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."