Derrick Sterling Part 15

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. .h.i.tched 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 pa.s.s, 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 pa.s.s 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 a.s.sistance 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 a.s.sistance. 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.