Derrick Sterling: A Story of the Mines

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."