George Manville Fenn

“ The young deputy was going on thinking to himself whether it would not be possible to invent a process by which the dangerous gas of a mine might be collected in great gasholders, and then burned within gauze shades for the lighting up of the pit, when the distant chip—chip—chip ringing and echoing where the men were at work in the new four-foot grew less persistent, and in place of becoming louder as they drew nearer, gradually began to cease, as if first one man and then another had thrown aside his took. ”

“ Even as the big miner had his hand upon the gauze cover of the Davy-lamp there were tiny little explosions going on within, for in spite of the great current of air that was kept up through the pit, a draught which swept away the dangerous gas, there were places which its purifying influence did not reach, places such as this new gallery in the four-foot seam, where the vapour had been steadily increasing for hours and collecting round the heads of the men.
Familiarity breeds contempt. ”

“ It was a long and dreary journey, one which no one saw him undertake, for the men went off at once to their work; and after going down two or three of the long black passages Philip felt a strange sense of hesitation about going farther.
It was not, he told himself, that he was afraid of journeying alone there in the dark; and, armed as he was with one of the best of the Davy-lamps, he had no fear of gas; the choke-damp there was no occasion to mind, as that followed an explosion ”

“ Shame upon you! Look how the gas keeps flashing inside the lamps. You know there is danger. I told you there was danger before you came to work.”
“And how did you know?” cried Ebenezer Parks insolently.
“By study, brute!” cried Philip passionately; “by making use of the brains with which I have been blessed, and not going through life willing to risk the lives of my fellow-men for the sake of a little self-indulgence.”
“Don’t see much self-indulgence, as thou calls it, in having a pipe o’ ’bacco.” ”

“ Bending down half-double, he ran towards the group of men, gaining impetus each moment, till, stumbling over some of the newly hewn-out coal, he was thrown, as it were, full against Ebenezer Parks, his right fist catching the burly miner in the ear, just as he was, pipe in mouth, about to open the lamp, and they fell heavily together, the lamp fortunately being extinguished by the shock. ”

“ There could be no doubt that Philip Hexton did mean to win the fight, and there could also be no doubt that he was going the right way to work to win it. The greater part of the men met his efforts for their good in a surly, churlish way, as people will meet any one who tries to interfere with their cherished notions; but there were others, few though they were, who had the good sense and honesty to own that the young deputy was right, and to join with him in trying to reform the ways of the men in the pit. ”

“ They had galleries in their own mine that he knew nearly reached those of the old, and to drive from one to the other was the simplest of things.
The very next day, provided with the old map of the mine, which he had been studying half the night, he descended the shaft with one of the shifts of men, and, providing himself with a lamp, he set off alone to explore some of the old workings which had been given up in consequence of the dread that at any time the ancient mine might be tapped and their own pit flooded by the enormous gathering of water. ”

“ That question of a second shaft was always cropping up in Philip Hexton’s brain, for, said he to himself, it is a sin against four hundred men to let them go down that place without providing them with proper means of escape. ”

“ Say, Eben Parks, thee mustn’t niver smoke a pipe in Master Philip Hexton’s mine.”
“Let me goo!” cried the big miner; “let me goo, I tell ’ee! I’ll mak’ such a mark on him as he weant forget again.”
“Let him go!” cried Philip angrily, “and let him touch me if he dare; and let him recollect that there is law in the land for men who commit assaults, as well as for those who break the rules of the pit.”
“I’ll put such a mark on him as he weant forget,” cried the big miner, after another ineffectual struggle to be free. ”

“ The men would be in the regular seams. There was nothing to bring them here; and as they toiled at piece-work, they would not lift a pick except to hew out coal. No overman would be here without his knowledge; and try how he would to find some reason for the sound, he was still at fault. The only possibility was that, in some peculiar way the echo of a hewer’s pick ran along the silent galleries, to be reverberated from this distant wall.
“Impossible!” he said, doubling up his map and replacing it in his breast, as he rose and took up his lamp. ”

“ Hence, then, the neglect of one boy may alter the whole ventilation of some part of a mine, the purifying draught may be stopped from coursing through some dangerous gallery where the gas comes singing out of the seams, a light be taken inadvertently there, and ruin and death be the result. ”

“ The young deputy’s heart beat fast, and he was about to speak angrily, but he felt that it would be better to consult with his father to see if a stop could not be put to such reckless ways. For he argued if an overman would run such a risk as this, knowing that the detached portion of gas might possibly communicate with a larger body, was it not likely that the ordinary winners of the coal would, without the overman’s knowledge and experience, run even greater risks? ”

“ There is the rushing noise of the cage, the whirring of wheels, the constant dripping and plashing sound of falling water, the thudding of the pump, the stifling feeling of dank heat, the stuffy mist, and joined to all the knowledge that if that slender thread of wire-rope should happen to break, the cage would fall perhaps hundreds of feet, and its occupants be killed. ”

“ Then he lowered the lamp, and they ceased, showing how light the explosive gas was, and how it floated about the roof.
“Sithee,” continued the overman, holding up the lamp again, so that Philip could make out that there was a rift above their heads, where at some time or other the roof had fallen; “that place has got part gas in it, for the ventilation don’t touch here; but that don’t mean as the whole mine’s dangerous.”
“But the whole mine is dangerous,” said Philip hastily. “It’s made dangerous by the recklessness of the men. Stop, man, what are you going to do?” ”

“ Philip, with his father’s help, devised two or three alterations in the ventilation of the mine, which also made it less fiery, as the pitmen called it; but his great project was to have another shaft.
“You see, father,” he said, “we burrow into the ground like animals, but we do not take their precautions. A fox or a rabbit always has a second hole by which he can escape if there is anything wrong with the first. Ours is without doubt a dangerous pit, and if anything happened to block the shaft, the poor fellows down below would be entombed.” ”

“ No one spoke, and soon after that was heard the regular metallic chip—chip—chip of the picks in the black wall of coal, Ebenezer Parks muttering to himself the while, and thinking of how he could best revenge himself upon “that boy.” ”

“ She held on tightly by her son’s hand as she spoke, and kept gazing up at him with a wonderfully proud look.
“Well, father, as I say, I like a bit of change.”
“Of course, my lad; all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
“But I think it is the duty of every young man—boy, if you like, mother,” he said, smiling.
“Young man, Philip,” she replied, “for I’m sure you’ve grown into a very fine young man.” ”

“ A young and healthy man soon recovers from a shock, and before long Philip Hexton was on his way back to his home, with the exultant feeling upon him that the risk he had run was for the benefit of his fellows, for he could see now the way to provide, at a very moderate cost, a second shaft to their own pit. ”

“ There’d be no coal-mining at all, for the lads’d be too scarred to come down.”
“If I live and have my way,” said Philip sternly, “the pit here shall be so safe that work can go on in peace for every one, and every man shall act as guardian of his fellow’s safety.”
“Sounds very pratty, lad,” said the overman, “but it weant wuck. Look here, there’s a bit o’ gas in this corner.”
He held the lamp up close to the roof, and tiny explosions again began inside the gauze. ”

“ Yes; there it was. He was no nearer the top than when he first made his attempt at escape. All he had done was to tear the hazel up by the roots, but it had bent down with it the bough of another stubb, a stout, tough-looking bough, belonging evidently to a hazel growing farther from the edge of the shaft. Could he reach that he might better his position, but the long, tough, thorny brambles that hung down swaying about were in his way, unless he could make use of them as ropes. ”

“ There was a quick sharp draught of air as they passed through a door which was closed behind them by a boy, and, satisfied that the ventilation was good, Philip Hexton and his companion went on.
Meanwhile Ebenezer Parks, the big miner who had been complaining when the young man came up, kept on with his remarks as, in company with his party, he made his way to the four-foot seam, as it was called—a part of the mine where the good coal was but a yard in thickness, and at which they had to work in a stooping, sometimes in a lying, position. ”

“ If he struggled vigorously he knew that the chances were that he would tear the rotten moss-grown stubb up by the roots; if he swung about too much the branches would give way at their intersection with the low stem; if he should force his feet into the crumbling sides he would only kick down more stones and soil, and undermine the hazel roots. ”

“ Then, he who descends knows that he is going into a series of subterranean caves where the gas escapes, that the slightest contact with a light will explode, burning, slaying, and destroying, and leaving behind the choke-damp, which is even more deadly in its insidious effects. ”

“ It was indeed a position of awful peril—one in which, though such a proceeding would have been folly, most people would have exhausted themselves by shrieking for help where there was not a soul within hearing. ”

“ But still he seemed to get no higher, and—horror of horrors! he could now see the roots of the hazel coming over towards him.
Crack, crack, in a dull heavy way, they kept being torn asunder, and it soon became evident that the bush was only held now by one of its stoutest roots. The soft earth showered down upon the panting man, and his muscles quivered under the tension to which they were exposed; but now he was able to rest his arms to some extent by clinging to the branches below him with his legs.
Was there no hope? Such a short distance to climb if the hazel stubb would only hold ”

“ But what brought you down to-neet?”
“There was a fall in the barometer, and a great want of pressure in the atmosphere this evening,” said Philip. “I could not rest without coming to see that everything possible was done.”
“Ah,” said the overman grimly, “that’s what our lads weant believe in—your brometers, and pressures, and such like. They don’t like to be teached by one who they say’s nobbut a boy.”
“Does it matter how many years old a person is,” cried Philip sternly, “if he can point out what is right? ”

“ It’s nowt to do wi’ no brometers.”
“Listen!” said Philip; and as the man impatiently stood still, there was a low dull hissing noise plainly to be heard, where the gas was rushing from the cracks and fissures of the shaley rock and gathering in the long galleries of the mine.
“Now,” said Philip, “does not the barometer speak truly? When the air is weighty and dense it keeps back the gas, when it is light the gas forces its way out. What would be the consequences if I were to open our lamp?”
“There wouldn’t be no consekences,” said the overman with a grim laugh ”