The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-06-07
The a01iea daily eagle: Tuesdau 7t1oruo, gune 1892.

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wait for years; but you needn't think you Ii
! brighten me out of marrying him, for you
| won't; and if / didn't marry him I'd never
marry such miserable, wicked, ugly
wretch as you'll So don't fiatter yourself
would"
And she gave a kind of sob, and burst
out at the door, and rushed up our little
| fight of stairs, and l heard the door bang
and the key turn in her lock sharp and
| passionate.
l waited, still as death, wondering how
he would take on, and hearing no stir |
kind of squinted around the doorpost into
the passage.
There he stood in the dusk facing toward
the open entry door and the starry sky. A
desperate, hideous, evil looking thing with
his monstrous head and shaggy hair and
his little twisted legs. There was that
dull, tranced look in his eyes, and he was
| staring before him like had often seen
him do in the mine.
"She shall never marry Marwood while
Pm alive. God made me same as him." /
heard him mutter to himself, and then he
went out.
| saw him no more that night, and l
didn't let on TO Hetty that l had overheard
them. The next day we were all under
ground as usual. Somehow or other Matty
and Marwood and me found ourselves
always pretty close together. He seemed
! to me to be hanging on to Jim in a way
didn't like, hearing what / had heard, and
| kept as close to both as | well could,
keeping my tools ready to hand, and watch
ing the dwarf out of the corner of my eye.
Jim never looked taller nor handsomer
nor straighter than he did that day. Hap
py he was as lark. whistling over his
work and laughing as light hearted as
could be.
couldn't be light, for there was curl
Gus weight on my mind, a sense as if some
mischief was going to happen before night
fall
l noticed that the dwarf scarce took his
eyes off Jim, except at II o'clock, when we
stopped for our bits of food, and then he
sat in a corner by himself under truck
and scrubbed on a scrap of paper, with
queer sort of smile on his face l had the
shivers more than once, for he looked so
evil and SO black among the coal heaps,
and every now and then he would talk to
himself in Welsh, which l had never heard
him do before, and it turned my blood cold,
for it sounded for all the world like the
gatherings of maniac.
In the afternoon we got down TO lower
level. 1t was a dangerous part of the
mine, as we all knew, and we kept our
Davy lamps pretty tight, can tell you.
There's fire damp about here" said one
of the men.
"And spark would settle the lot of Us,
wouldn't it :" said the dwarf.
They were almost the first words he had
spoken, and the expression of his face as he
said it made my heart give turn.
"Ahl that it would" Jim answered.
4 kind of sick fear came over me that
our lives were in the dwarf's power, and
hanging, as it might be, on thread. Such
a longing came over me for mOuthful of
fresh air and the sight of the open sky as /
had never had in the mines before.
People warming their toes at their hand
some fires On the winter nights don't
know what it means to us chaps who have
the digging of the Goals in the depths of
the earth, and who put flesh and blood in
jeopardy every hour TO do it.
Nothing more was said about firedamp,
however and that day, the longest day l
had ever known, came around to o'clock
without an explosion.
The cages were ready for US to get up to
the top of the shaft, and most of the men
had gone
"You go now" says to the dwarf
"No!' he answers, "I'm going to stay a
little overtime tonight. You all go on,
and send the cage down again for me.
And look here, give this to your sister
Hetty, will you? and tell her to open it."
He put bundle into my hand, tied up
in a handkerchief. l took it gingerly
enough, for, with such suspicious III my
mind, | half expected it might go of in
my face somehow.
Then we touched the signal rope and up
went Jim and me, end the dwarf stood IN
derneath and turned his face up, watching
US out of sight.
Well felt more comfortable when we
put our feet on firm ground on top of
the shaft, and then sent the cage down
again for him.
Wonder what's in that bundle2" says
Jim.
Maybe Hetty will tell you some time"
replies, little thinking how it concerned
him.
took it home and called Hetty to open
il. Our cottage wasn't far from the pits,
and it couldn't have been above ten min
utI.H SAllSS lL~ wv ok Aa1 pun ~ luGO ull
hand.
She undid the knot and there-if you
would believe it-were the title deeds Of
his cottage and dozen soveregns tied up
in piece of canvas, and the scrap of paper
had seen him scribble on under the truck
There were these words on it:
what is here is for you. Ugly and
miserable am, but wicked / am not |
said you shouldn't marry him while was
alive, and shall keep my word. Think
kindly of a dwarf if you can. God made
me. as well as him"
We hadn't got to the end of the poor,
dirty little letter, when we heard a sound
that made our hearts stand still-a long,
dali roaring, shaking the floor we stood
on, az if it was thunder under our feet.
An explosion in the mine!" says Hetty,
with a face as white as chalk.
We rushed out. All Nine Pits was out;
men, women ard children, screaming and
running to the shaft head.
Hundreds of tons of solid earth and rock
and rubble had fallen in, and under it all
was .he dead, crushed body of that poor
creature we had helped to send from the
world.
1t was no use trying to dig him out. He
knew when he opened his Davy lamp-and
be must have opened it-that human help
could never reach him there. He knew
when he watched me and Jim 20 up in the
cage that he was staying behind for his
death, and he went TO it Of his own free
will for the love Of my sister Hetty.
She cried about it for week. and said
she should never be happy again. Bat
think she is happy now, for she married
jim come the Easter after, and they live in
Mattie's cottage still, and the garden is al
abioom with howers.-London Tit Bits