than usual the next morning, and went
+to the mouth of the slope, where he found a number of his friends
+assembled. They began to congratulate him, and continued to do so until
+in great bewilderment he exclaimed,
+
+"What's it for, mates? Is it a joke?"
+
+"For thy son, man."
+
+"For my son? which of 'em?"
+
+"Thy crippled lad, Paul, of course. Is the man daft?"
+
+"No; but I think ye must be, to be running on in such a fashion about a
+lad that's not only a wellnigh helpless cripple, but I'm afeared is
+going bad ways. 'Twas nearer midnight nor sundown before he came in frae
+t' street last night, and I sent him to bed wi' a flea in his ear."
+
+A perfect roar of laughter greeted this speech.
+
+"Wellnigh helpless, is he?" cried one. "Well, if he's helpless I'd like
+to know what you'd name helpful?"
+
+"Going to the bad, is he?"
+
+"Out late o' nights! That's a good one."
+
+"An' yez sint him to bed wid a flea in his ear, an' him just afther
+doin' the dade should mak' ye the proudest fayther in de place! Did iver
+I moind de likes of that?"
+
+These and many similar expressions greeted the ear of the astonished
+miner, and from them he began to comprehend that his son Paul had done
+something wonderful, and had thereby become a famous character in the
+village. At length, after much effort, for they would not believe but
+that he knew the whole story, he learned of his boy's brave deed of the
+night before. Instead of going down the slope the miner hurried home,
+where he found Paul, looking very pale and languid, just sitting down to
+his breakfast.
+
+Picking up the frail boy, and holding him in his strong arms as he used
+to when he was a baby, the delighted father exclaimed,
+
+"Paul, lad, forgie me this time, and I'll never speak thee rough again.
+Thee's made me, I think, the proudest man in the state this day.
+Crippled and all, thee's proved thyself worth a score of straight lads,
+and to thy fayther thee's worth all the lads in the world. Mither, our
+Paul's done that any man in t' mine might be proud of, an' he's the talk
+of the colliery."
+
+Thus was Paul more than repaid for all his suffering of the night
+before, and as he hobbled to his work in the new breaker that morning he
+was once more happy and light-hearted.
+
+The evening before, Job Taskar had called Monk Tooley from his house,
+and as they walked away together he said, in a low but significant tone,
+
+"That Sterling lad's not down in the mine, Monk."
+
+"He must be dere, fer de Sleepers left him where he'd be safe, an' I
+know he's not come up de slope since."
+
+"He's not there, I tell you; for I just now saw him going into Jones's
+house, and heard him say he had something important to tell him."
+
+"If yer saw him and heerd him of course he must be up; but I don't see
+how he did it. If he's told de boss anything it must be a blab on de
+Sleepers, fer he can't know anything else."
+
+"Whatever it is, he's dangerous to have round, and we must look out for
+him."
+
+"All right! just leave him to me. I'll have de Sleepers fix him. Dey'll
+do anything my boy Bill tells 'em; he's got 'em under his thumb."
+
+"Look sharp about it, then."
+
+"Ay, ay, mate, I'll give Bill de word to-night soon as he comes in."
+
+Then the two separated, and Monk Tooley went home, thinking over a plan
+by which the Young Sleepers, under his son Bill's direction, could
+effectually drive Derrick Sterling from the mine. As he opened his own
+door he called out in his loud, rough voice,
+
+"Bill come in yet?"
+
+Stepping into the front room, he stood still in amazement. The wife of a
+neighbor was holding up a warning finger towards him, and saying,
+"Sh--h!"
+
+His own wife and two other women were bending over a bed in one corner,
+and the children, whom he had never before known to be quiet when awake,
+were standing or sitting silently in various frightened attitudes about
+the room.
+
+"Who is it?" he asked, hoarsely, with an attempt at a whisper.
+
+"It's Bill," answered one of the women. "He's badly hurted, falling down
+a shaft in the mine, and is like to die. They say Paul the cripple saved
+him."
+
+"Bill! my Bill! You're lying!" cried the miner, fiercely. "Bill came out
+of de mine wid de day shift. I seen him."
+
+Rough and cruel as he was, the man had, hidden somewhere in his being, a
+deep-seated affection for his son Bill. Although he had never been heard
+to speak other than harshly to him, Bill was the pride and joy of his
+hard life. A blow aimed at Bill struck him with redoubled force. His
+hatred of Derrick Sterling arose from the fact that the lad had thrashed
+his boy. Now to tell him that his boy Bill was so badly hurt that he was
+likely to die was like wrenching from him all that he held worth living
+for.
+
+The women made way for the rough miner as he strode to where his son lay
+on a heap of soiled bedclothing, tossing and moaning, but unconscious,
+and in a high fever. One look was enough, and then Monk Tooley left the
+house, and set forth on a ten-mile walk through the night to fetch the
+nearest doctor.
+
+By sunrise the doctor had come and gone again, having done what he
+could. He said the boy would live if he were kept quiet and had careful
+nursing, but that he was injured in such a way that he might be lame for
+the rest of his life.
+
+When Monk Tooley went down into the mine that day--for he must now work
+harder and more steadily than ever to support this added burden--he was
+a silent, heart-broken man.
+
+It was nearly noon before Derrick Sterling awoke after his first day of
+bitter experience in the mine. Though he was still sore and lame, hot
+water and sleep, two of nature's most powerful remedies in cases of his
+kind, had worked such wonders for him that he felt quite ready to enter
+the mine again, and face whatever new trials it might have in store for
+him.
+
+After dinner the mine boss came to see him, and was amazed to find him
+looking so well and cheerful.
+
+"You seem to come up smiling after every knock down, Derrick," he said.
+"I shouldn't wonder if you would even be ready to go down into the mine
+again to-morrow."
+
+"Indeed I think I must, sir," said Derrick, earnestly. "I don't believe
+any one else can get along with Harry Mule as well as I can."
+
+"Let me see. How many years have you been driving him?" asked Mr. Jones,
+gravely.
+
+"Only one day, sir," replied Derrick laughing, "but I think he's very
+fond of me, and I know I am of him."
+
+"All right; if you insist upon it, you shall go down again to-morrow to
+your bumping-mule. Now I want to talk to you seriously."
+
+The conversation that followed was long and earnest, and it was ended by
+Mr. Jones saying, just before he left, "I must manage somehow or other
+to be there on the 27th, and I want you to go with me, for I don't know
+anybody else whom I dare trust. It only remains for us to discover a
+way."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+DERRICK STERLING'S SPLENDID REVENGE
+
+
+The new breaker, in which Paul Evert now worked as a slate-picker, was
+in general appearance very much like the old one, but its interior
+arrangement was different, and of such a nature as to make life much
+easier for those who worked in it. The greatest improvement was the
+introduction of a set of machines called "jigs." The coal from the mine,
+after being drawn to the very top of the breaker, first passed between
+great spiked rollers, or "crushers;" then through a series of "screens,"
+provided with holes of different sizes, that separated it into several
+grades of egg, stove, nut, pea, buckwheat, etc. From the screens it was
+led into the jigs. These are perforated iron cylinders set in tubs of
+water, and fitted with movable iron bottoms placed at a slight angle. A
+small steam-engine attached to each machine raises and lowers or "jigs"
+this iron bottom a few inches each way very rapidly. The contents of the
+cylinders are thus constantly shaken in water, and as the slate is
+heavier than the coal, most of it settles to the bottom, and is carried
+off through a waste chute. The wet coal runs out through other chutes
+placed a little higher than that for slate, and extending down through
+the length of the breaker to the storage bins at its bottom. Along these
+chutes in the new breaker, as in the old one, sat rows of boys picking
+out the bits of slate that had escaped the jigs, and among them was Paul
+Evert.
+
+When Derrick Sterling entered the new breaker on the afternoon of the
+day following that which had brought such memorable adventures, he was
+surprised at the comparative absence of coal-dust. It still rose in
+clouds from the crushers and screens, but there was none above the
+chutes. He understood the theory of jigs, but had never seen them at
+work, and now he was so greatly interested in watching them as almost to
+forget the errand on which he had come. It was only when Mr. Guffy spoke
+to him that he thought of it, and handed the breaker boss the note he
+had come to give him.
+
+"All right," said the boss reading it. "I'm sorry to lose him, for he is
+a quiet, steady lad, and, could in time be made very useful as a picker.
+I doubt, though, if his back would hold out long at the work. Yes, you
+may take him along now if you want to."
+
+Stepping over to where his friend sat, Derrick said, "Come, Paul, you're
+not to work any more to-day; I want to have a talk with you outside."
+
+When they had left the breaker, Derrick said, "How would you like to go
+down into the mine, Paul, and be a door-tender, very near where I work,
+and get twice as much money as you can make in the breaker?"
+
+"Of course I should like it," answered Paul, gravely; "but I don't think
+they want a cripple like me down there."
+
+"Yes, they do want just exactly such a fellow as you are; they found out
+last night what you could do in a mine. Mr. Jones says that if you want
+to you can go down with me to-morrow morning, and begin at once without
+waiting for the end of the month. You are to go with me to the store
+this evening for your mine cap, lamp, and boots. See, here's the order
+for them."
+
+Paul stared at the order for a moment as though he could not believe it
+was real. Then exclaiming, "Oh goody, Derrick! I'm so glad to get out of
+that hateful, back-aching breaker," he gave a funny little twirl of his
+body around his crutch, which was his way of expressing great joy.
+
+Derrick shared this joy equally with Paul, and to see them one would
+have supposed they had just come into fortunes at least. To a stranger
+such rejoicings over an offer of monotonous work down in the blackness
+of a coal mine would have seemed absurd, but if he had ever been a
+breaker boy he could have fully sympathized with them.
+
+The two boys were standing beside the check-board, near the mouth of the
+slope, and after their rejoicings had somewhat subsided Derrick said,
+"Let's see who's sent up the most to-day."
+
+The check-board was something like the small black-board that hangs
+behind the teacher's desk in a school-room. It was provided with several
+rows of pegs, on which hung a number of wooden tags. Each of these tags,
+or checks, had cut into it the initials or private mark of the miner to
+whom it belonged. When a miner working in the underground breasts or
+chambers filled a car with coal and started it on its way to the slope,
+he hung on it one of his checks. When the same car reached the top of
+the slope the "check boss" stationed there took the check from it and
+hung it in its proper place on the check-board. At the end of
+working-hours the number of checks thus hung up for each miner was
+counted, and the same number of car-loads of coal credited to him.
+
+Acting on Derrick's suggestion, the boys turned to the check-board, and
+quickly saw that there were more checks marked M. T. than anything else.
+
+"Why, Monk Tooley has got the most by three loads!" exclaimed Derrick,
+counting them.
+
+"He must have worked all through lunch-hour, and like a mule at that. I
+wonder what's got into him?"
+
+"Perhaps he's trying to make up for what Bill won't earn now," suggested
+Paul, quietly.
+
+"That's so," said Derrick. "I never thought of that, Polly; and I
+haven't thanked you yet for going down into the mine to look for me last
+night, or told you what a splendid fellow I think you are."
+
+"Please don't, Derrick," interrupted Paul, with a troubled expression;
+"you mustn't thank me for anything I tried to do for you. Don't I owe
+you more than anything I can ever do will pay for? Didn't you bring me
+out of the burning breaker? and don't I love you more than most anybody
+on earth?"
+
+"Well, you're a plucky fellow anyway," said Derrick, "and I'd rather
+have you down in the mine if there was any trouble than half of the men
+who are there. Let's stop and see how Bill Tooley's getting along on our
+way home."
+
+"All right," assented Paul; "only if his mother's there I shall be
+almost afraid to go in."
+
+As the boys walked away from the vicinity of the check-board, a man who
+had come up the slope but a few minutes before, and had been watching
+them unobserved, stepped up to it. He was Job Taskar the blacksmith,
+known to the men who met in the chamber at the bottom of the air-shaft,
+in the old workings, as Body-master of Raven Brook. The check boss had
+asked him to stop there a minute, and look out for any cars that might
+come up, while he stepped inside the breaker.
+
+Casting a hurried glance around to see that no one was looking, Job
+Taskar slipped three of Monk Tooley's checks from their peg, thrust them
+into his pocket, altered the chalked figure above the peg, and resumed
+his place.
+
+When Derrick and Paul reached the Tooleys' house it seemed to them even
+more noisy than usual. Several women sat gossiping with Mrs. Tooley in
+the door-way, while a dozen children and several dogs ran screaming or
+barking and quarrelling in and out of the room where the sick boy lay.
+
+They asked his mother how he was, and what the doctor had said of his
+condition.
+
+"Ye can go in and see for yourselves how he is," was the reply, "there's
+naught to hinder. Doctor said he was to be kept perfectly quiet and have
+nussin', but how he's going to get either with them brats rampaging and
+howling, and me the only one to look after them, is more than I know."
+
+Accepting this invitation, the boys stepped inside, and picking their
+way among the children and dogs to the untidy bed on which Bill lay,
+spoke to him and asked him if there was anything they could do for him.
+
+He was conscious, though very weak and in great pain, and on opening his
+eyes he whispered, "Water."
+
+For more than an hour he had longed for it, until his parched tongue was
+ready to cleave to the roof of his mouth, but nobody had come near him,
+and he could not make himself heard above the noise of the children.
+
+Taking the tin dipper that lay on a chair beside the bed Derrick went
+out to the hydrant to fill it with the cool mountain water that flowed
+there.
+
+Paul drew a tattered window-shade so that the hot western sun should not
+shine full in the sick boy's face, loosened his shirt at the neck,
+smoothed back the matted hair from his forehead, and with a threatening
+shake of his crutch, drove a howling dog and several screaming children
+from the room.
+
+These little attentions soothed the sufferer, and he looked up
+gratefully and wonderingly at Paul. When Derrick returned with the water
+he lifted his head, and stretched out his hand eagerly for it. At that
+moment Mrs. Tooley came bustling to the bedside to see what the boys
+were doing. Catching sight of the dipper she snatched it from Derrick's
+hand, crying out that it would kill the boy to give him cold water, "and
+him ragin' wid a fever." This so frightened the boys that they hurriedly
+took their departure, and poor Bill cast such a wistful, despairing
+glance after them as they left the house that their hearts were filled
+with pity for him.
+
+At the supper-table that evening Derrick asked:
+
+"Does it hurt people who have a fever to give them water, mother?"
+
+"No, dear; I do not think it does. My experience teaches me to give
+feverish patients all the cooling drinks they want."
+
+Then Derrick told her what he had seen and learned of Bill Tooley's
+condition that afternoon. He so excited her pity by his description of
+the dirt, noise, and neglect from which the sick lad was suffering that
+she finally exclaimed, "Poor fellow! I wish we had room to take care of
+him here!"
+
+"Do you, mother, really? I wanted to ask you, but was almost afraid to,
+if he couldn't come here and have my room till he gets well. You see
+he's always treated Polly worse than he has me, and yet Polly risked his
+life for him. It isn't anywhere near so much to do as that, of course;
+but I'd like to give up my room to him, and nurse him when I was home,
+if you could look after him a little when I wasn't. I can sleep on the
+floor close to the bed, and be ready to wait on him nights. You know I
+always liked the floor better than a bed, anyway, and I believe he'll
+die if he stays where he is."
+
+They knew each other so well, this mother and son, that a question of
+this kind was easily settled between them. Though both fully realized
+what a task they were undertaking, it was decided that if his parents
+would consent Bill Tooley should be brought to their house to be nursed.
+
+When Monk Tooley came up from the mine that evening and examined the
+check-board to see how the numbers to his credit compared with the tally
+he had kept, he became very angry, and accused the check boss of
+cheating him. The latter said he knew nothing about it. There were the
+checks to speak for themselves. He had hung each one on the peg as it
+came up.
+
+"Den dey've been stolen!" exclaimed the angry man, "an' if I catch him
+as done it, I'll make him smart for it, dat's all."
+
+The check boss tried to show him how perfectly useless it would be for
+anybody to steal another's checks. "You know yourself it wouldn't do him
+any good, Tooley," he said. "He couldn't claim anything on 'em, or make
+any kind of a raise on 'em; besides I've been right here every minute of
+the day, barrin' a couple when I ran inside the breaker on an errand.
+Then I left Job Taskar, as honest a man as there is in the colliery, to
+keep watch, and he said nothing passed while I was gone."
+
+"Well," answered Monk Tooley, "I'm cheated outer three loads, and you
+know what dat is ter a man what's worked overtime ter make 'em, an' has
+sickness and doctor's bills at home. But I'll catch de thief yet, an'
+when I do he'll wish he'd never know'd what a check was."
+
+As he was walking down the street after supper, smoking a pipe and
+thinking of his sick boy, who seemed to have grown worse since morning,
+and of his lost checks, Monk Tooley was accosted by Derrick Sterling,
+who said,
+
+"Good-evening, Mr. Tooley. How's Bill this evening?"
+
+"None de better fer your askin'," was the surly answer, for the man felt
+very bitter against Derrick, to whom he attributed all his son's
+trouble.
+
+"I'm sorry to hear that he isn't any better," continued the boy,
+determined not to be easily rebuffed.
+
+"Well, I'm glad yer sorry, an' wish yer was sorrier."
+
+This did not seem to promise a very pleasant conversation, but Derrick
+persevered, saying,
+
+"It must be very hard for Mrs. Tooley to keep so many children quiet,
+and I believe the doctor said Bill must not be troubled by noise, didn't
+he?"
+
+"Yes, an' if ye'd muzzle yer own mouth de whole place would be quieter."
+
+"My mother wanted me to say to you that if you'd like to send Bill over
+to our house for a few days, it's so quiet over there that she thought
+it would do him good, and she'd be very glad to have him," said Derrick,
+plunging boldly into the business he had undertaken to manage.
+
+"Tell yer mother ter mind her own brats an' leave me ter mind mine, den
+de road'll be wide enough for de both of us," was the ungracious answer
+made by the surly miner to this offer, as he turned away and left
+Derrick standing angry and mortified behind him.
+
+"That comes of trying to do unto others as you would have others do unto
+you," he muttered to himself. "Seems to me the best way is to do unto
+others as they do unto you, and then nobody can complain. I declare if I
+had as ugly a temper as that man has I'd go and drown myself. I don't
+believe he's got one spark of human feeling in him."
+
+Monk Tooley was not quite so bad as Derrick thought him, but just at
+that time everything seemed to go wrong with him, and he was like some
+savage animal suffering from a pain for which it can find no relief. He
+began to repent of his ugliness to Derrick almost as soon as the latter
+had left him, saying to himself, "Maybe de lad meant kindly arter all."
+
+Going back to his untidy, noisy home, he entered the house, and standing
+by his son's bedside gazed curiously at him. The boy was evidently
+growing worse each minute, as even the unpractised eye of the miner
+could see. He was tossing in a high fever, calling constantly for the
+water which in her ignorance his mother would not give him, nor did he
+appear to recognize any of those who stood near.
+
+"I fear me his time's come," said one of the neighbor women, several of
+whom, attracted by curiosity, came and went in and out of the house.
+
+Although the remark was not intended for his ears, Monk Tooley heard it,
+and apparently it brought him to a sudden determination. Without a word
+he left the house and walked directly to that of the Sterlings. Entering
+the open door-way without the ceremony of knocking, which was little
+practised in that colliery village, he found the family gathered in
+their tiny sitting-room, Derrick poring intently over a plan of the old
+workings of the mine, Helen reading, and their mother sewing.
+
+Bowing awkwardly to Mrs. Sterling, he said, "Derrick tells me, missus,
+dat you're willin' to take my poor lad in and nuss him a bit. His own
+mither has no knowledge of de trade, an' he's just dyin' over yon. If
+yer mean it, and will do fer him, yer'll never want for a man to lift a
+hand fer you and yours as long as Monk Tooley is widin call."
+
+"I do mean it, Mr. Tooley, and if you can only get him here, I'll gladly
+do what I can for him," said Mrs. Sterling.
+
+"I'll bring him, mum, I'll go fer him now;" and Monk Tooley, with
+another awkward pull at the brim of his hat, left the house.
+
+In five minutes he was back, accompanied by another miner, and between
+them they bore a mattress on which lay the sick boy.
+
+He was undressed, bathed, and placed in Derrick's cool, clean bed.
+Within an hour cooling drinks and outward applications had so reduced
+the fever and quieted him that he had fallen into a deep sleep.
+
+Within the same time all the village knew, and wondered over the
+knowledge, that Monk Tooley's sick lad was being cared for in the house
+of the widow Sterling.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+SOCRATES, THE WISE MINE RAT
+
+
+When Derrick and Paul found themselves descending the slope, together
+with a carful of miners, the next morning, it seemed to them a long time
+since they had traversed its black depths. So accustomed do the toilers
+of the colliery become to exciting incidents that elsewhere would
+furnish subject for weeks of thought and conversation, that often a
+single day suffices to divert their attention to something new. So it
+was with our two boys, in whose minds their recent adventures were
+already shorn of their terrors, and only thought of as something
+unpleasant, to be forgotten as quickly as possible. Therefore they did
+not speak of them as they talked together in low tones, but only of the
+present and the future.
+
+"I think it's awful good of you and your mother to take Bill Tooley into
+your own house and nurse him," said Paul.
+
+"Oh no," laughed Derrick, "it isn't so very good. Revenge is what we are
+after, and that is one way of getting it."
+
+Hearing Bill Tooley's name mentioned between the boys, one of the miners
+who rode in the car with them had leaned forward to learn what they were
+saying. At Derrick's last remark this man started back and gazed at him
+curiously.
+
+"He's got the very stuff in him to make a Mollie of," he thought. "To
+think he's so sly. He's got the fellow he hates into his own house,
+pretending that he wants to nurse him, and now he's going to take out
+his revenge on him. Perhaps he's going to poison him, or fix pins in the
+bed so they'll stick him. Anyway, I'll have to give Monk the hint of
+what he's up to." Then, admiringly, and half aloud, he muttered, still
+looking at Derrick, "The young villain!"
+
+From the foot of the slope Derrick set off for the stable to get Harry
+Mule, while Paul waited for the making up of a train of empty cars, in
+which he was to ride to the junction near the blacksmith's shop. There
+Derrick was to meet him, take him to his post of duty, and tell him
+about opening and closing the door, and tending the switch of which he
+was to have charge.
+
+In spite of the fact that he and Derrick had been friends but a single
+day, Harry Mule appeared to recognize his young driver, and gave him a
+cordial greeting as he entered the stable. At least he threw up his head
+and uttered a tremendous bray, which went "Haw! he-haw, he-haw, he-haw!"
+and sounded so absurdly like a laugh that Derrick laughed from sympathy
+until the tears ran down his cheeks. The mule gazed at him with a look
+of wonder in his big eyes, and stood so meek and quiet while his harness
+was being put on that Derrick thought perhaps his feelings had been
+hurt. To soothe them he talked to him, and told him that Paul had come
+down into the mine to work.
+
+As they left the stable, and Derrick stopped to fasten the door, Harry
+started in the opposite direction from that in which he should have
+gone, and ran down the gangway, kicking up his heels and braying, as
+though he were a frisky young colt in a pasture instead of an old
+bumping-mule down in a coal-mine. Derrick ran after him, and for some
+time could see the reflection of the collar-lamp, which was swung
+violently to and fro by the animal's rapid motion. The disappearance of
+this light in the distance was followed by an angry shouting and a
+muffled crash.
+
+Derrick was provoked that his mule should have made all this trouble,
+and was anxious to discover the full extent of the mischief done, but he
+could not help laughing when he reached the scene of confusion. The
+first object he saw was Harry himself, standing still and gazing
+demurely at him with the wondering look which was his most common
+expression. He was hitched in front of a string of mules which were
+attached to a train of empty cars, and was evidently prepared to act as
+their leader. The boy driver of these mules, with many muttered
+exclamations, was trying to disentangle their harness from the snarl it
+had got into, and in one of the cars stood Paul Evert, looking somewhat
+dilapidated and greatly disgusted.
+
+"Hullo, Derrick!" he called out. "Where did that mule come from?"
+
+"Why, that's Harry, my bumping-mule," answered Derrick as he came up
+laughing.
+
+"Bumping-mule! I should think he was," said Paul. "He made these cars
+stop so quick that I was almost bumped out of 'em, and the skin's all
+knocked off my nose. I don't see what he wanted to come bumping along
+this way for."
+
+"Why, I told him you were coming," said Derrick, "and I suppose he
+wanted to welcome you to the mine."
+
+"Well, I'm sorry you told him, and--"
+
+Just then the driver shouted "Gee up!" and Harry Mule, anxious to do his
+duty in his new position, started ahead so briskly as to pull the other
+three mules promptly into line and give a violent jerk to the cars.
+Losing his balance with this unexpected motion, Paul sat suddenly down
+in the bottom of the car he was in, and there he wisely decided to
+remain.
+
+When they reached the junction, Derrick asked Paul to wait for him until
+he and Harry Mule had distributed the empty cars to their several
+destinations. Attracted by its cheerful light, Paul stepped inside the
+blacksmith's shop, where Job Taskar, who was hammering away as busily as
+usual, glanced up as he entered, but paid no further attention to him. A
+minute later the smith, who had just begun his day's work, and still
+wore his coat, pulled it off and flung it to one side. Something dropped
+from one of its pockets unnoticed by him as he did so, and Paul was on
+the point of calling his attention to it. He did not, however, because
+the smith's helper, a slim, dreary-looking young man, to whom nobody
+ever paid much attention, also noticed the falling object, and picked it
+up without being seen by Job. Gazing at it curiously for a moment, he
+restored it, as Paul thought, to the pocket from which it had fallen. In
+reality, he slipped it into a pocket of his own coat which lay under
+that of his boss.
+
+Derrick now came back, and with him Paul went to the door that he was to
+tend. Just inside of it, on a platform laid above the ditch of black,
+rapidly flowing water, stood a rude arm-chair made out of rough boards.
+Above it hung a board full of holes into which several pegs were thrust.
+Derrick told Paul that with these pegs he must keep tally of the number
+of loaded cars that passed this station, and that he must always be
+ready to answer promptly the call of "Door." Within reach from the chair
+was a lever by means of which the switch was moved. Paul was told that
+after each door call there would come another explaining on which track
+the approaching cars were to go, and that he must listen carefully for
+it and set the switch accordingly. After showing him the large oil-can
+from which he might refill his lamp, Derrick bade him good-by and
+returned to his own work.
+
+This morning passed much more pleasantly to the young mule-driver than
+the first one had. Not only did Tom Evert greet him cordially, and thank
+him for what he had done for Paul, but Monk Tooley gave him a gruff
+"Mornin', lad," and most of the other men spoke pleasantly to him, as
+though to atone in a measure for his previous suffering. Above all, he
+occasionally had to pass Paul's station, and the mere sight of his
+faithful friend leaning on his crutch and holding open the door was a
+source of joy.
+
+As Paul had much spare time on his hands, he occupied it in becoming
+acquainted with his surroundings, and was especially interested in the
+curious markings on the black slate walls of the gangway near his door.
+Many of these were in the form of exquisite ferns, others of curious
+leaves such as he had never seen, quaint patterns like the scales and
+bones of queer fishes, or the ripplings of water on a smooth beach. In
+one place he found tiny tracks, as though a small bird had run quickly
+across it, and had stamped the imprint of its feet on the hard surface.
+
+It was Paul's first lesson in geology, and it gave him his first idea
+that this hard slate, and the veins of coal enclosed between its solid
+walls, might have had a previous existence in another form. He pondered
+upon the length of time that must have passed since those ferns grew,
+and since that running bird made those footprints, and finally concluded
+to ask Derrick if he knew.
+
+At noon, after Harry Mule had been sent jingling to his stable, Derrick
+rejoined his friend, and they ate lunch together. As they talked of the
+strange markings on the walls, and Derrick confessed that he knew no
+more concerning their age than Paul, the latter suddenly paused, and
+with a slight gesture directed attention to something in the roadway.
+
+Looking in the direction indicated, Derrick saw, sitting bolt-upright on
+its hind-legs, and gazing steadily at them, an immense rat. He was quite
+gray, and evidently very old; nor did he seem to be in the least bit
+afraid of them.
+
+"Doesn't he look wise?" whispered Paul.
+
+"As wise as Socrates," answered Derrick.
+
+Not having had Derrick's education, Paul did not know who Socrates was,
+but the name pleased him, and he said it over softly to
+himself--"Socrates, Soc, Socrates. That's what I'm going to call him,
+Derrick--'Socrates.' I've seen him round here two or three times this
+morning, and every time he's sat up just like that, and looked as if he
+knew all that I was thinking about. I believe he could tell how old the
+ferns are."
+
+"I don't believe they're as old as he is," replied Derrick, laughing.
+
+The rat did not seem to like this, for at Derrick's laughter he gave a
+little squeak and darted away, disappearing beneath the door.
+
+Within five minutes Paul pointed again, and there sat the rat in
+precisely the same position as before.
+
+"Perhaps this is what he wants," said Paul, throwing a bit of bread
+towards the rat. Approaching it cautiously, the beast first smelled of
+it, and then seizing it in his mouth again darted beneath the door.
+Several times did he thus come for food, but he always carried it away
+without stopping to eat even a crumb.
+
+"He must have a large and hungry family," said Derrick.
+
+"Or else it isn't his dinner-hour yet, and he is waiting for the proper
+time to eat," laughed Paul.
+
+Always after this Socrates the rat was a regular attendant upon the boys
+at lunch-time, and he never failed to receive a share of whatever they
+had to eat. Often at other times, when no sound save the steady gurgle
+of the black water beneath him broke the tomb-like silence of the
+gangway, Paul would see the little beady eyes flashing here and there in
+the dim lamplight, and would feel a sense of companionship very
+comforting to his loneliness. At such times Paul would talk to the rat
+about the queer pictures on the walls, and ask him questions concerning
+them. For hours he talked thus to his wise-looking companion, until he
+began to believe that the rat understood him, and could really answer if
+he chose.
+
+Sometimes when he was asked a question he could not answer, he would
+reply, "I don't know, but I'll speak to Socrates about it"; and at the
+first opportunity he would explain the whole difficulty to his
+gray-whiskered friend. Frequently, by thus thinking and talking the
+matter over, he would arrive at some conclusion, more or less correct,
+and this he would report as "What Socrates thinks."
+
+At noon that day Monk Tooley, as usual, ate his lunch and smoked his
+pipe with Job Taskar in the blacksmith's shop; but he was very quiet,
+and not inclined to be talkative as was his habit. When he left, the
+blacksmith's helper slipped out after him, and saying, "'Ere's summut I
+think belongs to you, Mr. Tooley," handed him three bits of wood, on
+each of which was deeply scored M. T.
+
+"My lost checks!" exclaimed the miner. "Where'd yer get 'em, Boodle?"
+
+"They dropped out hof Taskar's pocket when 'e flung hoff 'is coat this
+mornin', and hi picked 'em hup unbeknownst to 'im."
+
+"So he's de one as stole 'em, is he?" began the miner in a passion.
+Then, changing his tone, he added, "But never mind, Boodle; of course he
+only took 'em for de joke, and we'll say no more about it. Yer needn't
+mention havin' found 'em."
+
+"Hall right, Mr. Tooley, hit shall be has you says," replied the helper,
+meekly, though he was really greatly disappointed at this turn of
+affairs. He disliked as much as he feared his boss, and had hoped that
+this little incident might lead to a quarrel between him and the miner
+whose lost property he had just restored.
+
+Monk Tooley went back to his work muttering to himself, "All dis means
+summut; but we'll just lie low a bit, and mebbe Body-master an me'll
+have a score ter settle yet."
+
+The Young Sleepers had been so badly demoralized by the incidents
+following their attempt to extract a treat from Derrick, and especially
+by the mishap of their leader, that they had not the courage to repeat
+the experiment. Derrick and Paul therefore left the mine that evening
+without being molested. They took pains, however, not to be very far
+behind two brawny pillars of strength in the shape of Tom Evert and Monk
+Tooley when they reached the foot of the slope.
+
+Before going home Monk Tooley walked with Derrick to the Widow
+Sterling's, to inquire after his boy, and was much pleased to learn that
+he was getting along nicely.
+
+"It lightens my heart ter hear yer say dat, missus," he said to Mrs.
+Sterling, "an' it's not one woman in ten thousand would do what yer
+doin' fer my poor lad."
+
+"Derrick proposed it," said Mrs. Sterling, with a mother's anxiety that
+her son should receive all the credit due him. "Without his help I'm
+afraid I should not have been able to invite Bill to come here."
+
+"He's a fine lad, missus," replied the miner, "an' if de time ever comes
+dat I can serve you or him, my name's not Monk Tooley if I don't jump at
+de chance."
+
+After sitting a while with Bill, and doing what lay in his power to make
+him comfortable, Derrick again got out his father's plans of the old
+workings of the mine, and pored over them intently. Finally he
+exclaimed, "It's all right; I am sure of it!"
+
+"What are you so sure of, my son?" asked his mother, looking up from her
+work.
+
+"Something I have been trying to find out for Mr. Jones, mother, but he
+does not want a word said about it; so I must keep the secret to myself,
+at any rate until after I have seen him."
+
+"Seems to me that you and Mr. Jones have a great many secrets together.
+You really are becoming quite an important young man, Derrick."
+
+Although Derrick only smiled in reply, he thought to himself that his
+mother was about right, and hoped others would take the same view of his
+importance that she did.
+
+Selecting some tracing-paper from among the things left by his father,
+the boy made a tracing from the plan he had been studying. He followed
+all the lines of the original carefully, except in one place where the
+plan was so indistinct that he could not tell exactly where they were
+intended to go. Being in a hurry, and feeling confident that they should
+be continued in a certain direction, he drew them so without verifying
+his conclusions.
+
+When he had finished he left the house, and went directly to that of the
+mine boss, taking the tracings he had just made with him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+IN THE OLD WORKINGS--MISLED BY AN ALTERED LINE
+
+
+Mr. Jones was expecting Derrick that evening, and was waiting somewhat
+impatiently for him. When the boy at last arrived he was taken into the
+library, where, as soon as the door was closed, the mine boss asked:
+
+"Well, Derrick, have you heard anything more about the meeting?"
+
+"Not a word, sir."
+
+"To-morrow is the 27th, you know."
+
+"Yes, sir, I know it is."
+
+"And my fate, and perhaps yours too, may be decided within twenty-four
+hours from now."
+
+At this Derrick started; he had not realized that he was in any
+particular danger.
+
+"Do you think, sir, they would pay any attention to a boy like me?" he
+asked.
+
+"I certainly do," replied the mine boss. "They would pay attention to
+anybody or anything that stood in their way, or seemed likely to
+interfere with their plans. I am afraid, from what Job Taskar said the
+other day, that they consider your presence in the mine as dangerous to
+them. I am sorry that my liking for you, and efforts to promote your
+interests, should have placed you in such an unpleasant position. If you
+like I will try and get you a place as errand boy in the main office of
+the company, where you will be in no danger."
+
+"Oh, no, sir!" exclaimed Derrick. "Please don't think of such a thing.
+I'd rather take my chances with the Mollies in the mine than go into an
+office. There I should never be anything but a clerk; while here I may
+some day become an engineer, as my father was. Don't you think I may,
+sir?"
+
+"Yes," answered the other, smiling at the boy's earnestness, "I think
+any boy of ordinary intelligence and blessed with good health can in
+time occupy any position he chooses, if he directs his whole energy in
+that direction, and makes up his mind that no obstacle shall turn him
+from it."
+
+"I have made a beginning, sir," said Derrick, much encouraged by these
+words from one who was so greatly his superior in age, knowledge, and
+position, and whose opinion he valued so highly.
+
+"Have you?" asked the mine boss, with a kindly interest. "In what way?"
+
+"I am studying my father's books, and trying to work out problems from
+some old plans I found among his papers. One of them is a plan of the
+very oldest workings of this mine, and I have brought a tracing of a
+part of it to show you."
+
+"Very good," said Mr. Jones, glancing at the tracing carelessly. "I have
+no doubt that in time you will become a famous engineer."
+
+Although this was spoken kindly enough, it was evident that the
+speaker's thoughts were far away, probably trying to devise some means
+for being present at the approaching meeting in the mine.
+
+Noting this, Derrick said, "I did not bring the tracing just to show
+what sort of work I could do, sir, but because I think it will lead us
+to where we can hear what they say at that meeting."
+
+Instantly the mine boss exhibited a new interest. "Explain it," he said.
+
+Then Derrick told him of the old drift-mouth he had discovered, and said
+he felt confident that if they followed the gangway leading in from it
+they would reach the top of the old air-shaft into which Bill Tooley had
+fallen, and up which had come the voices of the Mollies at their
+previous meeting.
+
+"If we could get there by this back way it would be capital!" exclaimed
+the mine boss. "In that case my presence in the mine would be unknown
+and unsuspected; whereas, if we should go in as you did, from the other
+end of the old gangway, we could hardly escape discovery. If that route
+proves practicable a great load is lifted from my mind; for, somehow or
+other, I must find out what these Mollies are up to. You are of course
+sure of the correctness of the plans?"
+
+"My father drew them," answered Derrick.
+
+"I was not questioning your father's accuracy; I only wanted to know if
+this tracing was an exact copy of the original."
+
+"Yes, sir, it is," answered Derrick, though with a slight hesitation in
+his voice as he thought of the one place he had not been quite sure of.
+This was where the plan had been somewhat blotted and blurred, so that
+he could not see whether or not two lines joined each other. Having made
+up his mind that they ought to be joined, he had thus drawn them on his
+tracing. It was such a small thing that he did not consider it worth
+mentioning. Thus, without meaning to make a false statement, he said
+that his tracing was an exact copy of the original, and by so doing
+prepared the way for the serious consequence that followed.
+
+Derrick was a fine, manly fellow, and was possessed of noble traits of
+character, but like many another boy he was inclined to be conceited,
+and to imagine that he knew as much if not a little more than his
+elders. Nor was he backward in parading his knowledge, or even of
+allowing it to appear greater than it really was.
+
+In the present instance he was proud of the confidence reposed in him by
+the mine boss, and of the skill with which he had prepared the plan of
+operations they were now discussing. It really seemed to him that he was
+about to become the leader in a very difficult enterprise in which the
+other was to be a follower.
+
+The mine boss, with a quick penetration of human character, gained by
+years of study and experience, suspected something of this weakness on
+Derrick's part, but did not consider that either the proper time or
+opportunity had yet come for warning him against it.
+
+So Derrick's plan was discussed in all its details, and before they
+separated that night it was adopted.
+
+In order that the mistake made by Derrick in his slight alteration of
+the plan of the old workings, as shown in his tracing, may be
+understood, a few words of explanation are necessary.
+
+The old drift-mouth, that he had discovered almost hidden beneath a
+tangle of vines and bushes, was on a mountain side above a deep valley.
+Farther down was the mouth of a second drift, which he had not
+discovered, and knew nothing of. On the opposite side of the mountain
+was another valley, the bottom of which was on about the same level as
+the higher of these drifts. The old workings ran from them through the
+mountain, and under this valley in which the present colliery was
+located.
+
+When the gangway from the upper of the two drifts had been opened as far
+as the valley, the vein that it followed took a sudden dip. The gangway
+was in consequence changed into a slope, which finally led into the
+workings beneath. Some time after they had been abandoned a great
+"break" or cave-in of the ground above there had occurred at the edge of
+the valley, and by it an opening was made into the lower set of
+workings. It was on the opposite side of the valley from this break that
+the new workings were now being pushed; and somewhere between it and
+them was the old air-shaft and the chamber that the Mollies had selected
+as their place of secret meeting.
+
+Now Derrick had got hold of a plan of the lower set of these old
+workings which he knew nothing of, and thought it was a plan of the
+upper set, which in reality only extended to the edge of the valley. He
+knew that the upper drift-mouth was on about the same level as the top
+of the old air-shaft, and thought he had a plan showing that the two
+were connected. He reasoned that by entering the old gangway at the
+break, and following it under the valley, they would not only save
+distance, but would be conducted directly to the top of the air-shaft
+which they wished to reach. By the joining of those two lines at the
+blurred place on the plan it was made to conform so perfectly to this
+theory that he felt satisfied his conclusions were correct, and
+consequently made his confident statements to Mr. Jones.
+
+The latter had been connected with the Raven Brook Colliery but a few
+months, and knew nothing of its old and abandoned workings, not yet
+having found time to study their plans or explore them. He did know,
+however, that Mr. Sterling had been one of the company's most trusted
+engineers, and that Derrick had long been interested in poring over and
+tracing his father's plans of these very workings. When, therefore, he
+had carefully examined the tracing that the boy had made, and now
+assured him was an exact copy of the original plan, and found that it
+showed a system of galleries by which the top of the air-shaft might be
+gained from the break, he had no hesitation in saying that they would
+make the attempt to reach it from that direction. Had he sent for the
+original plan he would have quickly discovered Derrick's error. He
+thought of doing this, but did not, for fear of wounding the lad's
+feelings by appearing to mistrust him.
+
+It was arranged between them that Mr. Jones should leave the village on
+the afternoon of the 27th, as though bound on some distant expedition,
+and have it understood that he might possibly be absent all night. An
+hour before sundown he was to be at the break, prepared to explore the
+old gangway to which it gave entrance. Here Derrick was to meet him,
+after having left the mine an hour earlier than usual, gone home for
+supper, and told his mother that he should be out late on some business
+for the mine boss.
+
+This plan was successfully followed, without suspicion being aroused,
+and the young mine boss met his boy companion at the appointed time and
+place. They both had safety-lamps, and each carried a small can of oil,
+for they did not know how long they might have to remain in the mine.
+
+In the break they found a rickety ladder that had been placed there for
+the use of the village children, who were accustomed to come here with
+baskets, and in a small way mine coal for home use from the sides of the
+old gangway. Descending this, they lighted their lamps at the bottom,
+and entering the black opening began to follow the path marked out on
+Derrick's tracing.
+
+For some distance the way was comparatively smooth, and they made rapid
+progress. Then they began to encounter various obstacles. Here a mass of
+rock had fallen from the roof, and they must clamber over it. In another
+place a quantity of waste material had so dammed a ditch that for nearly
+a quarter of a mile the gangway was flooded with cold, black water,
+through which they had to wade. It was above their knees, and, filling
+their rubber boots, made them so heavy as to greatly impede their
+progress. In several places where the old timber props had rotted out,
+such masses of rubbish choked the gangway that they were compelled to
+crawl on their hands and knees for long distances through the low spaces
+that were still left. Once they were on the point of turning back, but
+animated by the importance of their errand they kept on, cheering each
+other with the thought that they would not be obliged to come back this
+same way in order to leave the mine.
+
+During the earlier portion of the journey, as they encountered these
+obstacles, the mine boss urged, almost commanded, Derrick to go back and
+leave him to continue the undertaking alone. In spite of some faults the
+lad was no coward, and he begged so earnestly to be allowed to keep on
+that the other consented, on condition that no greater danger presented
+itself.
+
+At length they had overcome so many difficulties that the road behind
+them fairly bristled with dangers, and the young man felt it would be an
+act of cruelty to send the boy back to encounter them alone.
+
+Now and then, as they crawled over piles of fallen debris, and there was
+but little space between them and the roof, the flames within their
+safety-lamps burned faint and blue, and they breathed with great
+difficulty. The mine boss knew they were passing through spaces filled
+with the deadly "fire-damp," and he urged Derrick to make all possible
+haste towards more open places where they could keep below its
+influence.
+
+They passed through a door in a fair state of preservation, but fairly
+covered with the pure white fungus growth of glistening frost-like
+sprays, which in the mine are called "water crystals." Everywhere were
+the signs of long neglect and decay, and unenlivened by the cheering
+sounds of human toil the place was weird and awful. The very drippings
+from the roof fell with an uncanny splash that struck a chill into
+Derrick's heart. Long before they reached the end of their journey he
+regretted having planned and proposed it; but he bravely kept his fears
+and regrets to himself, and plodded sturdily on behind his companion. As
+for the latter, his thoughts were also of a most dismal character. He
+realized even more fully than Derrick the dangerous position in which
+they had placed themselves, and felt that his experience should have
+warned him against such an undertaking.
+
+Meantime those who were to meet in the old chamber at the bottom of the
+air-shaft were already gathered together, and were earnestly discussing
+the affairs of their order. Job Taskar, as presiding officer, made a
+long speech. In it he denounced the mine boss for discharging several of
+their members, and refusing to take them back, though petitioned to do
+so by a large number of those who remained at work. He also charged him
+with placing a spy in the mine in the person of Derrick Sterling, and of
+having removed the son of one of their most prominent members to make
+room for him. At this point he looked steadily at Monk Tooley.
+
+"Don't yer say nothin' agin Derrick Sterling," growled that miner, "fer
+I won't hear ter it. He's doin' fer my lad this minute what dere isn't
+anoder man in de meetin' er in Raven Brook Colliery, nor I don't believe
+in de State, would ha' done in his place."
+
+"Do yer know what he's doing it for?" interrupted another member,
+springing to his feet. "No, yer don't, an' yer can't make a guess at it;
+but I can tell yer. It's for revenge, an' nothing else. I heerd him say
+it his own self to Paul the cripple, coming down the slope, only
+yesterday morning. 'I'm taking out my revenge on him,' says he; them's
+his very words."
+
+"All right," replied Monk Tooley, "if yer heerd him say it, den he's
+doin' it fer revenge, and it's de biggest kind of revenge I ever knowed
+of a man or a boy ter take out on anoder. Do yer know dat he's give up
+his own bed ter my Bill, an' dat he sets up nights awaitin' on him an'
+a-nussin' of him? No, yer don't know nothin' about it, an' I don't want
+ter hear anoder word from yer agin him. I'm his friend, I am."
+
+An awkward silence followed this announcement, for the members thought
+that perhaps if Monk Tooley were Derrick Sterling's friend, he might
+also be a friend of the mine boss, whom they had almost decided should
+be put out of the way.
+
+The silence was finally broken by Job Taskar, who asked sarcastically if
+Monk Tooley knew who stole his three checks from the check-board two
+days before.
+
+"Yes, I do," answered the miner, promptly.
+
+"Then you know it was this same sneaking boss's pet, Derrick Sterling."
+
+"No, I don't."
+
+"I tell you I saw him do it!" cried Job, in a rage. "Him and the
+hunchback went up to the board together, and when the boss stepped away,
+so they thought nobody wasn't looking, the pet slipped 'em into his
+pocket. I saw it with my own eyes."
+
+"An' I tell yer yer lie!" shouted Monk Tooley. "Here's de checks, an'
+dey come outen yer own pocket, yer black-hearted old scoundrel!"
+
+At these astounding words Job Taskar sprang towards Monk Tooley with
+clinched fists, as though to strike him, and all present watched for the
+encounter in breathless suspense.
+
+Just then the door behind them was pushed open, and standing on its
+threshold they saw the mine boss and Derrick Sterling.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A FATAL EXPLOSION OF FIRE-DAMP
+
+
+At this startling apparition of the last two persons in the world whom
+they would have expected to see in that place, the assembled miners
+remained for some moments motionless with astonishment. Having stationed
+a trusty sentinel at the end of the gangway nearest the new workings,
+who was to give them instant warning of the approach of any outsider,
+they imagined themselves perfectly safe from interruption. They had not
+considered the possibility of an approach from the rear through the
+abandoned workings, for they were generally believed to be impassable
+owing to deadly gases and the quantity of material that had fallen in
+them. Thus the unannounced appearance of the very persons whose fate
+they had just been discussing seemed almost supernatural, and a feeling
+of dread pervaded the assembly.
+
+On the other hand, Mr. Jones and his companion were equally, if not more
+greatly, dismayed. Having approached the door during a momentary silence
+among the miners, they had not been warned by any sound of what they
+should find beyond it. Thinking that they were upon an upper level, and
+separated from their enemies by many feet of solid rock, they suddenly
+found themselves in their very midst.
+
+At the first view of what was disclosed by the opening door, Derrick
+uttered a little frightened cry, and involuntarily drew back as though
+about to run away. It was only a momentary impulse. In an instant his
+courage returned, the hot blood surged into his face, and stepping
+boldly forward he stood beside the mine boss, determined to share
+whatever fate was in store for him.
+
+Among the Mollies the first to recover from his stupefaction was Job
+Taskar, who crying "Here they are, lads! Now we've got 'em!" made a
+spring at the mine boss, with clinched fist still uplifted, as it had
+been to strike Monk Tooley.
+
+The black muzzle of a revolver promptly presented to his face by the
+steady hand of the young man caused him to stagger back with a snarl of
+baffled rage. Taking a couple of steps forward, which motion Derrick
+followed, and standing in full view of all the Mollies, with the
+revolver still held in his hand where it could be plainly seen, the mine
+boss said:
+
+"My men, I want you to excuse this interruption to your meeting, and
+listen to me for a few minutes. I think I know why you are thus
+assembled in secret. It is to decide upon some means of getting rid of
+me and of my young friend Derrick Sterling. You have been taught by this
+man that we are your enemies, and are working against your interests.
+Let me give you a few facts that will serve to show who are your real
+enemies, and who are your true friends.
+
+"Job Taskar is, I believe, your Body-master and leader. He had told you
+that this lad is a spy, sent into the mine to discover your secrets and
+work against you. He hates Derrick Sterling. Why?
+
+"A few years ago Job Taskar was blacksmith to a distant colliery in
+another district. This lad's father was engineer in the same mine.
+Taskar was paid by the men for sharpening their tools, so much for each
+one. They were compelled to go to him by the rules of the colliery. He
+so destroyed the temper of the drills and other tools brought to him as
+to make them require sharpening much oftener than they would if he had
+done his work honestly. He was thus stealing much of the miners'
+hard-earned wages. Mr. Sterling found this out, procured Taskar's
+discharge from the works, and had an honest man put in his place. When
+the same gentleman found the same dishonest blacksmith working in this
+mine he warned him that if he caught him at any of his old tricks he
+would have him discharged from here. Now Taskar hates that engineer's
+son, and wants to have him put out of the way. Do you wonder at it?
+
+"He wants me removed for a much more simple reason. It is that he would
+like to be mine boss in my place. This would so increase his influence
+in your society that he might in time be made a county delegate, and
+live without further labor upon money extorted from hard-working
+miners."
+
+At this point the members glanced uneasily at each other. They were
+amazed at the knowledge showed by the mine boss of their affairs.
+
+"Now, my men, a few more words and I am through," continued the speaker.
+"In regard to those of your number whom I discharged, and refused to
+take back, although petitioned to do so, you know who they are, and I
+needn't mention names. I will only say that they were detected in an
+attempt to injure the pumps and destroy the fans. Had they succeeded the
+colliery would have been closed, and all hands thrown out of work for an
+indefinite length of time. You would have been in danger from fire-damp
+and water. Probably some lives would have been lost. They were
+unscrupulous men, and had they succeeded in their villainy you would
+have been the greatest sufferers.
+
+"As for you, sir," he said, sternly, turning to Job Taskar, "I have long
+had my eye on you, and have come to the conclusion that this mine and
+all employed in it would be better off if you should leave it. I
+therefore take this opportunity to discharge you from this company's
+service. If after to-night you ever enter this mine again it will be at
+your peril."
+
+The man was too thoroughly cowed by the boldness of this proceeding to
+utter a word, and when the young mine boss, saying "Come, Derrick," and
+"Good-evening, men," suddenly stepped outside the door and closed it, he
+stood for an instant motionless. Then with a howl of "Stop 'em! Don't
+let 'em escape!" he tore open the door and sprang into the gangway
+beyond. It was silent and dark, not even a glimmer of light betraying
+the presence or existence of those who had but that moment left the
+chamber.
+
+For a brief space the man stood bewildered, and then began to run
+towards the door that opened into the new workings. Several of the
+miners followed him until they came to where their sentinel stood. He,
+watchful and on the alert, as he had been ever since they left him
+there, was greatly surprised at their haste and the impatient demands
+made of him as to why he had allowed two persons to pass. Of course he
+stoutly denied having done so, and declared he had seen no living being
+since taking his station at that place.
+
+"Then they're back in the old workings, lads, and we'll have 'em yet,"
+cried Job Taskar. "They can't get out, for the gangway's choked beyond.
+They must have been hid yonder near the place of meeting since
+lunch-time, waiting for us, and they're hid now, waiting till we leave,
+so's they can sneak out. But they can't fool us any more, an' we'll get
+'em this time."
+
+With this the man, fuming with rage and disappointed hate, turned and
+retraced his steps up the gangway, followed by four of his companions.
+The rest of the Mollies, feeling that no more business would be
+transacted that evening, and having no inclination to join in the human
+hunt, dispersed to different parts of the new workings, or went up the
+slopes to the surface. Monk Tooley stayed behind, not for the purpose of
+joining in the pursuit of the mine boss and his companion, but with a
+vague idea of protecting Derrick from harm in case they should be
+caught.
+
+Led by Job Taskar, the four Mollies eagerly and carefully explored every
+foot of the gangway, and even climbed up into several worked-out breasts
+at its side, thinking the fugitives might be hidden in them.
+
+After surmounting several minor obstacles, they finally came to one that
+was much more serious. It was a mass of fallen debris that filled the
+gangway to within a couple of feet of its roof, and extended for a long
+distance. Thinking that perhaps it completely choked the passage a few
+yards farther on, and that he might now find those whom he sought in
+hiding, like foxes run to earth, Taskar eagerly scrambled up over the
+loose rocks and chunks of coal, reaching the top while his followers
+were still at some distance behind.
+
+[Illustration: SUDDENLY THERE CAME A BLINDING FLASH, A ROAR AS OF A CANNON]
+
+Suddenly there came a blinding flash, a roar as of a cannon discharged
+in that confined space, a furious rush of air that extinguished every
+light and shrouded the gangway in a profound darkness, and the rattling
+crash of falling rocks and broken timbers. The Mollies who followed Job
+were hurled, stunned and bleeding, to the floor of the gangway. Even
+Monk Tooley, who was at a considerable distance behind them, was thrown
+violently against one of the side walls. As for Job Taskar, he lay dead
+on the heap of debris over which he had been climbing when the uncovered
+flame of his lamp ignited the terrible fire-damp that hung close under
+the roof. He was burned almost beyond recognition, and the clothes were
+torn from his body. Among the fragments of these afterwards picked up
+was found a portion of a letter which read:
+
+      "_It will be impossible to obtain the position until_
+    _position must be supported by a number of votes wh_
+                              _when you become mine boss._
+
+    "_You know as well as anybody that a county delega_
+
+When the battered and bruised miners had recovered their senses,
+relighted their lamps, and ascertained the fate of their leader, they
+were content to drag themselves out from the gangway without pursuing
+any further the search in which they had been engaged. Fortunately for
+them the quantity of gas exploded had been small, else they might have
+been instantly killed, or the gangway so shattered as to completely bar
+their way of escape, and hold them buried alive between its black walls.
+As it was, it brought down a great mass of debris on top of that already
+fallen, and so choked the passage beyond where Job Taskar's body lay
+that it was effectually closed.
+
+Although Derrick and the mine boss were far in advance of their
+pursuers, and had already passed most of the obstacles to their rapid
+progress, they were very sensible of the shock of the explosion when it
+occurred. The rush of air that immediately followed was strong enough to
+extinguish their safety-lamps, and cause them to stagger, but it did
+them no injury.
+
+When these two had so suddenly stepped from the presence of the Mollies,
+and slammed the door in their faces, they had instantly extinguished
+their lamps, and started on a run back through the gangway by which they
+had come. Of course, in the utter darkness, they could not run fast nor
+far, but they were well beyond the circle of light from Job Taskar's
+lamp when he sprang out after them, and that was all they wanted. When
+they saw the little cluster of flickering lights borne by the Mollies
+disappear in the opposite direction from that they were taking, they
+felt greatly relieved, and a few minutes later ventured to relight their
+own lamps and continue their retreat.
+
+"Looks as if we'd got to go out the way we came in, after all, doesn't
+it, sir?" said Derrick, who was the first to speak.
+
+"It does rather look that way," answered the mine boss, "but I'd rather
+risk it, under the circumstances, than face those fellows just now. They
+have had a chance to recover from their surprise at our appearance, and
+some of them are as mad as hornets to think they let us go. A moment's
+hesitation when we opened that door and found ourselves among them would
+probably have cost us our lives. Our very boldness was all that saved
+us. A danger boldly faced is robbed of half its terrors.
+
+"By-the-way, Derrick, our coming on those fellows as we did was a most
+remarkable thing. I thought your tracing was leading us to the top of
+the air-shaft instead of to the chamber at its bottom. We must be on a
+lower level than we thought. How do you account for it? Can you have
+made a mistake in regard to the plans?"
+
+Derrick's heart sank within him as he remembered the weak spot in his
+tracing; but he answered, "I don't think so, sir; though it does look as
+if something was wrong."
+
+Here conversation was interrupted by the difficulties of the road, for
+they had reached the mass of fallen debris that blocked Job Taskar's way
+a little later.
+
+As they crawled on hands and knees over the obstruction, the mine boss
+said, hoarsely, and with great difficulty, "Hurry, boy! there's gas
+enough here to kill us if we breathe it many minutes. If we had naked
+lights instead of safeties we'd be blown into eternity."
+
+After they had safely passed this danger he said, "I hope with all my
+heart that those fellows won't come that way looking for us; there's
+sure to be an explosion if they do. I don't believe they will, though,"
+he added, after a moment's reflection; "they're too old hands to expose
+themselves needlessly to the fire-damp."
+
+They had again waded through the icy water, which the mine boss said he
+must have drawn off before it increased so as to be dangerous, and were
+well along towards the opening into the break, when the muffled sound of
+the explosion reached their ears.
+
+"There's trouble back there!" exclaimed Mr. Jones, as he relighted their
+lamps, which the rush of air had extinguished, "and I'm afraid that
+somebody has got hurt. You go on out, Derrick, and I'll go back and see.
+No, I won't, either. I can get there as quickly, and do more good, by
+going round outside and down the slope. Come, let us run."
+
+In a few minutes they had reached the bottom of the break, climbed the
+rickety ladder, and once more they stood in safety beneath the starlit
+sky of the outer world.
+
+"Eight o'clock," said Mr. Jones, looking at his watch. "We've been in
+there three hours, Derrick, and seen some pretty lively times. What I
+can't understand, though, is how we got in on that lower level. Never
+mind now; we must run, for I'm anxious about that explosion."
+
+The news of the disaster in the mine had already reached the surface,
+but nobody knew exactly how or where it had taken place. A crowd of
+people, including many women and children, was rapidly gathering about
+the mouth of the slope, anxious to learn tidings of those dear to them
+who were down in the mine with the night shift.
+
+The voice of the mine boss calling out that the explosion had occurred
+in an abandoned gangway, and that nobody who was in the new workings was
+hurt, gave the first intimation of his presence among them. His words
+carried comfort to the hearts of many who heard them, but filled with
+dismay the minds of those who had seen him but a short time before at
+the underground meeting. They had thought he must surely be still in the
+mine, and could in no way account for his presence, for they knew
+positively that he had not come up by the slope or the travelling-road.
+
+While the mine boss was speaking, Derrick felt a hand on his shoulder,
+and turning, he saw Paul Evert, who exclaimed, joyfully, "Oh, Derrick,
+I'm so glad! I was afraid you were down in the mine, and I was going to
+help hunt for you."
+
+"No, Polly, I'm all right, as you can see; but I wish you'd run home and
+tell mother I am--will you?"
+
+Paul went willingly to do this, and Derrick prepared to follow the mine
+boss once more into the underground depths, to render what assistance he
+could.
+
+They were about to step into an empty car and start down the slope, when
+the signal was given from below to pull up a loaded car, and they waited
+to see what it might contain. As it came slowly to the surface, and
+within the light of their lamps, they saw in it Monk Tooley and four
+other miners, who, battered and bruised, had evidently suffered from the
+explosion.
+
+When the first of these was helped carefully from the car, and his
+glance fell upon the mine boss, with Derrick Sterling standing beside
+him, a look of fear came into his face, he uttered a loud cry, staggered
+back, and would have fallen had not Monk Tooley caught him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE MINE BOSS IN A DILEMMA
+
+
+The companions of the Mollie who exhibited such consternation at the
+sight of the mine boss were almost as frightened as he to see those for
+whom they had been so recently searching through the old workings, and
+who they thought must surely have been killed by the explosion, standing
+before them. They shrunk back as the young man stepped towards them; but
+reassured by his cheery words, they allowed him to help them from the
+car, and were almost ready to believe that it was not he, but some other
+who had confronted them so boldly at the meeting. He could not have been
+kinder to them if they had been his dear friends; and from that hour
+they ranked among his firmest supporters and adherents in the colliery.
+
+Derrick caught hold of Monk Tooley, and insisted upon taking him, as he
+said, to see Bill, and show him that he was all right. In reality he
+wanted to give the man a chance to rest, and recover somewhat from his
+recent trying experience, before meeting with his wife and children.
+
+Bill Tooley, under kind care, amid quiet and pleasant surroundings, and
+aided by his own strong constitution, was in a fair way to recover his
+health and strength. The fever had left him, and he was able to sit up
+for a few minutes at a time. The only serious trouble seemed to be with
+his right leg. It gave him great pain, and was threatened with a
+permanent lameness. He already seemed a different boy from what he had
+been, and would hardly be recognized for the bully of a short time
+before. He gave way to occasional outbursts of impatient anger, but
+these were always quieted by the gentle presence and soothing words of
+either Mrs. Sterling or little Helen; and in his rough way he would
+express sorrow for them by saying, "Don't yer mind me, mum; I don' mean
+nothin'; only dis ere blessed leg gits de best of me sometimes." Or to
+Helen, "Don't yer be afeared, sissy; I know I talks awful ugly; but I
+ain't. It's only de pain of de leg breakin' out in bad words."
+
+The meeting between father and son that night, when Derrick persuaded
+Monk Tooley to go home with him, was curious to witness. Bill was as
+fond of his father, in his way, as the latter was of him, and had been
+very anxious when he knew he was in the mine at the time of the
+explosion. Both were much affected when Monk stepped to his son's
+bedside; but they had no words to express their feelings. The father
+said,
+
+"Well, lad, how goes it?"
+
+Bill answered, "Middlin', feyther. I heerd yer got blowed up."
+
+"Well, yer see I didn't. Job Taskar's killed, though."
+
+"Better him nor anoder."
+
+"Yes. Yer want ter be gittin' outen dis, son. Times is hard, an' idlin's
+expensive."
+
+"All right, feyther; I'll soon be in de breaker agin."
+
+This was all; but the two were assured of each other's safety and
+well-being, and for them that was enough.
+
+Monk Tooley accepted a cup of tea from Mrs. Sterling, and departed with
+a very warm feeling in his heart towards those who were doing so much
+for his boy.
+
+His wife and the neighbor women, who as usual were gathered in her
+house, were loud in their exclamations of pleasure and wonder at seeing
+him safe home again from "the blowing up of the mine," but he gruffly
+bade them "be quiet, and not be making all that gabble about a trifle."
+
+The mine boss took an early opportunity to examine the plans of the old
+workings, and soon discovered the slight difference between them and
+Derrick's tracing that they had followed in their recent expedition.
+Summoning the boy, he pointed it out, and asked him whether he had made
+a mistake in copying the plan, or had purposely made the alteration that
+had led to such serious consequences.
+
+Derrick confessed that he had added a little to one line of the plan,
+because he thought the line was intended to go that way, and when he
+drew it so it seemed to make everything come out all right.
+
+"Well," said Mr. Jones, "the result shows that instead of making
+everything come out all right, you made it come all wrong. Now, Derrick,
+I want this to be a lesson that you will remember all your life. By
+making that one little bit of a change in a single line you placed
+yourself and me in great peril. In consequence of the situation to which
+it led one man has lost his life, and several others came very near
+doing so. You thought you knew better than your father who drew that
+plan, and in your ignorance undertook to improve upon his work.
+
+"I won't say that good may not come out of all this, for I believe that
+with the loss of their leader the society of Mollies is broken up, in
+this colliery at least, for some time to come, but that does not make
+your fault any the less.
+
+"Remember, my boy," he added, somewhat more gently, as he saw great
+tears rolling down the lad's cheeks, "that the little things of this
+life lead to and make up its great events, and it is only by paying the
+closest attention to them that we can ever hope to achieve good
+results."
+
+This was all that was ever said to Derrick upon this subject, but it was
+enough, and he will never forget it. When he left the presence of the
+mine boss he was overwhelmed with shame, and was angry to think that
+what he considered so trifling a thing as to be unworthy of mention
+should be treated so seriously. For an hour he walked alone through the
+woods back of the village, and gave himself up to bitter thoughts.
+Gradually he began to realize that every word the mine boss had said was
+true, and to see what he had done in its proper light. He thought of all
+the kindness Mr. Jones had shown him, and the confidence reposed in him.
+Finally he broke out with, "I have been a conceited fool, and now I know
+it. If I ever catch Derrick Sterling getting into a scrape of this kind
+again for want of paying attention to little things, or by thinking he
+knows more than anybody else, he'll hear from me, that's all."
+
+This was only a vague threat, but it meant a great deal, and from that
+day to this neither of these failings has been noticed in the young
+miner, even by those most intimately acquainted with him.
+
+Nearly two weeks after this, upon returning home one evening from his
+day's work in the mine, Derrick found a message from Mr. Jones awaiting
+him. It asked him to call that evening, as the mine boss wished to see
+and consult him upon business of importance.
+
+Mrs. Sterling was greatly pleased at this, for it showed that her boy
+still enjoyed the confidence of the man who had it in his power to do so
+much for him, and that his favor was not withdrawn in consequence of the
+recent affair of the tracing. Derrick had told his mother the whole
+story, without making any effort to shield himself from blame; and
+though she had trembled at the resulting consequences of his fault, and
+the knowledge of how much worse they might have been, she had rejoiced
+at the manner in which he accepted its lesson. She had only feared that
+Mr. Jones, upon whom so much depended, would never trust her boy again,
+or take him into his confidence as he had done.
+
+Derrick was made equally happy by the message; for since the day on
+which the mine boss had pointed out the weak spot in his character, and
+delivered his little lecture on the wickedness of neglecting details, he
+had held no conversation with him. He made haste to finish his supper,
+wondering all the while, with his mother and Bill Tooley, who was now
+able to sit at the table with them, what the business could be.
+
+"There's some ladies over there," said little Helen; "they came to-day,
+and I saw them."
+
+"Where?" asked Derrick.
+
+"At Mr. Jones's."
+
+Now as the young mine boss was a bachelor, and lived alone, with the
+exception of an old negro servant, this was startling information, and
+her hearers thought Helen must have made some mistake. However, on the
+chance that she might be right, Derrick was more particular than usual
+in getting rid of every particle of grime and coal-dust, and dressed
+himself in his best clothes. These, though much worn, nearly outgrown,
+and even mended in several places, were scrupulously neat, and made him
+appear the young gentleman he really was.
+
+Although Derrick had been away to boarding-school, and was very
+differently brought up from the other boys of the village, he was not at
+all accustomed to society, especially that of ladies, and he felt
+extremely diffident at the prospect of meeting these strangers, if
+indeed Helen's report were true.
+
+As he approached the house of the mine boss he saw that it was more
+brilliantly lighted than usual, and just as he reached the door a
+shadow, apparently that of a young girl, moved across one of the white
+window-shades.
+
+Instead of ringing the bell the boy walked rapidly on, with a quickly
+beating heart, for some distance past the house.
+
+"Supposing it should be a girl," he thought to himself, "I should never
+dare say anything to her, and she'd find it out in a minute; then she'd
+make fun of me. I wish I knew whether I was going to see them, or see
+Mr. Jones alone. I hope he won't make me go in and be introduced."
+
+Undoubtedly Derrick was bashful, and while he had apparently been brave
+in the burning breaker, and in various trying situations, was only a
+coward after all.
+
+Again he approached the house, and again he walked hurriedly past it. As
+he turned and walked towards it for the third time somebody came rapidly
+from the opposite direction, and stopped at the very door he was afraid
+to enter. They reached it at the same moment, and the somebody
+recognizing him, said heartily, "Ah, Derrick, is that you? I'm glad I
+got back in time. I was unexpectedly detained by business, and feared
+you might get here before me. Walk in."
+
+There was no help for it now. Wishing with all his heart that he were
+safely at home, or down in the mine, or anywhere but where he was, and
+trembling with nervousness, Derrick found himself a moment later inside
+the house, and--alone with Mr. Jones in the library.
+
+"Sit down, Derrick," said the latter, as he stood in front of the
+fireplace. "I have sent for you to ask you to help me out of a sort of a
+scrape."
+
+So he was not to be asked to meet strange ladies or girls after all, and
+his fears were groundless. What a goose he had been! Why should he be
+afraid of a girl anyhow? she wouldn't bite him. These and other similar
+thoughts flashed through Derrick's mind as he tried to listen to Mr.
+Jones, and to overcome a feeling of disappointment that in spite of his
+efforts presently filled his mind.
+
+"It is this," continued the mine boss. "For some time past my only
+sister, Mrs. Halford, who lives in Philadelphia, has been threatening to
+bring her daughter Nellie on a trip through the Lehigh Valley into the
+coal region to see me, and be taken down into a mine. They arrived
+unexpectedly this afternoon, and have got to return home the day after
+to-morrow; so to-morrow is the only opportunity they will have for
+visiting the mine. Of course I had made arrangements to take them
+around, and show them everything there is to be seen; but now I find I
+can't do it. Two hours ago I received a telegram telling me that an
+important case, in which I am the principal witness, is to be tried in
+Mauch Chunk to-morrow, and I must be there without fail. Now I want you
+to take my place, act as guide to the ladies, and show them all the
+sights of interest about the colliery, both above-ground and in the
+mine. Will you do this for me?"
+
+Derrick hesitated, blushed, stammered, turned first hot and then cold,
+until Mr. Jones, who was watching him with an air of surprise and
+amusement, laughed outright.
+
+"What is the matter?" he asked at length. "Ain't I offering you a
+pleasanter job than that of driving a bumping-mule all day?"
+
+"No, sir--I mean yes, sir; of course I will, sir," said Derrick, finally
+recovering his voice. "Only don't you think one of the older men--"
+
+"Oh, nonsense! You're old enough, and know the colliery well enough. I
+don't want them taken through the old workings," added Mr. Jones, with a
+twinkle in his eyes.
+
+"If you did, sir, I believe I could guide them as well as anybody!"
+exclaimed Derrick, with all his self-possession restored, together with
+a touch of his old self-conceit.
+
+"I haven't a doubt of it," answered the other. "Now, if it's all settled
+that you are to act as their escort to-morrow, step into the parlor and
+let me introduce you to the ladies."
+
+With this he threw open the door connecting the two rooms, and said,
+"Sister, this is Derrick Sterling, of whom I have spoken to you so
+often, and who will act as your guide in my place to-morrow. Derrick,
+this is my sister, Mrs. Halford, and my niece, Miss Nellie."
+
+Poor Derrick felt very much as he had done when, with the same
+companion, he had been unexpectedly ushered into the meeting of the
+Mollie Maguires, and, as on that occasion, his impulse was to run away.
+Before he had a chance to do anything so foolish, a motherly-looking
+woman, evidently older than Mr. Jones, but bearing a strong resemblance
+to him, stepped forward, and taking the boy by the hand, said, "I am
+very glad to meet you, Derrick, for my brother has told me what a brave
+fellow you are, and that he feels perfectly safe in trusting us to your
+guidance to-morrow."
+
+Then Miss Nellie, a pretty girl of about his own age, whose eyes
+twinkled with mischief, held out her hand, and said, "I think you must
+be a regular hero, Mr. Sterling, for I'm sure you've been through as
+much as most of the book heroes I've read about."
+
+Blushing furiously at this, and coloring a still deeper scarlet from the
+knowledge that he was blushing, and that they were all looking at him,
+Derrick barely touched the tips of the little fingers held out to him.
+Then thinking that this perhaps seemed rude, he made another attempt to
+grasp the offered hand more heartily, but it was so quickly withdrawn
+that this time he did not touch it at all, whereupon everybody laughed
+good-naturedly.
+
+Instead of further embarrassing the boy, this laugh had the effect of
+setting him at his ease, and in another minute he was chatting as
+pleasantly with Miss Nellie and her mother as though they had been old
+friends.
+
+Before he left them it was arranged that, early in the morning, he
+should show the ladies all that was to be seen above-ground, and that
+they should spend the heat of the day in the cool depths of the mine.
+
+The boy had much to tell his mother, little Helen, and Bill Tooley, who
+were sitting up waiting for him, when he arrived home; but, after all,
+he left them to wonder over the age of Miss Halford, whom he only
+casually mentioned as Mr. Jones's niece.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+LADIES IN THE MINE--HARRY MULE'S SAD MISHAP
+
+
+When Derrick awoke the next morning, at an unusually early hour, it was
+with the impression that some great pleasure was in store for him.
+Before breakfast he went down into the mine to give Harry Mule's sleek
+coat an extra rub, and to arrange for another boy and mule to take their
+places that day.
+
+At eight o'clock he presented himself at the door of Mr. Jones's house,
+dressed in clean blue blouse and overalls, but wearing his
+smoke-blackened cap and the heavy boots that are so necessary in the wet
+underground passages of a mine. The mine boss had already gone to Mauch
+Chunk, and Miss Nellie was watching behind some half-closed shutters for
+the appearance of their young guide.
+
+"Here he is, mamma!" she exclaimed, as she finally caught sight of
+Derrick. "How funnily he is dressed! but what a becoming suit it is! it
+makes him look so much more manly. Why don't he ring the bell, I wonder?
+He's standing staring at the door as though he expected it to open of
+itself. Ahem! _ahem!_"
+
+This sound, coming faintly to Derrick's ear, seemed to banish his
+hesitation, for the next instant the bell was rung furiously. The truth
+is he had been seized with another diffident fit, and had it not been
+broad daylight he would probably have walked back and forth in front of
+the door several times before screwing up his courage to the
+bell-ringing point.
+
+The door was opened before the bell had stopped jingling, and an anxious
+voice inquired, "Is it fire?" Then Miss Nellie, apparently seeing the
+visitor for the first time, exclaimed, with charming simplicity,
+
+"Oh no! Excuse me. I see it's only you, Mr. Sterling. How stupid of me!
+Won't you walk in? I thought perhaps it was something serious."
+
+"Only I, and I wish it was somebody else," thought bashful Derrick, as,
+in obedience to this invitation, he stepped inside the door. Leaving him
+standing there, Miss Mischief ran up-stairs to tell her mother, in so
+loud a tone that he could plainly hear her, that Mr. Sterling had come
+for them, and was evidently in an awful hurry.
+
+"I'm in for a perfectly horrid time," said poor Derrick to himself. "I
+can see plain enough that she means to make fun of me all day."
+
+Mrs. Halford's kind greeting and ready tact made the boy feel more at
+ease, and before they reached the new breaker--the first place to which
+he carried them--he felt that perhaps he might not be going to have such
+a very unpleasant day after all.
+
+Both Mrs. Halford and Miss Nellie were greatly interested in watching
+the machinery of the breaker and the quick work of the slate-picker
+boys; but in spite of the jigs and the wet chutes the coal-dust was so
+thick that they did not feel able to remain there more than a few
+minutes.
+
+As they came out Mrs. Halford said, "Poor little fellows! What a
+terribly hard life they must lead!"
+
+"Yes, Mamma, it's awful," said Miss Nellie. "And don't they look just
+like little negro minstrels? I don't see, though, how they ever tell the
+slate from the coal. It all looks exactly alike to me."
+
+"The slate isn't so black as the coal," explained Derrick, "and doesn't
+have the same shine."
+
+They walked out over the great dump, and the ladies were amazed at its
+extent.
+
+"Why, it seems as if every bit of slate, and coal too, ever dug in the
+mine must be piled up here!" exclaimed Miss Nellie.
+
+"Oh no," said Derrick, "only about half the product of the mine is
+waste, and only part of that comes up here. A great quantity is dumped
+into the old breasts down in the workings to fill them up, and at the
+same time to get rid of it easily."
+
+"But isn't there a great deal of coal that would burn in this mountain
+of refuse?" asked the girl.
+
+"Yes, indeed, there is; and sometimes the piles get on fire, and then
+they seem to burn forever."
+
+"I have an acquaintance in Philadelphia," said Mrs. Halford, "who has
+been trying experiments with the dust of these waste heaps. He pressed
+it in egg-shaped moulds, and has succeeded in making capital stove coal
+from it. The process is at present too expensive to be profitable, but I
+have no doubt that cheaper methods will be discovered, and that within a
+few years these culm piles will become valuable."
+
+"What's the use of bothering with it when there's an inexhaustible
+supply of coal in the ground?" asked Miss Nellie.
+
+"But there isn't," answered Derrick. "This coal region only covers a
+limited area, and some time every bit of fuel will be taken out of it. I
+have heard that it is the only place in the world where anthracite has
+been found. Isn't it, Mrs. Halford?"
+
+"I believe so," answered that lady; "or at least the only place in which
+anthracite of such fine quality as this has been discovered. Inferior
+grades of hard coal are mined in several other localities, and
+bituminous or soft coal exists almost everywhere."
+
+From the culm pile they went to see the great pumping-engine, and the
+huge fans that act as lungs to the mine, constantly forcing out the foul
+air and compelling fresh to enter it. Then, as the day was growing warm,
+they did not care to go any farther, but went back towards the house to
+prepare for their descent into the mine.
+
+On their way they stopped to call on Mrs. Sterling at Derrick's home,
+which, covered with its climbing vines, offered a pleasing contrast to
+the unpainted, bare-looking houses lining the village street beyond it.
+Here both Mrs. Halford and Miss Nellie were greatly interested in Bill
+Tooley, of whom they had already heard. He could not be induced to enter
+into conversation with them, merely answering, "yes, 'm" or "no, 'm" to
+their questions; but from what he said after they had gone he evidently
+thought their call was intended solely for him. For a long time he
+cherished it in his memory, and often spoke of it as a most wonderful
+event.
+
+Derrick took this opportunity to secure his lunch-pail and water-can,
+which he slung by their chains over his shoulder. When the ladies had
+prepared themselves for their mine expedition, he was amused to see that
+Miss Nellie was similarly equipped, she having found and appropriated
+those belonging to her uncle. Both the ladies wore old dresses, and
+India-rubber boots, which they had brought with them for this very
+purpose, and both were provided with waterproof cloaks.
+
+At the mouth of the slope Derrick said something through a speaking-tube
+that reached down into the mine. Directly the clang of a gong was heard
+in the breaker above them, and the great wire cable, extending its vast
+length between the rails of the tracks, began to move. Two minutes later
+a new coal-car, one of a lot that had been delivered in the mine the day
+before, and had not yet been used, was drawn up out of the blackness to
+the mouth of the slope, and stopped in front of them. Some hay had been
+thrown into the bottom, and as the ladies were helped in, Miss Nellie
+exclaimed that it looked as though they were going on a straw-ride.
+
+Handing each of them a lighted lantern to carry, and lighting the lamp
+on his cap, Derrick tugged at the wire leading to the distant
+engine-room, and gave the signal to lower. The car at once began to
+move, and as they felt themselves going almost straight down into the
+blackness between the wet, glistening walls of the slope, and were
+chilled by the cold breath of the mine, the mother and daughter clung to
+each other apprehensively.
+
+At first they looked back and watched the little patch of daylight at
+the mouth of the slope grow rapidly smaller and more indistinct, until
+it looked almost like a star. Then Derrick warned them that there was
+danger of hitting their heads against the low roof, and said they must
+hold them below the sides of the car. When next they lifted them they
+were amid the wonders of the underground world, in the great chamber at
+the foot of the slope. They were surrounded by a darkness that was only
+made the more intense at a short distance from them by the glimmering
+lights of a group of miners who had gathered to watch their arrival.
+Here Derrick left them while he ran to the stable to get his mule.
+
+The ladies did not get out of the car, but stood in it after the cable
+had been cast off, and watched the loaded coal-wagons as, one at a time,
+they were pushed to the foot of the slope, and quickly drawn up out of
+sight. During this interval their eyes gradually became accustomed to
+the lamp-lit darkness, so that they could see much better than at first.
+
+In a few minutes their young guide returned, leading Harry Mule, whose
+swinging collar-lamp and wondering expression struck Miss Nellie as so
+comical that she could not help laughing at him.
+
+"Haw! he-haw, he-haw, he-haw!" brayed Harry Mule, in answer to the
+unaccustomed sound; and at this greeting the girl laughed more heartily
+than ever.
+
+The mule was hitched to the car, Derrick sprang in front, cracked the
+whip that had hung about his neck, and they started on what, to two of
+them at least, was the most novel ride they had ever undertaken.
+
+When they reached his stable Harry Mule stopped short and refused to go
+on.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked Miss Nellie.
+
+"I expect he wants us to go in and see his house," answered Derrick.
+
+"Why, I never heard of such a funny mule. Do you suppose he knows we are
+visitors?"
+
+"Of course he does," answered the boy, gravely; "and he knows that
+visitors always want to see the mine stable."
+
+So they all went in to look at it. In the long, low, narrow chamber,
+hewn from solid rock, were thirty stalls. Several of them were occupied
+by spare mules, who turned an inquiring gaze at the visitors, and
+blinked in the light of their lanterns. At one end were bales of hay and
+bags of oats, while just outside the door stood a long water-trough,
+which, as mine water is unfit for use, was supplied from above-ground
+through iron pipes brought down the slope. In spite of living in a
+continual midnight, so far from pastures and the light of day, which
+some of them did not see from one year's end to another, these mine
+mules were fat and sleek, and appeared perfectly contented with their
+lot.
+
+Apparently satisfied that justice had been done to his place of abode,
+Harry Mule offered no further objection to moving on, when they again
+got into the car, and the stable was quickly left behind.
+
+By-and-by Derrick called out "Door!"
+
+As it opened for them to pass, and Paul Evert recognized his friend, he
+cried, "Oh, Derrick, Socrates--" Then seeing the visitors, he stopped
+abruptly, and stared at them in confusion.
+
+"Never mind, Polly; we'll be back pretty soon," shouted Derrick, as the
+car rolled on, "and then you can tell us all about it."
+
+"What did he say?" inquired Mrs. Halford.
+
+"I didn't quite understand," replied Derrick; "but, if you don't mind,
+we'll go back there after a while and eat our lunch with Polly--he'd be
+so pleased!--and then we'll ask him."
+
+"Who is Polly?" asked Miss Nellie.
+
+"He's Paul Evert, my best friend, and he's a cripple."
+
+"Oh, he's the boy you saved from the burning breaker! Yes, indeed,
+mamma, let's go back and eat our lunch with him."
+
+Mrs. Halford agreed to this, and after they had visited the blacksmith's
+shop, where a cheery young fellow named Aleck was installed in Job
+Taskar's place, they went back to Paul's station.
+
+Both the ladies were charmed with the gentle simplicity and quaintness
+of the crippled lad, and he thought he had never been so happy as in
+acting the part of host to this underground picnic party. He showed them
+all the strange and beautiful pictures on the walls of the gangway, and
+Derrick managed to break off for them a couple of thin scales of slate
+on which were impressed the delicate outlines of fern leaves.
+
+Mrs. Halford sat in Paul's arm-chair, and he made a bench of the
+tally-board for Miss Nellie. The two boys were content to sit on the
+railway track, and each ate out of his or her own lunch-pail.
+
+All at once Paul said, "'Sh! There they are! See!"
+
+At this the visitors looked in the direction indicated, and both
+screamed.
+
+"Oh, you've frightened them away!" said Paul, regretfully.
+
+"Why, I do believe they were rats!" cried Mrs. Halford, in a tone of
+great surprise.
+
+"Of course they were," answered Paul--"my rat Socrates and Mrs. Socrates
+and a whole lot of little Soc rats. I meant to tell you, Derrick; he
+brought them out this morning, his wife and a family of such cunning
+little fellows."
+
+When the ladies had heard the whole story of Socrates the rat, and how
+wise he was, they became greatly interested, and wished he would appear
+again.
+
+"He will," said Paul, "if we only keep quiet. He's too wise to stay away
+at lunch-time, but he don't like loud talking."
+
+So they all kept very quiet, and sure enough the rat did come back after
+a little while, and sitting upon his hind-legs, gravely surveyed the
+party. In the gloom behind him could be seen the shining beady eyes of
+some members of his family, who made comical attempts to sit up as he
+did.
+
+Being duly fed, they all scampered away with squeaks of thanks, and soon
+afterwards Harry Mule broke up the picnic by coming jingling back from
+his stable, to which he had been sent for dinner.
+
+"I think he is just the very dearest old mule I ever saw," said Miss
+Nellie, when they were once more seated in the car, and Harry, was
+taking them towards a distant heading.
+
+"Yes, indeed, he is," answered Derrick, proud to hear his mule thus
+praised; "and I love him as much as--as he loves me," he finished, with
+a laugh.
+
+They spent several hours in visiting different parts of the mine, and
+becoming acquainted with all the details of its many operations. At the
+end of one heading they found the miners who had just finished drilling
+a hole deep in the wall of coal beyond them, and were about to fire a
+blast. The visitors were intensely interested in watching their
+operations. First a cartridge of stiff brown paper and powder was made.
+The paper was rolled into the shape of a long cylinder, about as big
+round as a broom-handle, the end of a fuse was inserted in the powder
+with which it was filled, and the cartridge was thrust into the hole
+just prepared for it. Then it was tamped with clay, the fuse was
+lighted, the miners uttered loud cries of "Blast ho!" and everybody ran
+away to a safe distance.
+
+In less than a minute came a dull roar that echoed and re-echoed through
+the long galleries. It was followed by a great upheaval of coal, a dense
+cloud of smoke, and the blast was safely over.
+
+These miners had a loaded car ready to be hauled away. One of them asked
+Derrick if he would mind hitching it on behind his empty car, and
+drawing it to the junction, adding that the boy who had taken his place
+that day was too slow to live.
+
+"All right," said Derrick. "I guess we can take it for you."
+
+So, with two cars instead of one to pull, Harry Mule was started towards
+the junction. On the way they had to pass through a door in charge of a
+boy who had only come into the mine that day. This door opened towards
+them, and they approached it on a slightly descending grade.
+
+As they drew near to it, with Harry Mule trotting briskly along, Derrick
+shouted, "Door!"
+
+Again he shouted, louder than before, "Door! door! Holloa there! what's
+the matter?"
+
+The little door-tender, unaccustomed to the utter silence and solitude
+of the situation, sat fast asleep in his chair. At last Derrick's
+frantic shoutings roused him, and he sprang to his feet, but too late. A
+crash, a wild cry, and poor Harry Mule lay on the floor of the gangway,
+crushed between the heavy cars and the solid, immovable door!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A LIFE IS SAVED AND DERRICK IS PROMOTED
+
+
+Mrs. Halford and her daughter were flung rudely forward to the end of
+the car by the shock of the collision, and were, of course, badly
+frightened, as well as considerably shaken up and somewhat bruised. They
+were not seriously hurt, however, and with Derrick's assistance they got
+out of the car and stood on the door-tender's platform.
+
+Derrick sent the boy who had been so sleepy, but who was now wide-awake
+and crying with fright, back to ask the miners they had just left to
+come to their assistance. Then he turned his attention to Harry Mule.
+The poor beast was not dead, but was evidently badly injured. He was
+jammed so tightly between the cars and the door that he could not move,
+and the light of Derrick's lamp disclosed several ugly-looking cuts in
+his body, from which blood was flowing freely.
+
+The tears streamed down the boy's face as he witnessed the suffering of
+his dumb friend, and realized how powerless he was to do anything to
+relieve it. He was not a bit ashamed of these signs of grief when he
+felt a light touch on his arm, and turning, saw Nellie Halford, with
+eyes also full of tears, standing beside him, and gazing pityingly at
+the mule.
+
+"Will he die, do you think?" she asked.
+
+"I don't know, but I'm afraid so, or that he's too badly hurt to be made
+well again, and so will have to be killed."
+
+"No, he sha'n't be killed. My uncle sha'n't let him. If he does, I'll
+never love him again!" exclaimed Miss Nellie, with determined energy.
+"Poor old mule! poor Harry! you shall have everything in the world done
+for you if you only won't die," she added, stooping and patting the
+animal's head with her soft hand.
+
+Feebly lifting his head and pricking forward his great ears, Harry Mule
+opened his eyes, and looked at the girl for a moment so earnestly that
+she almost thought he was going to speak to her. Then the big, wondering
+eyes were closed again, and the shaggy head sank on the wet roadway, but
+Nellie felt that she had been thanked for her pitying words and gentle
+touch.
+
+After a while the little door-tender came hurrying back, followed by the
+men for whom he had been sent. They were much excited over the accident,
+on account of the character of the visitors who had been sufferers from
+it, and were inclined to use very harsh language towards the boy whose
+neglect of duty had caused it. This, however, was prevented by Mrs.
+Halford, who declared she would not have the little fellow abused. She
+said it was a burning shame that children of his age were allowed in the
+mines at all, and it was no wonder they went to sleep, after sitting all
+alone for hours without anything to occupy their thoughts, in that awful
+darkness and silence.
+
+The loaded car proved so heavy that it had to be unloaded before it
+could be moved. Then the empty car was pushed back from Harry Mule, and
+he made a frantic struggle to regain his feet. After several
+unsuccessful attempts he finally succeeded, and stood trembling in the
+roadway. It was now seen that he had the use of only three legs, and an
+examination showed his right fore-leg to be broken.
+
+"He'll never do no more work in this mine," said one of the men. "The
+poor beast will have to be killed."
+
+"He sha'n't be killed! He sha'n't, I say. We won't have him killed; will
+we, mother?" cried Nellie Halford, her voice trembling with emotion.
+
+"No, dear, not if anything we can do will prevent it," answered the
+mother, gently.
+
+"Don't you think," continued the girl, turning to Derrick, "that he
+might be mended if anybody would take the time and trouble?"
+
+"Yes, I think he might, because there is a mule at work in the mine now
+that had a broken leg, and they cured him. He was a young mule, though.
+I'm afraid they won't bother with one so old as Harry."
+
+"He's listening to every word we say," interrupted the girl, "and I do
+believe he understands too. Just look at him!"
+
+The wounded mule was standing in a dejected attitude on the very spot
+where he had been so badly hurt; but his patient face, with its big
+eyes, was turned inquiringly towards them, and it did seem as though he
+were listening anxiously to the conversation about himself.
+
+He managed to limp a few steps away from the door, so that it could be
+opened, and was then left in charge of the little door-tender, who was
+instructed to keep him as still as possible.
+
+After the miners had given the empty car a start, Derrick found that he
+could keep it in motion, and undertook to push it as far as the
+junction, Mrs. Halford and Miss Nellie following on foot. The two miners
+remained upon the scene of the accident to refill the car they had been
+compelled to unload.
+
+The ladies and Derrick had gone but a short distance when they heard,
+faintly, through the closed door behind them, a plaintive "Haw, he-haw,
+he-haw, he-haw."
+
+As Nellie Halford said, it sounded exactly as though poor dear old Harry
+Mule were begging them not to leave him.
+
+They had nearly reached the junction when a cheery voice rang out of the
+gloom ahead of them, saying,
+
+"Holloa there! where's your mule? and where's your light? You wouldn't
+run over a stranger, would you?"
+
+"I'm the mule," replied Derrick, as, panting and perspiring with his
+exertions, he looked around a rear corner of the car to see who was
+coming.
+
+"Why, Derrick, is that you?" inquired the voice, in a tone of great
+surprise. "What has happened? where are the ladies?"
+
+"Oh, Warren!" exclaimed Mrs. Halford, from somewhere back in the
+darkness, "I'm so thankful to see--I mean to hear--you. Here we are."
+
+"But I don't understand," said Mr. Jones, for it was he who had so
+unexpectedly come to their assistance. "What is the meaning of all this?
+Where's the bumping-mule?"
+
+"We had a collision with a door," explained Miss Nellie, "and poor Harry
+Mule got crushed. His leg's broken, and he's all cut up. But oh, Uncle
+Warren, you won't have him killed, will you?"
+
+"I can't promise until I find out how badly he is injured."
+
+"Oh, but you must, Uncle Warren. If you have him killed, I'll never love
+you again," insisted Miss Nellie, repeating the threat she had already
+made.
+
+"Well, dear, I'll promise this: he shall not be killed unless I can show
+you that it is the best thing to be done, and you give your consent."
+
+"Then he'll live to be an old, old mule!" cried Miss Nellie, joyfully;
+"for I'll never, never consent to have him killed."
+
+As the ladies once more got into the car, and the mine boss helped
+Derrick push it towards the junction, Mrs. Halford said, "How do you
+happen to be back so early, Warren? I thought you were to be gone all
+day."
+
+"Why, so I have been," he answered, with some surprise. "Don't you call
+from six o'clock in the morning to nearly the same hour of the evening
+all day?"
+
+"You don't mean to say that it is nearly six o'clock?"
+
+"I do; for that witching hour is certainly near at hand."
+
+"Well, I never knew a day to pass so quickly in my life. I didn't
+suppose it was more than three o'clock, at the latest."
+
+"It is, though; and to understand how time passes down in a mine, you
+have but to remember two often quoted sayings. One is, 'Time is money,'
+and the other, 'Money vanishes down the throat of a mine more quickly
+than smoke up a chimney.' Ergo, time vanishes quickly down in a mine. Is
+not that a good bit of logic for you?"
+
+Both the ladies laughed at this nonsense, but it served to divert their
+minds from the painful scene they had just witnessed, and therefore
+accomplished its purpose.
+
+From the junction Mr. Jones sent some men back to get Harry Mule and
+take him to the stable, where his injuries could be examined and his
+wounds dressed. He also ordered a report to be made concerning them that
+evening. Then the ladies' car was attached to a train of loaded
+coal-wagons, and the party were thus taken to the foot of the slope.
+
+As the great wire cable began to strain, and they started slowly up the
+slope towards the outer world, both Mrs. Halford and Miss Nellie looked
+back regretfully into the mysterious depths behind them.
+
+"I wouldn't have believed that in a few hours this awful place could
+exercise such a fascination over me," said the former. "I really hate to
+leave it, and wish we were coming down again to-morrow."
+
+"So do I," exclaimed Miss Nellie; "and if I were a boy, I'd study to be
+an engineer, and spend my life down among the 'black diamonds' of the
+coal-mines."
+
+Did this girl know of the hopes and ambitions of the boy who sat beside
+her? This question flashed through his mind; but he quickly answered it
+for himself: "Of course not, Derrick Sterling. What a fool you are to
+fancy such a thing! She only knows and thinks of you, if she thinks of
+you at all, as a mule-driver, such as she has seen a dozen of to-day."
+
+Although the sun had set when they reached the top of the slope, and a
+breeze was blowing, the outer air felt oppressively warm after that of
+the mine, and the ladies became suddenly aware of a weariness they had
+not before felt.
+
+Derrick was made very happy, and almost forgot for a time his sadness at
+Harry Mule's pitiable condition, when Mr. Jones invited him to come and
+take tea with them. Joyfully accepting the invitation, the lad hastened
+home to change his clothes, and the others, walking more slowly gazed
+after him.
+
+"I think he's splendid!" exclaimed Miss Nellie, with the outspoken
+decision that generally marked the expression of her thoughts; "and I do
+hope he will have a chance to become a mining engineer."
+
+"He will, if he keeps on trying for it as he has begun," said her uncle.
+"Any boy, no matter if he is born and brought up a gentleman, as Derrick
+Sterling certainly was, who goes in at the very bottom of any business,
+determined to climb to the top, will find a way to do it."
+
+"I like to see a boy not ashamed to do dirty work, if that is what his
+duty calls him to do," said Mrs. Halford. "He comes out all the brighter
+and cleaner by contrast when the dirt is washed off."
+
+If Derrick's right ear did not burn and tingle with all this praise, it
+ought to have done so; but perhaps he was too busy telling the exciting
+news of the day at home to notice it.
+
+He did not walk past the Jones's house, nor hesitate before ringing the
+door-bell on this occasion, as he had the evening before, but stepped up
+to it with all the boldness of one who was about to meet and greet old
+acquaintances. Besides, his mind was too full of the sad fate that had
+befallen his mule to admit of more than the briefest consideration of
+personal feelings.
+
+At the supper-table the conversation was wholly of mines, collieries,
+and the perils of miners' lives, in regard to which Mr. Jones related a
+number of interesting incidents.
+
+"How wonderful it is!" said Miss Nellie, who had listened to all this
+with eager attention. "Who first discovered coal, anyway, Uncle Warren?
+and how did people find out that it would burn?"
+
+"If you mean who discovered anthracite coal, I believe the credit is
+generally given to a man named Philip Gunter, who lived in a cabin on
+the side of a mountain not far from where we are now sitting. He was a
+hunter; and the story goes that one day in the year 1791 he had been out
+hunting for many hours, without securing any game, which made him feel
+very badly, for when he left home that morning there was no food in the
+house. Towards night he was returning, greatly depressed in spirits, and
+paying so little heed to his footsteps that he stumbled and fell over
+some obstacle. Stooping to see what it was, he found a black stone,
+different from any he had ever before noticed. He had, however, heard of
+stone coal, and thought perhaps this might be a lump of that substance.
+Having nothing else to carry, he decided to take it home as a curiosity.
+Soon afterwards he gave it to a friend, who sent it to Philadelphia,
+where it was pronounced to be genuine coal. A few gentlemen became
+interested in this discovery, and formed themselves in the 'Lehigh
+Coal-mine Company.' A mine was opened, and four laborers were employed
+to work it; but as there was no way of getting the coal they mined to
+market they were soon discharged, and the project was abandoned for the
+time being.
+
+"Nothing further was done until 1817, when Colonel George Shoemaker, of
+Pottsville, took four wagon-loads of anthracite coal to Philadelphia,
+and tried to sell it there. People laughed at him for telling them that
+those black stones would burn; but he guaranteed that they would. Upon
+this a number of persons bought small quantities on trial; but all their
+efforts failed to set it on fire. Then they became very angry, and tried
+to have Colonel Shoemaker thrown into prison for cheating them. He fled
+from the city, pursued by officers who held warrants for his arrest.
+Finally he managed to elude them, and reached his home, thoroughly
+disgusted with coal, and ready to swear that he would have nothing more
+to do with it.
+
+"In the mean time a lot of the black stones had been purchased for trial
+by the Fairmount Nail-works. It was placed in one of the furnaces, and
+the proprietor spent a whole morning with his men in trying to make the
+stuff burn. They were unsuccessful, and finally, completely disheartened
+by their failure, they shut the furnace door and went off to dinner,
+uttering loud threats against the man who had sold them such worthless
+trash. Upon their return to the works they were filled with amazement,
+for the furnace door was red hot, and a fire of the most intense heat
+was roaring and blazing behind it. Since that time there has been no
+difficulty in selling anthracite coal nor in making it burn. Now the
+production of coal in this country has reached such enormous proportions
+that its annual value is equal to that of all the gold, silver, and iron
+mined in the United States during the year."
+
+Just here Mr. Jones was interrupted by the arrival of the report of
+Harry Mule's condition. It was very brief, and pronounced the animal to
+be so badly injured, and his chances of recovery so slight, that it
+would cost more to attempt to cure him than he was worth.
+
+"Now what am I to do about him?" asked Mr. Jones.
+
+"I want to buy that mule, Warren," said Mrs. Halford.
+
+"Please give him to me," pleaded Miss Nellie.
+
+"I should like to have a chance to try and cure him," said Derrick; and
+all these requests were made at once.
+
+Mr. Jones looked at them with a puzzled smile, thought a moment, and
+then said, "All right: I will sell him to you, sister, for one cent,
+provided you will give him to Nellie, and that she will leave him with
+Derrick to care for and cure if he can."
+
+"That's a splendid plan!" cried Miss Nellie.
+
+"Have you any place in which to take care of him?" asked Mrs. Halford of
+Derrick.
+
+"Yes," answered the boy, "we have a little empty stable back of our
+house that will make a tip-top mule hospital."
+
+"Then it's a bargain, Warren; and if you take care of him, Derrick, you
+must let me pay all the doctor's bills, and furnish all necessary hay,
+corn, and oats."
+
+Thus it was decided that Harry Mule should be restored to health and
+usefulness, if money, skill, and kind care could do it.
+
+Before Derrick left, the mine boss said to him, "Now that there is no
+Harry Mule for you to drive, I am going to promote you, and let you work
+with Tom Evert as his helper. In that position you will gain a
+thoroughly practical knowledge of mining. You may report to him
+to-morrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A "SQUEEZE" AND A FALL OF ROCK
+
+
+As it was impossible for Harry Mule to climb the gigantic stairway of
+the travelling-road, his legs were bound so that he could not move them,
+a platform was laid across two coal-cars from which the sides had been
+removed, and he was placed on this, and firmly lashed to it. In this
+manner he was drawn to the top of the slope, and from there he managed
+to limp, though with great difficulty and very slowly, to the little
+stable behind the Sterlings' house.
+
+Here, by order of the mine boss, carpenters had been at work since early
+morning making a roomy box-stall in place of two small ones, and
+providing it with a broad sling of strong canvas, which was hung from
+eye-bolts inserted in beams overhead. This was passed beneath the mule's
+belly, and drawn so that while he could stand on three legs if he
+wished, he could also rest the whole weight of his body upon it.
+
+After Harry Mule was thus made as comfortable as possible, a skilful
+veterinary surgeon set his broken leg, and bound it so firmly with
+splints that it could not possibly move. He also sewed up the cuts on
+various parts of the animal's body, and said that with good care he
+thought the patient might recover, though his leg would probably always
+be stiff.
+
+These operations occupied the attention of Mr. Jones, the Halfords, and
+the Sterling family, including Derrick, until noon, when it was time for
+Mrs. Halford and Miss Nellie to take the train for Philadelphia.
+
+Before leaving, Mrs. Halford had an interview with Bill Tooley, who was
+now able to hobble about with the aid of a crutch. She said that if he
+would, under Derrick's direction, take care of Harry Mule, and see that
+all his wants were promptly supplied until he got well, she would pay
+him the same wages that he could earn by working in the breaker.
+
+Of course Bill gratefully accepted this offer; and either because he had
+a feeling of sympathy for an animal that was suffering in much the same
+way that he was, or because his own trials and the kindness shown him
+had really softened his nature, he proved a capital and most attentive
+nurse.
+
+Often after this, when Derrick entered the stable unexpectedly, he
+discovered these two cripples engaged in conversation. At least he would
+find Bill Tooley perched on the edge of the manger, where he balanced
+himself with his crutch, talking in his uncouth way to the mule; while
+the latter, with great ears pricked forward, and wondering eyes fixed
+unwinkingly upon the speaker, seemed to pay most earnest attention to
+all that he said.
+
+As Derrick watched the train bearing his recently made friends roll away
+from the little station, and disappear around a sharp curve in the
+valley, he experienced a feeling of sadness, for which he was at first
+unable to account. In thinking it over, he decided that it was because
+he felt sorry to have anybody go away who had been so kind to his
+much-loved bumping-mule.
+
+Turning away from the station, he walked slowly back to the mouth of the
+slope, jumped into an empty car, and was lowered into the mine.
+
+Why did the place appear so strange to him? All the interest, of which
+it had seemed so full but the day before, was gone from it, and Derrick
+felt that he hated these underground delvings. A feeling of dread came
+over him as he started along one of the gangways in search of Tom Evert,
+to whom he had been ordered to report for duty. The air seemed close and
+suffocating, and the lamps to burn with a more sickly flame than usual.
+To the boy the faces of the miners looked haggard, and their voices
+sounded unnaturally harsh. He overheard one of them say, "Ay, she's
+working, there's no doubt o' that; but it's naught to worrit over; just
+a bit settlin' into place like."
+
+Derrick wondered, as he passed out of hearing, what the man meant; and
+as he wondered he was startled by a sharp report like the crack of a
+rifle, only much louder, and a horrible grinding, crushing sound that
+came from the rock wall of the gangway close beside him. The sound
+filled him with such terror that he fled from it, running at full speed
+through the black, dripping gallery. He ran until he came to a group of
+miners who were strengthening the roof with additional props and braces
+of new timber. He told them of his fright, and they laughed at him.
+
+"He's heerd t' mine a-talking, and got skeert at her voice," said one.
+
+"She's allus a-cracklin' an' a-sputterin' when she's uneasy and workin'
+hersel' comfortable like; don't ye know that, lad? It's only a
+'squeeze.' Sich noises means naught but warnin's to put in a few new
+timbers here and there," explained another, more kindly. He was an old
+man, in that his cheeks were sunken and his hair was gray, though he had
+lived less than forty years. This is counted old among miners, for their
+terrible life and the constant inhaling of coal-dust ages them very
+rapidly. Seeing him thus aged, and feeling that he would be less likely
+to ridicule him than the others, Derrick ventured to ask him if there
+was really any danger of a general caving in of that part of the mine.
+
+"Hoot, lad! there's allus danger in t' mine," was the reply. "But if ye
+mean is there more now than ordinary, I'd answer ye 'No.' It's a common
+thing this squeezing and settling of a mine, and times there's men
+killed by it, but more often it's quieted without harm bein' done. No,
+no, lad; haud ye no fears! I'd bid ye gang oot an' I thocht ye war in
+danger."
+
+Although Derrick was greatly comforted by these words, he could not help
+dreading to hear more of the rock explosions, which are caused by the
+roof, walls, and pillars of the mine giving slightly beneath the vast
+crushing weight of material above them. When he reached Paul Evert's
+station, and found that the crippled lad had heard some of the same loud
+snappings and crackings, but was not alarmed at them, he felt ashamed of
+his own fears, and casting them entirely aside, asked to see what the
+other was drawing.
+
+Paul was very fond of drawing with a pencil, or bit of charcoal, or
+anything that came to his hand, on all sorts of surfaces, and really
+showed great skill in his rude sketches of the common objects about him.
+Since coming into the mine he had found more time to indulge his taste
+than ever before; and though his only light was the wretched little lamp
+in his cap, he had produced some beautiful copies of the dainty ferns
+and curious patterns imprinted on the walls about him. He had also
+afforded Derrick great amusement by making for him several sketches of
+Socrates the wise rat in various attitudes. Until this time he had never
+hesitated before showing his friend any of his efforts, but now he did,
+and it was only after much urging that he reluctantly handed Derrick the
+sheet of paper on which he had been working.
+
+It was an outline sketch of the figures composing their underground
+picnic party of the day before, including Socrates, and Derrick had no
+sooner set eyes on it than he declared he must have it.
+
+"I was doing it for you, 'Dare,'" said Paul, using his especial pet name
+for Derrick, which he never did except when they were alone. "But you
+must let me finish it, and that will take some time; there is so much to
+put in, and my light is so bad."
+
+Derrick was obliged to agree to this, though he would have valued the
+sketch just as it was, and handing it back, he went on towards where
+Paul thought his father was at work. At last he found him, in a distant
+heading that was exhausted and about to be abandoned, engaged in the
+dangerous task of "robbing back."
+
+In cutting into a vein it is often necessary to leave walls and pillars
+of solid coal standing to support the roof, and when the workings about
+them are exhausted it is customary to break away these supports for the
+sake of what coal they contain. This is called "robbing back," and is so
+dangerous a job that only the very best and most experienced miners are
+intrusted with it. Sometimes the roof, thus robbed of its support,
+falls, and sometimes it does not. If it does fall, perhaps the miner
+"robber" gets killed, and perhaps he escapes entirely, or with only
+bruises and cuts.
+
+Tom Evert was a "company man"; that is, he received regular wages from
+the company owning the mine, no matter what quantity of coal he sent
+out, or what kind of work he was engaged upon. Most of the other men
+were paid so much per cubic yard, or so much by the car-load, for all
+the coal they mined. Evert was considered one of the best workmen in the
+mine, and for that reason was often employed on the most dangerous jobs.
+On this occasion he was "robbing back" in company with another skilful
+miner; but they had only one helper between them. The burly miner would
+have been glad to welcome any addition to their force, but he greeted
+Derrick with especial cordiality, for the boy was a great favorite with
+him.
+
+"It does me good to see thee, lad," he exclaimed, when Derrick reported
+to him as helper, "and I'll be proud to have thy feyther's son working
+alongside of me. Pick up yon shovel and help load the wagon, while we
+tackle this chunk a bit more, and see if we can't fetch it."
+
+A miner's helper has to do all kinds of work, such as running to the
+blacksmith's with tools that need sharpening, directing the course of
+drills beneath the heavy hammer blows, holding lamps in dark places,
+loading cars, or anything else for which he may prove useful. Shovelling
+coal into a car is perhaps the hardest of all, and this was what Derrick
+was now set at. It was hard, back-aching work, but he was fresh and
+strong, and he took hold of it heartily and vigorously.
+
+Suddenly he dropped his shovel, sprang at Tom Evert who was stooping
+down to pick up a drill, and gave him so violent a push that he was sent
+sprawling on his face some little distance away. Carried forward by his
+own impetus, Derrick fell on top of the prostrate miner. Behind, and so
+close to them that they were covered with its flying splinters, crashed
+down the great pillar of coal, weighing several tons, that the "robbers"
+had been working on. It had unexpectedly given way before their efforts,
+and would have crushed Tom Evert beyond human recognition but for
+Derrick's quick eye and prompt action.
+
+When the big miner regained his feet he appeared dazed, and seemed not
+to realize the full character of the danger he had so narrowly escaped.
+He gazed at the fallen mass for a moment, and then, appreciating what
+had happened, he seized Derrick's hand, and shaking it warmly, said,
+"That's one I owe thee, lad. Now we'll knock off, for I'll do no more
+'robbing' this day."
+
+On their way to the foot of the slope the little party met the mine
+boss, superintending the placing of new timbers, and taking such other
+precautions as his experience suggested against the effects of the
+"squeeze," which still continued, though less violently than when
+Derrick entered the mine. He was surprised at seeing them thus early,
+for it wanted nearly an hour of quitting-time. When he heard of Tom
+Evert's narrow escape, he acknowledged that they had a good excuse for
+knocking off, and complimented Derrick upon his presence of mind.
+
+"By-the-way, Tom," he said, "you may quit 'robbing' for a few days. I
+want you and your partner to go down on the lower level and pipe off the
+water that's collecting in the old gangway--the one in which Job Taskar
+was killed, you know."
+
+"It'll be a ticklish job, boss."
+
+"I know it, and that's the reason I send the steadiest man in the mine
+to do it. It's got to be done by somebody, or else it will break through
+some day and flood the whole lower level."
+
+"All right, sir; I'll do my best wi' it; but I'll be mor'n glad when
+it's safe done."
+
+With this Tom Evert went on towards the slope; but Derrick stayed behind
+with the mine boss to learn what he might of the operation of placing
+the timber supports of a mine roof.
+
+He had not watched this work long when a distant muffled sound,
+something like that of a blast, and yet plainly not produced by an
+explosion, reached their ears. Although not loud, it was an ominous,
+awe-inspiring sound; and Derrick would have taken to his heels and made
+for the bottom of the slope had not his pride kept him where he was.
+
+To his surprise the mine boss, who had listened intently to the sound
+while it lasted, seemed to regard it as a most natural occurrence.
+Giving a few directions to his men, he turned to the boy, saying, "Come,
+Derrick, let us go and see what is the trouble back in there."
+
+For an instant Derrick looked at him to see if he were really in
+earnest; then realizing that he was, he followed him without a word.
+
+When they reached Paul Evert's door, the mine boss said, "It's
+quitting-time, Paul; so get out of this as quickly as you can. It is
+just possible that we may all have to run," he explained to Derrick,
+after Paul had obeyed his order and left them, "and in that case all
+those using crutches will need a good start."
+
+Of course this did not greatly reassure Derrick, and he would gladly
+have followed his friend Paul had not duty commanded him to remain with
+his friend the mine boss.
+
+Finally they reached the place where, less than an hour before, Derrick
+had been helping to "rob" the old heading; and here they discovered the
+cause of the sound they had heard. The roof above that entire set of
+workings, so far as they could judge, had fallen; and had not Tom Evert
+decided to quit work when he did, it is probable that no trace would
+ever have been found of him or those with him.
+
+Derrick felt deeply thankful that his life had been thus preserved, as
+he walked thoughtfully beside the mine boss away from the scene of
+disaster.
+
+"How invariably Nature asserts herself in the end, and defies the puny
+efforts of man to alter her ways," said Mr. Jones to himself, musingly.
+Then to his companion he said, "I brought you with me to try you,
+Derrick. I hated to come myself, for I did not know what might be going
+on, after all these squeezes and movements of the mine. It had to be
+done, though, and it seemed a good opportunity for testing your courage,
+so I asked you to come with me. As a mining engineer, you will often be
+called upon to perform similar unpleasant and dangerous tasks."
+
+"I was afraid, and didn't want to come one bit," said Derrick, with a
+nervous laugh.
+
+"That doesn't make any difference. I was afraid too, but we came all the
+same. The proof of your courage is not whether you are afraid to do a
+thing or not, but whether or not you do it."
+
+So Derrick's courage was tested, and withstood the test, which was
+indeed fortunate; for, within a short time, he was to be placed in a
+position that would try the courage of the bravest man in the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+BURSTING OF AN UNDERGROUND RESERVOIR
+
+
+Upon reaching the surface that evening, Derrick and the mine boss found
+that the weather had greatly changed since noon and that a storm
+threatened. It set in that night, and the rain poured down in a steady,
+determined sort of way, as though it had made up its mind that this
+time, at least, the earth should be thoroughly watered.
+
+When Derrick joined the other miners at the mouth of the slope in the
+morning, it was still raining, and as they were lowered into the
+underground world, the men joked with each other about getting in out of
+the wet, and pitied the poor fellows who were obliged to work
+above-ground on such a day.
+
+Descending the second slope into the lowest level of the mine, Tom Evert
+and his party made an examination of the place in which they were to
+work. The new excavations on this level were of limited extent, work
+having only recently been begun on them; but a powerful pump had been
+placed at the top of the slope leading down into them, and it was to
+bring the accumulated water in the old workings within reach of it that
+the mine boss had sent them down.
+
+Going up the old gangway, past the chamber at the foot of the air-shaft
+which Derrick had such good reason to remember, they soon came to the
+fallen mass of rock, coal, and earth through which they were to cut a
+channel and insert a pipe for the release of the water beyond. The
+material was too loose for blasting, so the work had to be done with
+pick and shovel, and the debris removed with wheel-barrows, and
+distributed along the gangway. It was hard, dangerous, and exhausting
+work, and at the end of three days Derrick was heartily tired of it.
+
+Still the rain poured steadily down, and people in the upper world began
+to talk of danger from floods, and great damage to the ungathered crops.
+Even in the mine the effect of the heavy rain began to be noticed. The
+drippings from the roof fell thicker and faster, the tricklings down the
+walls became little rivulets, and the black streams in the ditches
+swirled along angrily. The great pumps worked steadily, night and day,
+at their fullest speed, and from the mouths of the waste-pipes young
+rivers of black water were poured; but the mine grew constantly wetter
+and more uncomfortable.
+
+Finally the mine boss decided that it was almost time to temporarily
+abandon the lower workings, and allow them to fill up, so that the whole
+force of both pumps might be directed towards keeping the upper level
+free of water. He spoke to Tom Evert of this, and the latter begged for
+just one day more, as he thought he had nearly cut through to the water,
+and was anxious to get the pipe laid, and have that job off his hands.
+
+"Very well," said Mr. Jones, "you may have one day, Tom, and no more
+until after the rain stops; for without both pumps in the upper level we
+shall, very soon, have to shut down altogether."
+
+During the morning of that fourth day they uncovered a wall of rock,
+which barred their way completely, and Tom Evert decided that at least
+one blast would be necessary to force an opening through it. After
+lunch-time he left the other miner, with the two helpers, to drill a
+hole in it, while he went up into the village to procure some powder and
+fuse for the work.
+
+Those left below had not been long at work when Derrick noticed a little
+stream of water spurting out at one side of the rock. He called the
+attention of the miner to it, and he, without a word, sprang to the
+place and tried to check the stream, first with earth, and then with
+strips torn from his shirt, but could not. As he stopped its flow at one
+point, it burst out at another.
+
+Finally he exclaimed, "It's no use, boys! we'll never be able to draw
+this water off through any pipe; it's going to take that business into
+its own hands, and the best thing we can do is to get out of here quick
+as we know how."
+
+Even as he spoke there came a rattling rush of earth and loose rock,
+followed by the roar of angry waters, as they leaped out of the
+blackness like a savage animal upon its prey. The long pent-up waters,
+swollen by the heavy rains and scorning any effort to draw them off
+gradually, had burst forth in all their fury, and in less time than it
+takes to write of it, the old gangway was filled with the surging
+torrent.
+
+At the first outbreak Derrick and his companions started to run for
+their lives down the gangway, but as they reached the door of the
+Mollies' meeting-room the torrent was upon them. They had barely time to
+spring inside the door and close it as the mad waters swept past. The
+door offered but a momentary protection, but ere it had been crushed in
+they were climbing the old air-shaft towards the upper level. It was a
+desperate undertaking, for the few timber braces left by those who had
+cut the shaft were so far apart that often they had to dig little holes
+for their hands and feet in the coal of the sides, and thus work their
+way slowly and painfully upward. It was their only chance, and they knew
+it, for they could hear the detached bits of falling coal and rock
+splash into the water as it rose in the shaft behind them.
+
+Finally they reached the top. As they drew themselves wearily, with
+almost the last of their strength, over the edge, and lay on the floor
+of the gangway, they were filled with new terror at seeing the light
+from their lamps reflected in the black waters apparently but a few feet
+below them. The water was evidently rising into the upper level, and
+before long their present place of refuge would be flooded. Urged by
+this peril, they made all possible speed down the gangway into the new
+workings at the foot of the slope, where they were confronted by a scene
+of the greatest confusion.
+
+The gangways, headings, chambers, and breasts of the lower vein were
+already full of the turbid flood, and the few miners who had been at
+work down there had barely escaped with their lives into the level
+above. Now the water was rising so rapidly that it was evident the upper
+level would also be flooded in a few minutes.
+
+In the great chamber at the bottom of the slope that led to the upper
+world and safety, miners were flocking from all parts of the workings.
+Some were trying to drive frightened mules up the travelling-road;
+others were throwing movable property into cars to be drawn up the
+slope, and others still were crowding into the same cars, that they too
+might reach a place of safety.
+
+The two men who were with Derrick ran to one of these cars, calling on
+him to follow them. It was already so crowded that they could not wedge
+themselves into it, so they clung on behind, and were thus dragged up
+the slope.
+
+That Derrick did not follow them was because he thought of Paul Evert.
+Poor little lame Paul! where was he amid all this danger and confusion?
+Had he already got out of the mine, or was he still at his station back
+in the dark gangway, unmindful of danger? Perhaps somebody had seen him.
+Derrick shouted, "Where is Paul Evert? Has anybody seen him?"
+
+The answer came in the voice of one of the mule-boys. "Yes, I seed him,
+'bout five minutes ago, when I run out de las' load. He ain't come out
+yet."
+
+Could Derrick leave him down there, to take his chances of getting out
+or drowning, while he sought safety for himself?
+
+With one instant of agonized thought he decided that he could not.
+Snatching up a can of oil on which his eye happened to light as it stood
+by the track just at the foot of the slope, he dashed into gangway No.
+1, shouting as he did so, "I'm going to try and get Paul Evert out! If
+we don't get back come and look for us; we'll hold out as long as we
+can."
+
+They tried to stop him, and shouted to him to come back; that there was
+no hope, and he was only throwing away his own life; but he paid no
+attention to them, and was gone before they could prevent him.
+
+He had hardly disappeared from their sight when the water began to rush
+and roar up from the mouth of the lower slope, in a froth-crowned,
+surging torrent. At the same instant it poured out from the old gangway,
+to which it had access through the air-shaft up which Derrick and his
+companions had escaped.
+
+They knew by its great leaps and spurts that some other reservoir had
+broken loose, and that before it found the level it was seeking the
+whole mine must be flooded and drowned. There was no more thought of
+saving property, but each man became intent only on escaping with his
+life from the swirling flood.
+
+They had got several cars fastened together, ready for such an
+emergency, and now these were quickly filled with grimy-faced,
+frightened men and boys. The signal was given to hoist. There came a
+strain on the great cable, and as the fierce waters rushed at them, and
+even flung their black, wet arms about them as if to hold them back, the
+cars were drawn up, slowly up, beyond reach of the destroying flood,
+towards daylight and safety.
+
+At the top of the slope was another scene of wild anxiety and confusion
+most pitiable to witness. Men, women, and children stood, without other
+protection than their thin garments, in the pitiless rain, praying,
+shouting, discussing, asking questions which nobody could answer, and
+crowding forward to scan, with breathless anxiety, the faces of each
+car-load of miners as it reached the surface.
+
+At the mouth of the slope stood Mr. Jones, in constant communication
+with a trusty fellow down in the mine, at the other end of the
+speaking-tube. With him were half a dozen steady men, upon whom he could
+depend, and to whom he had given orders not to allow a living soul to go
+down in any of the empty cars he was despatching as rapidly as possible
+to those below,
+
+"There are plenty down there now," he said, "and perhaps more than can
+be drawn up before the water reaches them. You can do no good there yet
+awhile. When the time comes that I want volunteers to go down I'll let
+you know fast enough." He kept the mouth of the travelling-road
+similarly guarded, and no one was allowed to descend.
+
+Among those who pressed close to him, and begged, almost with tears in
+their eyes, to be allowed to go down and make one effort to save their
+loved ones before the waters reached them, was burly Tom Evert.
+
+"My lad, my crippled lad's down there, boss; ye can't refuse a feyther
+the chance to save his boy," pleaded the big miner.
+
+"Tom, if he's not already at the foot of the slope, you know as well as
+I that there's not one chance in ten thousand of finding and getting him
+out. They tell me the water's rising fast on the upper level already.
+No, my poor fellow, you must wait a bit. You're to be my right-hand man
+in the work that I fear is ahead of us. I can't let you throw away your
+life without a chance of its doing good."
+
+"And Derrick, boss, the brave lad I left in the low level facing the
+waters. It's fearful to think on. If he's drownded and my lad's
+drownded, their death'll be on my hands. I might ha' gone more slow and
+cautious like. I might ha' kep' out altogether the day, an' let the low
+level flood, as ye talked of, boss, but for being a pig-headed fool."
+
+"Don't take on that way, Tom. Cheer up, man. You'll see them all coming
+up out of the trouble safe and sound yet. And don't take this matter to
+heart as you're doing. If there's any blame to be placed it's on my
+head; but I don't think there's blame to be placed on any of us. There's
+One above who rules such matters, and who sends rain and floods as He
+does the sunshine, all for some wise purpose."
+
+Just then word came up the speaking-tube that the water was gaining so
+fast that all hands were about to leave the mine. At the same instant
+the harsh clang of the engine-room gong was heard. The wire cable was
+strained taut, and then began to move slowly over its rollers. "They are
+coming!" shouts the mine boss. "Stand back and give them room."
+
+But the crowd could not stand back. Who were coming? Were all there, or
+were some left? It was not in human nature to stand back. They must see,
+and learn the worst at once.
+
+Oh, how slowly the cable moved! How terrible was the suspense! A great
+silence fell upon the waiting people. It was unbroken save by the
+creaking of the rollers on the slope, the pattering of raindrops, and an
+occasional hysterical sob.
+
+At last the twinkling lights are seen down in the blackness. Then the
+first car comes in sight; then another, and another, until at last the
+entire train, with its human freight, has reached the surface.
+
+"Stay where you are, men!" commands the mine boss, "Answer to your names
+as I call them off."
+
+The young man's voice rings out sharp and clear as he calls the long
+roll, beginning, "Adams, Andrews, Apgar," and so on down the alphabet to
+"Zegler"; and clear and prompt come back the answers, "Here, here,
+here," of those who have come up from the pit.
+
+At last it is finished, and the awful truth is known. Nine men and boys
+are unaccounted for, and they were not at the foot of the slope when the
+cruel waters sprang into the great chamber and the last car was drawn
+up. Nine are down there, alive or dead; and among them are Derrick
+Sterling, Paul Evert, and Monk Tooley.
+
+With the cries and tears of joy over those who had come up and were
+restored to loving hearts, a shudder passed over the assembly, and a
+groan of anguish rose from it that was pierced by a single sharp cry. It
+was that of a widowed mother for her only son.
+
+Springing on an empty car, and standing where all could see him, the
+mine boss spoke to them.
+
+"It will all come out right yet," he said. "Keep up your courage. Those
+brave fellows down there are not going to let themselves be drowned like
+rats in a hole. They'll make a strong fight for life first, and it's
+going to be a fight that we can help them in. They're safe enough for
+the present, in some high place beyond the reach of the water, and there
+they'll stay till we go for them and fetch them out. We'll have two more
+pumps here and at work before morning. They will soon make room for us
+to work down there. Then if we don't find the lads we're after, we are
+no miners, that's all. There's a promise for you now! See it, men?"
+
+With this the speaker pointed to the eastern sky, and all eyes were
+turned in that direction. From horizon to horizon it was spanned by a
+glorious rainbow. One end rested on the opposite side of their own
+valley, above the old workings of the mine, while the other was uplifted
+on a lofty mountain-top. In the west the sun had broken through the
+black rain-clouds, and was now sinking in a glory that passes
+description.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+IMPRISONED IN THE FLOODED MINE
+
+
+Mr. Halford looked up from the paper that he was reading at the
+breakfast-table in the pleasant Philadelphia home, and exclaimed,
+"Here's an account of a terrible colliery disaster, wife; and I do
+believe it is in Warren Jones's mine, the very one you and Nellie
+visited a few days ago."
+
+"Oh, husband, it can't be!"
+
+"It certainly is, though. 'Raven Brook Colliery. Flooded last evening
+just as men were about to quit work. Rushing waters cut off retreat of
+nine men and boys, of whose fate nothing is yet known. Rest escape.
+Water still rising. But little hope of a rescue. Following is list of
+victims: Sterling, Evert, Tooley----'"
+
+"Not Derrick Sterling, father, nor Paul Evert, nor Bill Tooley?"
+interrupted Miss Nellie, as she left her seat and went to look over his
+shoulder.
+
+"Yes, my dear, those are the very names. Derrick, Paul, and Monk--not
+Bill--Tooley; and here is something more about one of them:
+
+"'Derrick Sterling, whose name appears among those of the victims, is
+the only son of the late Gilbert Sterling, a mining engineer, formerly
+well known in this city. The young man was seen at the foot of the slope
+just before the final rush of waters. He might easily have escaped, but
+went back into the mine in the vain attempt to save his friend Paul
+Evert, a crippled lad. He fully realized the terrible risk he was
+running, for his last words were, "If we don't get out, come and look
+for us." This is a notable instance of modern heroism, and is an example
+of that greatest of all love which is willing to sacrifice life for
+friendship.'"
+
+"Poor Derrick! Poor little Paul! Oh, it is too awful!" and
+tender-hearted Nellie Halford burst into tears.
+
+So all the world knew that Derrick Sterling was a hero, and that, alive
+or dead, he was somewhere in that flooded mine. After that morning
+thousands of people who had never heard his name before eagerly scanned
+the daily papers for more news concerning him and the poor fellows whose
+fate he was sharing.
+
+Derrick had not gone far in his search for Paul Evert when his lamp,
+which had been burning dimly for some minutes, though unnoticed in his
+excitement, gave an expiring flash and went out. The boy's impulse was
+to return to the foot of the slope for a new supply of oil. Then he
+remembered that he had a canful with him, the one he had almost
+unconsciously snatched up when he started on his present errand. Filling
+the lamp in the dark was slow work, and occupied several minutes of
+valuable time.
+
+While thus engaged his ear caught the sound of rushing waters that
+seemed to come from out of the darkness behind him. Nearer and nearer it
+came, and it grew louder and louder, as with trembling hand he struck a
+match and relighted his lamp. Its first gleam fell upon a wall of black
+waters rolling rapidly towards him, up the gangway, breast-high, and
+cutting off all chance of escape.
+
+What should he do? It was useless to run; the waters could run faster
+than he. It would be impossible to stem that fierce current and fight
+his way out against it. Must he, then, die, alone in that awful place
+with no sound save the roar of waters in his ears? Could it be that he
+should never again see his mother and little Helen and the sunlight? Was
+his life over, and must he be carried away by the black flood that was
+reaching out to seize him?
+
+Like a flash these thoughts passed through his mind, and like another
+flash came a ray of hope. Close beside him was the mouth of a chute
+belonging to a breast that he knew followed the slant of the vein upward
+for a great distance.
+
+He sprang towards it, flung his oil-can into it, and in another moment,
+though the chute was above his head, he had climbed the slippery wall
+and entered it. As he drew himself up beyond their reach the savage
+waters made a fierce leap after him, and swept on with an angry,
+snarling roar. A few minutes later they had risen above the mouth of the
+chute and completely filled the gangway. Derrick was entombed, and the
+door was sealed behind him.
+
+In the mean time a similar escape was being effected but a short
+distance from him, though he knew nothing of it. Monk Tooley and four
+other men working near him in a distant part of the mine received no
+intimation of the outbreak of waters and the disaster that was about to
+overwhelm them. Their first warning of trouble came with the stoppage of
+the air-currents that supplied them with the very breath of life.
+
+For a few minutes they waited for them to be resumed; then, flinging
+down their tools, and filled with a strange fear, they started through
+the maze of galleries towards the slope. On their way they were joined
+by Aleck, the blacksmith, and Boodle, his helper. Next they came upon
+Paul Evert, standing anxiously by his door. He had become conscious,
+without being able to explain how, that something terrible was about to
+happen, though he had no idea what form the terror was to take.
+
+Joining the fugitives, he was hobbling along as fast as possible, and
+trying to keep pace with their rapid strides, when Monk Tooley stopped,
+picked him up, and, holding him like a baby in his strong arms, said,
+"We'll get on faster dis way, lad."
+
+Half-way to the slope they met the advancing waters from which Derrick
+had just escaped.
+
+The miner who was in advance gave a great cry of "It's a flood, mates,
+and it's cut us off. We're all dead men!"
+
+"No we beant!" shouted Monk Tooley. "Up wid ye, men, inter de breast we
+just passed."
+
+Running back a few steps to the mouth of a chute he had noticed a moment
+before, the miner tossed Paul up into it much in the same way that
+Derrick had tossed his oil-can into a similar opening. Springing up
+after him, Tooley lent a hand to those behind, and with an almost
+supernatural strength dragged one after another of them up bodily beyond
+the reach of the flood. Only poor Boodle was caught by it and swept off
+his feet; but he clutched the legs of the man ahead of him, and both
+were drawn up together. In another minute they too were sealed in behind
+an impassable wall of water.
+
+Although they did not know it at the time, they were in a chamber
+adjoining that in which Derrick had sought refuge, and were divided from
+him only by a single wall of coal a few feet thick. It was a very small
+chamber, for the coal found in it proving of an inferior quality, it had
+quickly been abandoned. The one on the opposite side of the wall from
+them, in which Derrick found himself, was of great extent, being in fact
+several breasts or chambers thrown into one by the "robbing out" of
+their dividing walls of coal.
+
+"Out wid yer lights, men!" cried Monk Tooley as soon as they had all
+been dragged in. "De air's bad enough now, an' de lamps 'll burn de life
+outen it. Besides, we'll soon have need of all de ile dat's left in
+'em."
+
+The air of that confined space was already heavy and close, with eight
+men to breathe it, and eight lamps to consume its oxygen. Extinguishing
+all the others, they sat around one lamp, pricked down low, for they
+could not bear the thought of absolute darkness.
+
+Monk Tooley had assumed a sort of leadership among them, and by virtue
+of it he ordered every lunch-pail to be emptied of what scraps of food
+it contained, and all of it to be given to Paul for safe keeping. There
+was not much--barely enough of broken crusts and bits of meat to fill
+Paul's pail; but it was something, and must be doled out sparingly, for
+already the men gazed at it with hungry eyes.
+
+Then they tried to talk of their situation and discuss the chances of
+escape. On this subject they had but little to say, however, for they
+all knew that long before the waters could be lowered so that any
+attempt to save them could be made, the foul air of that small chamber
+would have done its fatal work. Indeed, they knew that before one day
+should have passed their misery would be ended.
+
+Even as they tried to talk, poor Boodle, saying that he was sleepy, lay
+down on the bare rock floor, where he was almost instantly fast asleep
+and breathing heavily. "'Tis like he'll never wake again," said one of
+the miners, gloomily.
+
+"Let him sleep, then; 'tis the easiest way out of it," responded a
+comrade.
+
+One after another they succumbed to the effects of the heavy atmosphere,
+and fell asleep. Finally, all excepting the crippled lad, even including
+Monk Tooley, whose light Paul had taken and set beside him, lay
+stretched out on the hard floor, sound asleep and breathing in a
+distressed manner.
+
+Paul felt drowsy, but the horror of his surroundings was too great to
+admit of his sleeping. He wanted to think, and try and prepare his mind
+for the awful unknown future that overshadowed him. As he thought, great
+tears began to run down his thin cheeks, then came a choking sob, and he
+buried his face in his hands. Gradually he became calm again, and his
+thoughts resembled delightful dreams, so full were they of pleasant
+things. In another moment they would have been dreams, and the last of
+that little band would have been wrapped in a slumber from which neither
+he nor they would ever have wakened. From this condition a sharp squeak
+caused Paul to start and look up.
+
+Directly in front of him, and so close that he could have touched it,
+was a large rat, whose eyes twinkled and glistened in the lamplight. As
+Paul lifted his head it uttered another squeak and sat up on its
+hind-legs.
+
+"I do believe it's Socrates," said Paul; and sure enough it was.
+
+Mechanically, and without thinking of what he was about, Paul took a bit
+of meat from his lunch-pail and tossed it to the rat, which immediately
+seized it in its mouth and scampered away. Then Paul realized that he
+was wasting precious food, and made a vain effort to catch the rat. The
+beast was too quick for him, and darted away towards a dark corner of
+the chamber, whither Paul followed it, hoping to discover its nest and
+perhaps recover the meat.
+
+He saw the rat run into a hole in the wall about two feet above the
+floor; and putting his face down to it, trying to look in, he felt a
+delicious current of fresh air. It was not very strong, but it caused
+the flame of his lamp to flicker, so that he withdrew it hurriedly for
+fear it should be extinguished.
+
+Suddenly he started as though he had been shot, and almost let fall the
+lamp in his excitement. Had he heard a human voice? Of course not! How
+absurd to imagine such a thing! But there it was again; and it said,
+
+"Holloa! Is anybody in there?"
+
+The sound came to his ear distinctly enough this time through the hole,
+and placing his mouth close to it, Paul shouted back,
+
+"Holloa! Yes, we're in here, and we want to get out. Who are you?"
+
+The boy almost screamed for joy at the answer which came to this
+question; for it was,
+
+"I'm Derrick Sterling. Are you Paul Evert?"
+
+Derrick was almost as greatly affected when the voice said,
+
+"Yes, I'm Paul, and there are a lot more of us in here, and we are
+stifling. But oh, Derrick, dear Derrick! I'm so glad you're not
+drowned."
+
+Then Paul went back to the others, and found it almost impossible to
+waken them. He finally succeeded; and when they comprehended his great
+news, each one had to go to the hole, draw in a deep breath of the fresh
+air, and call through it to Derrick, for the sake of hearing him answer.
+It was so good to hear a human voice besides their own; and though they
+knew he was a prisoner like themselves, it somehow filled them with new
+hope and longings for life. They had no tools with them, but all fell to
+work enlarging the hole with knives, the iron handles of their
+lunch-pails, or whatever else they could lay hands upon, while Paul
+stood by and held the lamp.
+
+Although Derrick had plenty of air and space to move about in, his
+situation had been fully as bad as theirs, for he had been alone.
+Nothing is so terrible under such circumstances as solitude, with the
+knowledge that you are absolutely cut off from mankind, and may never
+hear a human voice again.
+
+He had pricked his lamp down very low so as to save his oil, and was
+lying at full length on the cold floor, a prey to the most gloomy
+thoughts. All sorts of fantastic forms seemed to mock at him out of the
+darkness. He could almost hear their jeering laughter, and was rapidly
+giving way to terror and despair, when a ray of light flickered for a
+moment on the rocky roof above him.
+
+Springing to his feet and rubbing his eyes, he looked in the direction
+from which it seemed to have come, and saw it again, shining through
+what he had taken for a solid wall of rock. Then he called out, and Paul
+Evert, the very one of whom he had been in search, answered him.
+
+Half an hour later the hole was sufficiently large to allow a man to
+squeeze through it, and Derrick had thrown his arms around Paul, and
+hugged him in his wild joy and excitement.
+
+The thing for which the miners felt most grateful, next to their escape
+from the little stifling chamber and their meeting with Derrick, was his
+can of oil. Now they knew that with care they might keep a lamp burning
+for many hours; and the dread of total darkness, which is greater than
+that of hunger, or thirst, or any form of danger, no longer oppressed
+them.
+
+Aleck, the blacksmith, had a watch, and from it they learned that it was
+still early in the evening; though it already seemed as if they had been
+imprisoned for days. Some of the men began to complain bitterly of
+hunger and to beg for food, but Monk Tooley said they should not eat
+until the watch showed them that morning had arrived.
+
+To divert their thoughts, he proposed that they should make their way
+along the breast to its farther end, so as to be as near as possible to
+the slope and a chance of rescue. Acting upon this advice, they made the
+attempt. It was a most difficult undertaking, for the floor was of
+smooth slate, sloping at a sharp angle towards the gangway. It was like
+trying to crawl lengthwise of a steep roof to get from one row of the
+timbers that supported the upper wall to another. They were several
+hours on the journey, but finally reached the end of the long breast in
+safety. There they must wait until relieved from their awful situation
+by death, or by a rescuing party who would be obliged to tunnel through
+many yards of rock and coal to reach them.
+
+They managed to construct a rude platform of timbers, on which to rest
+more comfortably than on the smooth sloping rock floor, and here most of
+them lay down to sleep.
+
+Derrick and Paul lay side by side, with arms thrown about each other's
+necks. The former was nearly asleep when his companion whispered,
+"Dare!"
+
+"Yes, Polly."
+
+"Here's something for you; and if I don't live to get out, you'll always
+keep it to remember me by, won't you?"
+
+"I shouldn't need it for that, Polly; but I'll always keep it, whatever
+it is."
+
+It was Paul's sketch of the underground picnic-party, and Derrick knew
+what it was when he took it and thrust it into the bosom of his shirt,
+though days passed before he had a chance to look at it.
+
+Three days after this the same men and boys lay on their log platform,
+in almost the same positions, but they were haggard, emaciated, faint,
+and weak. Their last drop of oil had been burned, and they were in total
+darkness. A light would have shown that they lay like dead men.
+
+Suddenly one of them lifts his head and listens. "Thank God! thank God!"
+he exclaims, in a husky voice, hardly more than a whisper, "I hear them!
+they're coming!"
+
+Derrick's quick ear had detected the muffled sound of blows, and his
+words gave new life to the dying men around him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+TO THE RESCUE!--A MESSAGE FROM THE PRISONERS
+
+
+From the moment the news came that nine men and boys were imprisoned in
+the flooded mine, preparations for their rescue, or at least of learning
+their fate, were pushed with all vigor. Although it had stopped raining,
+the night was dark, and great bonfires were lighted about the mouth of
+the slope. These were placed in charge of the old breaker boss, Mr.
+Guffy, and his boys, who fed them with dry timbers, and kept up the
+brilliant blaze until daylight.
+
+Around these fires the entire population of the village stood and
+discussed the situation; and by their light the workers were enabled to
+perform their tasks. The miners were divided into gangs, headed by the
+mine boss and by Tom Evert, and their work was the fetching of the steam
+pumps from across the valley and setting them up near the mouth of the
+slope. They had to be connected, by long lines of iron pipe, with the
+boilers under the breaker, and from each a double line of hose was
+carried down the slope until water was reached.
+
+It was nearly daylight when these operations were completed, and a faint
+cheer went up from the weary watchers as they saw four powerful streams
+of water added to the torrent that the regular mine pump had kept
+flowing all night.
+
+"Now, men," said the mine boss, when he saw that all was working to his
+satisfaction, "I want you to go home and get all the solid rest you can
+in the next two days, for after that I shall probably call upon you to
+work night and day."
+
+"We'll be ready boss, whenever you give the word," was the prompt answer
+from a score of stalwart fellows. Then all turned towards their homes,
+knowing they could do nothing more until the pumps had prepared a way
+for them.
+
+During the next day the news of the disaster spread far and wide, and
+from all sides visitors poured into the little village. Among these were
+a number of reporters from the metropolitan papers, some of whom, filled
+with a sense of their own importance, buzzed around like so many
+bumblebees. They blundered into all sorts of places where they had no
+business, bored everybody whom they could approach with absurd
+questions, and made of themselves public nuisances generally.
+
+While some among them acted thus foolishly, there were others who
+behaved like gentlemen and the sensible fellows they were. Of these the
+most noticeable was a well-built, pleasant-faced young man, named Allan
+McClain. He asked few questions, but each one had evidently been well
+considered and was directly to the point. He was quiet and unobtrusive,
+never displayed a note-book or pencil, kept his eyes and ears wide open,
+and, as a result, sent to his paper the best accounts of the situation
+that were published. How he did it was a mystery to the others, few of
+whom had even thought of giving to their business the careful study and
+attention that McClain bestowed upon it.
+
+The mine boss had been particularly annoyed by the conduct of several of
+these members of the press, and when they applied to him for permission
+to accompany the first gang of workmen down into the mine, he firmly but
+courteously said "No."
+
+He explained to them the dangers attending the proposed undertaking, and
+that there would be no room in the mine for any but those actively
+engaged in the work of rescue.
+
+Some of the reporters made such an outcry at this, and talked so loudly
+of their rights and of what they would do in case the mine boss
+persisted in his refusal, that he finally said if they could not behave
+better than they had he should be compelled to order them from the
+colliery altogether.
+
+During this scene Allan McClain listened to all that was said without
+speaking a word. Shortly afterwards the mine boss, meeting him alone,
+said, "I am sorry, sir, to be obliged to include you in my apparent
+discourtesy, but you know that if I made a single exception I could not
+enforce my rule."
+
+"I know it, Mr. Jones," was the pleasant answer, "and I do not expect
+any privileges that may not be extended to the rest. Your action will,
+however, make no difference to me, as I expect to leave the village
+to-day."
+
+Allan McClain did take the afternoon train away from Raven Brook, after
+bidding his companions good-by; but none of them knew where he had gone
+or the reasons for his departure.
+
+The pumping of the mine was so successful that two days later the water
+in it was lowered a few feet below the roof of the great chamber at the
+bottom of the slope. The mine boss had watched it closely, going down
+almost every hour to note the change of its level, and he now decided
+that the time had come to begin more active operations.
+
+The day before, a sturdy young man, much begrimed with coal-dust, and
+wearing a rough suit of mine clothes that had evidently seen long
+service, had presented himself at the mouth of the slope, and asked
+leave to take part in the rescue, in case there was any way in which he
+could be made useful. He said that he came from the neighboring colliery
+of Black Run, where the Raven Brook men had once rendered good service
+during a time of disaster, and that his name was Jack Hobson. The mine
+boss had thanked him for his offer of assistance, and said he would
+gladly accept it if he found an opportunity. The young man remained near
+the scene of operations, making himself so generally useful, and
+performing with such promptness and intelligence any little task given
+him, that the mine boss took a decided fancy to him before the day was
+over.
+
+Now that Mr. Jones wanted three reliable men to go down with him and
+make an exploration, he selected Tom Evert, Jack Hobson, and another
+young miner who had a brother among the victims of the flood.
+
+The departure of this little party was watched by a great crowd of
+people, who realized that if work could not be begun at once there would
+be little chance of finding any of the imprisoned men alive. Among the
+spectators were many reporters, any one of whom would gladly have paid a
+round sum to be taken along, and thus gain an opportunity of describing
+the appearance of the drowned mine.
+
+At the foot of the slope the exploring party found a rude but strong
+flat-boat that the mine boss had caused to be built and sent down for
+this very purpose. Sitting in it with bent bodies, for there was but
+little space beneath the roof of the chamber, they pushed off across the
+black waters and began a voyage so weird and mysterious that at first
+their thoughts found no expression in words.
+
+All about them floated traces of the disaster; here the body of a
+drowned mule, and there a bale of hay, or a quantity of timbers that,
+wrenched and broken, told of the awful force of the waters. These and
+many like tokens of destruction came slowly within the narrow circle of
+light from their lamps, and vanished again behind them.
+
+After a careful search along the opposite side of the chamber, they
+located gangway No. 1, in which the water was still within two inches of
+the roof.
+
+"It'll be some time afore we can get in there, sir," said Tom Evert.
+
+"Yes, Tom, three days at least, perhaps more."
+
+"T' big breast lies in here on this side t' gangway."
+
+"I know it, Tom; and if you'll pick out the spot that promises easiest
+working, we'll open a heading into it. We may find them there. If we
+don't we can work our way through it, above the water level, to the wall
+that divides it from the next one. Some of them are almost sure to be
+there if they're still alive."
+
+"That's what I think, sir; and if you say so, we'll start in right here.
+Can you tell just how far in t' breast lies?"
+
+"If that's all, we'll soon knock a hole through that, and then, please
+God, I'll find my crippled lad, an' t' brave one that went back after
+him. If we find 'em dead, old Tom Evert don't never want to come out
+alive. He couldn't."
+
+"Never fear, Tom, we'll find them alive," said the mine boss, cheerily.
+"I have full faith that we shall. If they're only in the big breast
+we'll have them out in three days more. Now, men, drive those staples
+into the wall, make the boat fast to them, and pitch in. As soon as
+you've cut a shelf to work on, I'll go back for fresh hands. This job's
+going to be done with half-hour reliefs."
+
+Jack Hobson held the staples in position while Tom Evert, lying on his
+side, drove them into the wall of solid coal with a dozen blows from his
+heavy hammer.
+
+These were the blows heard faintly by Derrick Sterling on the farther
+side of that massive wall; and the welcome sound carried with it new
+life and hope to him and his fainting comrades.
+
+Dropping the hammer, and seizing his pick, the burly miner struck a
+mighty blow at the wall, and followed it up with others so fast and
+furious that the coal fell rattling into the boat, or splashing into the
+water in glistening showers. The work of rescue was begun.
+
+As he sat there, Jack Hobson's eye lighted on a long, dark object
+floating near them, and calling attention to it, he said,
+
+"Don't you think, sir, that water trough might be bailed out and used as
+a sort of boat to establish communication between this point and the
+foot of the slope? I have been used to canoes, and believe I could
+manage it."
+
+The mine boss said it was a good idea, and he could try if he wanted to.
+
+So the trough, which was simply a long, flat-bottomed box, was brought
+alongside, bailed out, and placed in charge of the young man from Black
+Run. He made a rude paddle, and during the next two days did capital
+service in ferrying miners and tools back and forth between the opposite
+sides of the chamber. By this addition to the underground fleet the
+large boat could be left at the entrance to the heading, where it proved
+most useful as a landing-stage.
+
+The work was pushed with all possible speed, a dozen of the strongest
+and most skilful miners, who handled their picks with desperate energy,
+taking half-hourly turns each at driving the heading. Behind the miner
+who was thus at work, other men passed out the loosened material from
+hand to hand, and thus kept the opening clear. Whenever there was no
+demand for his services as ferry-man, Jack Hobson took his place among
+these workers, and by his cheering words and tireless energy kept up
+their spirits and spurred them on to greater efforts.
+
+When they had got about half-way through it was thought best to close
+the outer end of the heading with an air-tight door, and place another
+ten feet behind it, thus forming an airlock. Fresh air was forced into
+and compressed in the heading by means of an air-pump operated from the
+flat-boat at the outer end. These precautions were taken for fear lest
+when they broke through into the breast the air in it, compressed by the
+flood, should rush out with destructive force. It was also feared that,
+relieved from its air pressure, the water in the breast would rise and
+cut off the escape of any persons who might be in there.
+
+The position of those engaged in the work of rescue was by no means free
+from peril. The pumps, running at fullest speed, were barely able to
+keep the water from rising and flooding the new heading, so great and
+continuous was the flow into the mine from the soaked earth above it.
+They did not know but that any moment some fresh and unsuspected
+accumulation in the old workings might break forth and send a second
+flood pouring in upon them. Above all there was an ever-present danger
+from foul gases, which formed so rapidly that at times work had to be
+entirely suspended until they could be cleared away. Thus every time the
+relief men went down to their self-imposed labor their departure was
+watched by anxious women with tearful eyes and heavy hearts.
+
+For a day and a night these stout-hearted men worked without knowing
+whether they sought the living or the dead. On the afternoon of the
+second day, during a momentary pause in the steady rattle of the picks,
+Jack Hobson, who was at the inner end of the heading, thought he heard a
+knocking. Calling for perfect silence, he listened. Yes, it was! Faint,
+but unmistakable, it came again.
+
+"Tap, tap, tap; tap, tap, tap; tap, tap, tap," and a pause. Then it was
+repeated, and its meaning could not be doubted. As plain as human
+speech, it said,
+
+"Here we are, still alive, but in great distress. We know you are
+coming, but you must hurry."
+
+From mouth to mouth the joyful news was carried out from the heading,
+across the sullen waters, up the slope to the anxious waiting throngs,
+and on throbbing wires throughout the length and breadth of the land.
+
+Mrs. Sterling heard it and lifted her tear-stained face in earnest
+thankfulness to Heaven. The Halfords heard it in Philadelphia, and Mr.
+Halford said he could stand it no longer, but must go to Raven Brook and
+be on hand when the men were rescued. Before another sun rose that faint
+tapping made in the recesses of the drowned mine by Derrick Sterling
+with a bit of rock had been heard around the world.
+
+Now the brave fellows in the heading knew what they were working for,
+and the blows of their picks fell faster and harder than ever on the
+glistening wall that still opposed its black front to them.
+
+The excitement at the mouth of the mine was now intense, and every man
+who came up from it was besieged by anxious inquiries for the very
+latest news. What was the meaning of the three taps three times
+repeated? Did it signify that there were nine persons in the breast, or
+only three? If only three, where were the others? Who were the three?
+How many were alive? Were any dead? These and a thousand like questions
+were asked and discussed, but nobody could answer them certainly.
+
+The reports brought up were only regarding the progress of the work. So
+many feet in an hour, so many yards a day. Now there are only six feet
+more to cut through; now five, four, three, and now but eighteen inches.
+The suspense is terrible. To the mothers and wives waiting for the end
+up in the little village it is almost too great to be borne. To the
+haggard men behind those eighteen inches of black rock it seems as
+though the breath of fresh air for want of which they are dying would
+come too late.
+
+They press eagerly against the wall, and in their feebleness pick vainly
+at it with their fingers. It will not yield. Even Monk Tooley, who was
+so fierce and strong five days before, can make no impression on it.
+
+Now but one foot of wall remains, and Tom Evert pauses in his task to
+dash the sweat-drops from his eyes, and to call, as he has already a
+dozen times,
+
+"Holloa! Holloa in there!"
+
+Like an echo comes the answer, faint but distinct,
+
+"Holloa! Hurry!"
+
+He only stops to call louder than before, but with a tremble in his
+voice,
+
+"Is--Paul--Evert--alive?" and with ear held against the wet wall he
+breathlessly awaits the answer.
+
+"Yes."
+
+The word is enough, and with the fury and strength of a giant he again
+attacks the wall. He pays no attention to the relief who is ready to
+take his place. He knows nothing, cares for nothing, save that his boy
+is waiting for him beyond those few inches of crumbling coal.
+
+At last his pick strikes through. A few more desperate strokes and the
+barrier is broken away. He springs into the breast. Another instant and
+his crippled lad, whom he had thought never to see again, is strained to
+his heart, and the burly miner is sobbing like a child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+RESTORED TO DAYLIGHT
+
+
+In the overwhelming joy of the moment, Tom Evert had no thought save for
+the son whom he had snatched from the very gates of death. He was
+absolutely unconscious of the presence of another human being in the
+breast, nor did the broken words of blessing and gratitude uttered by
+the faint-voiced miners find their way to his ear. His instinct was to
+get his lad out from that stifling, foul-aired place, and, still holding
+him in his arms, he crawled back through the heading, was borne swiftly
+across the waters from which he had snatched their prey, and drawn up
+the slope.
+
+As he stepped from the car at its mouth, and they saw what it was he
+bore so tenderly and proudly, a mighty cheer went up from the assembled
+throng. Another and another. They were wild with joy. The long suspense
+was over, the terrible strain was relaxed, and they gave way to their
+feelings.
+
+Suddenly they noticed that the drooping head of the lad was not lifted
+from the broad shoulder on which it rested. His arms hung limp and
+lifeless. A great silence came over the multitude. They stood
+awe-stricken, as in the presence of death, and pressing aside in front
+of the advancing miner, they made way for him to pass.
+
+Still bearing his burden, unconscious of all besides, and looking
+neither to the right nor to the left, Tom Evert passed through the human
+lane thus formed, and went home--home to the rude, unpainted house in
+which Paul was born, and which, during the darkness and despair of the
+past five days, had been a constant picture before his mind's eye--home
+to the mother whose tenderest love has ever been for her crippled boy.
+Home!
+
+Although Tom Evert, with eyes and ears only for his own, had no thought
+of the others for whom he had broken open the prison door, there was no
+lack of warm hearts and willing hands to help them.
+
+Following close after the miner Warren Jones entered the breast, and
+directly behind him was Jack Hobson. The light from their lamps dazzled
+the eyes that for three days had lived in a darkness as absolute as
+though no light existed in the universe. Turning them away from the
+light, the prisoners listened eagerly for the voices of their
+deliverers. The first words they heard were from the mine boss, the man
+on whom they had depended, and who they knew had planned and carried out
+their rescue.
+
+"Are you all here, men?"
+
+"There's nine of us."
+
+"And all alive?"
+
+"All alive yet, thank God; though Boodle, poor lad, is wellnigh gone."
+
+"Where is Derrick Sterling?"
+
+"Here I am, sir," came a weak but well-known voice from back in the
+darkness.
+
+Before Mr. Jones could locate it, the young man who had followed him so
+closely into the breast sprang to the side of the lad, and seizing his
+hand, exclaimed,
+
+"Derrick Sterling, you are a splendid fellow, and this is one of the
+very happiest moments of my life!"
+
+"Who are you?" asked Derrick, faintly.
+
+"My name is Allan McClain," was the answer, "and if you will give me
+your friendship I shall consider it an honor to be proud of."
+
+Trying weakly to return the hand-pressure of the young stranger, Derrick
+answered,
+
+"He who has come to our rescue at the risk of his own life must indeed
+be my friend!"
+
+Then the mine boss found them, and saying, "Drink this, my poor, brave
+lad," gave him a cup of rich warm soup, that had been made nearly an
+hour before, and kept warm over a spirit-lamp in the boat, just outside
+the heading.
+
+It filled the boy with new life, and when he and the others had drank of
+it all that was allowed them, they felt strong enough to crawl out
+through the heading.
+
+Derrick was the first to go and the first to be drawn up the slope,
+supported in the car by the young man to whom he had just given his
+friendship. As they approached the blessed sunlight, and the weary lad
+caught its first gleam, still far above him, he pressed the hand of his
+companion, and could do nothing but gaze at it. Could it be the very
+light of day that he had longed for and prayed for and despaired of ever
+seeing again? He knew it must be, but it seemed almost too glorious to
+be real.
+
+When they reached the surface, the light that had roused such a tumult
+of feeling within him revealed two great tears coursing slowly down
+through the grime of his hollow cheeks.
+
+The excitement over Paul Evert's appearance was as nothing compared with
+that aroused by the sight of Derrick Sterling. Had not his name been a
+household word throughout the land for days? Was he not a brave fellow
+whom they all loved? Could they cheer loud enough or long enough to do
+him honor, and testify their joy at his deliverance? It did not seem as
+though they could; and poor Derrick stood before them, trembling with
+strong emotion, without knowing which way to turn or look.
+
+The reporters, who were taking mental notes of his appearance, also
+gazed curiously at the young man who had come up from the mine with him,
+and on whom he now leaned. He was a miner, of course, for he was dressed
+in mine clothes, and was as begrimed as the sootiest delver of them all,
+but who was he? He had somewhere lost his miner's cap, and the yellow,
+close-cropped curls of his uncovered head had a strangely familiar look.
+
+He noticed their stares, knew what was passing in their minds, and
+laughingly said:
+
+"Yes, fellows; I'm McClain of the _Explorer_, and I guess I've got a
+beat on you all this time." Then to Derrick he said, "Come, Sterling, we
+must get out of this; there's a mother waiting for you over there."
+
+Just then another car-load of rescued men was drawn up, and again the
+excited spectators broke forth in a tumult of cheers. Under cover of
+this diversion, Derrick, half supported by Allan McClain, walked slowly
+away towards the little vine-covered cottage at the end of the village
+street. Here his mother awaited him, for she felt that their meeting was
+something too sacred to be witnessed by stranger eyes.
+
+At the mouth of the slope similar meetings were taking place between
+others who had less self-control or less delicacy, but who, in their
+way, showed equal affection and deep feeling. Wives greeted husbands who
+appeared to them as risen from the dead, and mothers wept over sons whom
+they had deemed lost to them forever.
+
+As Monk Tooley stepped from the car, the first to hold out a hand to him
+was his son Bill, leaning on a crutch, and still bearing traces of his
+illness. His greeting was,
+
+"Well, feyther, we've missed yer sad! Thought maybe yer wouldn't get
+back no more."
+
+"I'm not dat easy got rid of, lad. Had a plenty ter eat, hain't yer?"
+
+"Plenty, feyther, sich as it was."
+
+"Dat's more'n I have, an' I hope yer've saved a bite fer yer dad.
+Starvin's hungry work."
+
+Nothing else was overheard; but the tones of the rough man and his
+equally rough son held an unwonted accent of tenderness. As they grasped
+each other's hand, one gazed curiously at his father's haggard face, and
+the other cast a pitying glance at his son's rude crutch.
+
+Not the least interested spectator of these touching scenes was Mr.
+Halford, who had arrived that morning from Philadelphia. When, after all
+the rest had been sent safely to the surface the mine boss was drawn up
+the slope, and was in turn greeted with a rousing cheer, that gentlemen
+slipped an arm through his, and led him away, saying,
+
+"You have done nobly, Warren, and I am proud to call you brother."
+
+"I could have done nothing, Harold, if these brave fellows had not stood
+by me as they have."
+
+"And they could have done nothing without your level head to direct them
+and your splendid example to stimulate them."
+
+So the great colliery disaster was happily ended, and in Raven Brook
+village great sorrow was turned to great joy.
+
+As the two gentlemen sat talking together in the room that the mine boss
+called his den, that evening, Mr. Halford said,
+
+"By-the-way, Warren, I did not take this trip wholly out of curiosity to
+witness your rescue of the miners. I want to learn something of this
+young Sterling. Did you know his father?"
+
+"Yes, he was one of my warmest friends."
+
+"Was his name Gilbert?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you know whether he ever lived in Crawford County?"
+
+"That is where he came from; he was born and raised there."
+
+"Did you ever hear him speak of owning any property there?"
+
+"I have heard him mention a little old rocky farm that was left to him;
+but he always spoke of it as being too poor to have any value. In fact
+he once told me that it was not worth the taxes he paid on it."
+
+"I declare, I believe it is the very place! If these Sterlings turn out
+to be the people you lead me to think they are, Warren, there's a small
+fortune awaiting them."
+
+"What! a fortune awaiting the widow Sterling and Derrick? It can't be!
+Why, they haven't a relative in the world."
+
+"That may all be, but what I tell you is true. If this Gilbert Sterling
+was a son of Deacon Giles Sterling of Newfields, in Crawford County, his
+heirs are the owners of one of the most valuable bits of property in the
+State. Why, man, this little old rocky farm you speak of, if it is the
+same--and I am inclined to think it must be--lies in the very centre of
+the richest oil district that has yet been discovered. The best-paying
+well owned by our company is located on its border. For a clear title to
+that farm I am authorized to offer twenty-five thousand dollars cash,
+and a one-fifth interest in whatever oil may be taken from it."
+
+The next morning Mr. Jones called at the Sterlings', and was amazed to
+find Derrick already showing signs of recovery. A splendid constitution
+and a determined will, aided by twelve hours of sleep and an abundance
+of nourishing food, were already beginning to efface the traces of
+hunger and suffering.
+
+The boy gave his visitor a cheerful greeting, and tried to express
+something of his gratitude in words, but they failed him utterly.
+
+The other said, "Don't try, Derrick. It's over now, and we all have
+cause for the most profound gratitude; but each of us understands the
+other's feelings, and there is no need of words between us."
+
+Mrs. Sterling's eyes were filled with happy tears as, sitting beside her
+son, she tried to tell something of the pride she felt in him. After a
+while she said,
+
+"I know it's wrong, but I can't help trying to look ahead a little, and,
+I confess, with some anxiety. I want my boy to do what is right, and I
+do not want him to remain idle; but oh! Mr. Jones, I cannot let him go
+down into that awful mine again. It has nearly killed him; and I am sure
+I could not survive another such experience."
+
+"I don't blame you for feeling as you do," said the young man, "and I
+think perhaps some other arrangement can be made. One reason for my
+calling this morning was to ask if I might bring a gentleman to see you
+who is greatly interested in Derrick, and desirous of making his
+acquaintance. Are you willing that I should, and do you think Derrick is
+strong enough to receive visitors?"
+
+"Certainly I am," said Mrs. Sterling; and Derrick answered for himself
+that he felt strong enough to see any number of gentlemen who were
+interested in him.
+
+So Mr. Jones left them, and shortly afterwards returned with Mr.
+Halford, who soon won his way to the mother's heart by saying pleasant
+things about her boy, and to Derrick's by thanking him for his kindness
+to Mrs. Halford and Miss Nellie. He said that he had been especially
+commissioned by his daughter to inquire concerning the welfare of her
+bumping-mule, and was glad to hear from Derrick that that knowing animal
+was rapidly recovering from his injuries.
+
+The conversation was led on from one thing to another, until Mr. Halford
+was satisfied that he had really found the family of whom he was in
+search. Then he told them of the good-fortune in store for them,
+provided they could prove their ownership of the little Bradford County
+farm.
+
+Trembling with excitement, Mrs. Sterling brought out a box full of her
+husband's papers, among which was found a deed for the farm, and
+receipts for taxes paid up to the time of his death.
+
+Having satisfied himself of the correctness of these, Mr. Halford made
+them the offer of which he had spoken to Mr. Jones the evening before.
+Then he left them, saying he knew they would want some time to consider
+his proposition, and that he would call the next day to learn their
+decision.
+
+After their visitors had gone, Derrick and his mother gazed wonderingly
+at each other. Could it all be true? Were their days of poverty really
+over? Was the overworked mother to have a release from the toil and the
+bitter anxieties that made her look so thin and careworn? Were Derrick's
+dreams of a college education and a profession about to be realized?
+
+Long and earnestly they talked, but not as to what answer they should
+give Mr. Halford. They had decided that almost before he left. They
+talked with grateful and loving hearts of the Heavenly Father who had so
+ordered their ways as to turn their very darkness into brightest light.
+As she thought over her mercies, the wonderful promises that had
+sustained the widowed mother through so many an hour of trial came back
+to her with their fullest force.
+
+That afternoon Derrick felt strong enough to walk out, and went to the
+Everts' to see his dear friend and recent companion in suffering. He
+found Paul able to see and talk to him, but in bed, and very weak and
+languid.
+
+"If I could only get away, far away from it all, Dare," he said. "The
+horror of the mine hangs over me all the time, and I'd almost rather
+never get well than go down into it again."
+
+Then Derrick bent down and whispered something that brought a new light
+into the crippled lad's eyes and a faint flush to his pale cheeks.
+
+"Oh, Dare!" he exclaimed. "Is it true? Really! Do you mean it?"
+
+Derrick answered that it was true, and he meant every word of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+GOOD-BY TO THE COLLIERY
+
+
+What Derrick whispered to Paul Evert as he bent over him was: "You
+needn't ever go down in the mine again, Polly. I want you to go to
+Philadelphia with me to learn to be an artist. The money's ready, and
+it's all fixed that I'm to go; and if you only say the word it will be
+fixed for you to go too. I'm only waiting for you to get strong to tell
+you the whole story. Don't say a word about it yet, though, for it's a
+secret."
+
+A hope like this was a wonderful medicine to the delicate lad, and when,
+an hour later, his father came in, he was astonished at the change for
+the better that had come over him.
+
+"Why, Paul lad, an hour since I was thinking I'd saved thee for naught
+but to die, after all," said the miner. "Now I find thee bright and
+smiling, and chipper as a tomtit. Whatever's happened?"
+
+"Derrick's been to see me, father."
+
+"Ay; I might ha' know'd it. No other could cheer thee like him. He's a
+noble lad, and a true friend o' thine, Paul. I doubt if another would
+ha' gone back i' t' face o' t' skirling waters on chance o' saving
+thee."
+
+"I'm sure not, father."
+
+While Paul was thus talking of Derrick, Derrick was talking of Paul.
+
+He had gone home full of a newly formed plan. In fact plans had formed
+themselves so rapidly in his mind since Mr. Halford's visit that they
+were already trying to crowd each other from his memory. The one now
+uppermost was in regard to Paul.
+
+Going to his own room, he took out from a small drawer, where he kept
+his choicest treasures, the sketch of the underground picnic party that
+Paul had drawn down in the mine, and given him while they were
+imprisoned together in the darkness. It was soiled and a little torn,
+but every spot of grime upon it was a memento of that terrible
+experience; and though the picture was of recent origin, associations
+were already clustered so thickly about it that to Derrick it was a
+priceless treasure.
+
+Showing it to his mother, he asked what she thought of it.
+
+"I think it is capital!" she exclaimed.
+
+Then Derrick told her the story of the sketch, of Paul's longing to be
+an artist, and his dread of going into the mine again. He ended by
+saying, "Now, mother, when I go to Philadelphia to prepare for college,
+can't Polly go with me and study to be an artist? He won't be very
+expensive, and I'm sure we're going to have money enough for all."
+
+"Of course he can, Derrick. I would much rather you had a companion than
+to go alone, and I know you two will enjoy much together, and be of
+great help to each other. As for the money, dear, I would rather remain
+poor all my life than not have you willing to share whatever you have
+with those who need it. The longer you live, Derrick, the more fully you
+will realize that the greatest pleasure to be gained from money is by
+spending it for the happiness of others."
+
+So it was settled that Derrick and Paul should go to Philadelphia
+together, and Paul made such haste to get strong, so as to hear the
+whole story, that it had to be told to him that very evening.
+
+By the next morning, when Mr. Halford called upon the Sterlings to
+receive their answer to his offer, they had already in imagination spent
+so much of the money they expected to receive from him that it would
+have been impossible for them to say anything but "Yes," even if they
+had wanted to.
+
+Mr. Halford was greatly pleased with the plans made for Derrick and
+Paul, and promised to look out for them in Philadelphia, secure a
+pleasant boarding-place for them, and see that they got into the best
+schools in the city. He said they ought to start as soon as possible,
+for the autumn terms were about to begin. Before he left he handed Mrs.
+Sterling a check for a larger amount of money than she had ever in her
+life possessed. He said she might find it convenient for immediate use
+while the necessary steps for the transfer of the little Crawford County
+farm to the great oil company were being taken.
+
+In two weeks after Mr. Halford's departure everything was in readiness
+for that of the boys, and the time had arrived for them to start for the
+great city.
+
+Harry Mule, whose leg had been so well mended that it could be taken out
+of splints, was to be left in charge of Bill Tooley. Bill was to be
+allowed to hire him out to the mine boss as soon as he was able to work,
+and that gentleman had promised them both a job at hauling waste cars
+over the dump. Thus neither of them would be obliged to go down into the
+mine again.
+
+Bill Tooley was now able to walk without his crutch; but his leg would
+always be stiff, and he would never be free from a limp in his gait. As
+Harry Mule had the same peculiarity in his, they became known in the
+colliery as the two "Stiffies." Under this title they acquired
+considerable fame for their fondness for each other, and for the wisdom
+of one of them.
+
+The first of October was a glorious autumn day, and even the ragged
+colliery village looked pretty, after a fashion, in the golden haze
+through which the rising sun shone down upon it.
+
+As Derrick, and Paul, accompanied by Mrs. Sterling, Helen, the mine
+boss, and burly Tom Evert, walked down to the little railway-station,
+the miners of the day shift were gathering about the mouth of the slope,
+and preparing to descend into the recently pumped-out workings. From
+them came many a rough but honest farewell shout to the boys who had
+endeared themselves to all the village.
+
+"Tak' care o' thysels, lads!" "We'll not forget ye, an' ye'll bear us in
+mind!" "Whene'er thee's tired o' city, coom back, an' ye'll find a
+welcome!" "Mind t' fire-damp i' t' city, lads, an' use naught but
+safeties!" "Good-by!"
+
+As long as they were within hearing the boys, shouted back such answers
+as, "We'll try to!" "Thank you, Ike! We won't forget you; never fear!"
+"Good-by all!"
+
+Then the train came along. A few loving words were hastily spoken, and
+they were off. The hard, grimy, perilous life of the breaker and the
+mine was left behind, and a new one of study, ambitious dreams, and
+successes was opening broadly before them.
+
+[Illustration: GOOD-BY TO THE COLLIERY]
+
+At first the boys were inclined to feel very homesick, and their
+conversation was only of the dear ones whom they had just left.
+Gradually the feeling wore off, as their attention was attracted by the
+grand scenery through which they were travelling.
+
+Paul revelled in the gorgeous coloring of the autumnal foliage which
+covered mountain, hill, and valley with splendid mantles of crimson and
+gold. As the train, following the picturesque windings of the Lehigh,
+crept along some mountain-side hundreds of feet above the low-lying
+bottom lands, his delight at the vast expanse of exquisite scenery
+unfolded before them knew no bounds.
+
+"I didn't know the world was so beautiful," he said to Derrick, with a
+sigh of deep content, as the vivid pictures of the grand panorama
+flashed rapidly by.
+
+Derrick shared this enthusiasm, though to a less extent. He was more
+interested in the various forms of mining operations which were to be
+seen on all sides. His continued exclamations of, "Oh, Paul! look at
+that new breaker," or, "Isn't that a capital idea for a slope?" at last
+attracted the attention of a middle-aged gentleman who, with a lady,
+occupied the seat immediately behind them.
+
+Finally he leaned forward, and, speaking to Derrick, said, "Excuse me;
+but as you seem to be familiar with mining operations, perhaps you will
+kindly tell me what the great black buildings, of which we now see so
+many, are used for?"
+
+"Why," answered Derrick, somewhat surprised that anybody should be
+ignorant regarding what to him were among the commonest objects of life,
+"those are breakers." Then seeing that the other was still puzzled, he
+explained, simply and clearly, the uses of breakers, and in a few
+minutes found himself engaged in earnest conversation with the stranger
+upon mining in general, and coal mining in particular.
+
+At last the gentleman said, "You seem to be as well informed on the
+subject as a miner."
+
+"I am, or rather I have been employed in a mine until very recently,"
+answered Derrick.
+
+"Indeed! It must be a most interesting occupation, but I should think a
+very dangerous one. I have a son who visited one of these coal-mines at
+the time of a disaster that threatened a number of lives, and his
+accounts of what he saw and experienced at the time are very thrilling.
+It was, I believe, at a place called Raven Brook."
+
+It was now Derrick's turn to be interested, and he said, "Why, that's
+where we have just come from! Raven Brook is the station at which we
+took the train."
+
+"If I had known that we were to stop there," said the gentleman, "I
+believe my wife and I would have got off and waited over one train, for
+we have been very curious to see the place. We have been on a trip to
+the West," he added, by way of explanation, "and our son's accounts of
+his experience came to us by letter. Besides, we read much of that
+disaster in the papers."
+
+"It was awful," said Derrick, simply.
+
+"Then you were in the village at the time? Perhaps you know a brave
+young fellow named Derrick Sterling?"
+
+A quick flush spread over the boy's face as he answered, "That is my
+name."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the gentleman; "are you the young man who went back
+into the mine and risked his life to save a friend?"
+
+"I expect I am," answered Derrick, with burning cheeks; "and this is the
+friend I went to find."
+
+"Well, of all wonderful things!" cried the stranger. "To think that we
+should meet you of all persons. Wife, this is Derrick Sterling, the
+brave lad that Allan wrote to us about, and whose name has been so much
+in the papers lately."
+
+"You don't mean to say," exclaimed Derrick, "that you are Allan
+McClain's father?"
+
+"I am," answered the gentleman; "and this is his mother. We are both
+very proud to make the acquaintance of the Derrick Sterling of whom our
+boy writes that he is proud to call him friend."
+
+Paul received an almost equal share of attention with Derrick; and
+during the rest of the journey their new-found friends did everything in
+their power to make the time pass quickly and pleasantly to them.
+
+Both Mr. and Mrs. McClain gave the boys an urgent invitation to make
+their house their home, at least until they selected a boarding-place,
+and were greatly disappointed to learn that this was already provided
+for them.
+
+Nothing could exceed Allan McClain's amazement when, upon meeting his
+parents at the railway-station in Philadelphia, he found them in
+company, and apparently upon terms of intimate acquaintance, with two of
+his friends from the Raven Brook Colliery. He was delighted to learn
+that Derrick and Paul had come to the city to live, and promised to call
+the next day and arrange all sorts of plans with them.
+
+Mr. Halford, who was also at the station, was almost equally surprised
+to see them with the McClains, who, he afterwards told Derrick, were
+among the best families in the city. His carriage was at the station,
+and in a few minutes more the two boys, who but a short time before had
+been only poor colliery lads, were ushered into a handsome house, where
+Mrs. Halford and Miss Nellie were waiting to give them a cordial
+welcome.
+
+Two days later they were established in pleasant rooms of their own, had
+begun their studies, and, above all, found themselves surrounded by a
+circle of warm friendships.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Very nearly five years after the date of this chapter, just before
+sunset of a pleasant summer's day, a barge party of gay young people
+rowed out over the placid Schuylkill from the boat-house belonging to
+the University of Pennsylvania. In the stern of the barge, acting as
+coxswain, sat a young man of delicate frame and refined features. His
+pale, thoughtful face showed him to be a close student, and the crutch
+at his side betrayed the fact that he was a cripple.
+
+On each side of the coxswain sat a young lady, both of whom were
+exchanging good-natured chaff with the merry-faced, stalwart fellow who
+pulled the stroke oar.
+
+"I don't believe rowing is such hard work after all," said one of them,
+"though you college men do make such a fuss about your training and your
+practice spins. I'm sure it looks easy enough."
+
+"You are quite right, Miss Nellie," answered the stroke; "it is awfully
+easy compared with some things--cramming for a final in mathematics, for
+instance."
+
+"Oh, Derrick!" exclaimed the other young lady, "you can't call that hard
+work. I'm sure it doesn't seem as though you had spent your time
+anywhere but on the river for the past two months. If you can do that,
+and at the same time graduate number one in your class, with special
+mention in mathematics, the 'cramming,' as you call it, can't be so very
+difficult."
+
+"All things are not what they seem," chanted Derrick. "It may be, sister
+Helen, that there are some things in heaven and earth not dreamt of in
+your philosophy, after all!"
+
+"Oho!" laughed Nellie Halford. "_Pinafore_ and Shakespeare! What a
+combination of wit and wisdom! It's quite worthy of a U. P. Senior."
+
+"He's not even a U. P. Senior now," said the coxswain, from the stern of
+the barge. "He has gone back in the alphabet, and is only an A. B."
+
+"An idea for your next cartoon, old man," cried Derrick. "The downfall
+of the Seniors, and their return to the rudimentary elements of
+knowledge. By-the-way, Polly," he added, more soberly, "do you remember
+that to-day is the anniversary of your entering upon the career of
+breaker-boy five years ago?"
+
+"It is a day I never forget, Dare," answered Paul Evert, gravely, as he
+gazed into the handsome sun-tanned face in front of him, with a look in
+which affection and pride were equally blended.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Derrick Sterling, by Kirk Monroe
+
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