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."