Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1892-09-14

day we were all underground as
usual. Somehow or other Matty
and Marwood and me found our
selves pretty close together. He
seemed to me to be hanging on to
Jim in way | didn't like, hearing
what | had heard, and l kept as
close to both as | well could, keep
ing my tools ready to hand, and
watching the dwarf out of the
corner of my eye.
jim never looked taller, nor
handsomer, nor straighter than he
looked that day. Happy he was as
lark, whistling over his work and
laughing as light-hearted as could
be.
couldn't be light, for there was
curious weight on my mind, a
sense as if some mischief was going
happen before nightfall.
| noticed that the dwarf scarce
took his eye off Jim. except at
twelve o'clock, when we stopped
for our bits of food, and then he
sat i'll corner by himself under
truck and scrubbed on a scrap of
paper with a queer sort of smile on
his face. | 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 had
never heard him do before, and it
turned my blood cold, for it sound
ed for all the world like the jabber-
ing of a maniac.
In the afternoon we got down to
a 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 a spark would settle the
lot of us, wouldn't itP" 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.
"Ah! that it would" Jim answer
ed.
A 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 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 handsome fires OH 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
fire-damp, however, and that day
the longest day had ever known
come round to six o'clock without
an explosion.
The cages were ready for us tC
get up to the top of the shaft, and
most of the men had gone.
you go now" says ! to the
dwarf.
mol" he answers. "l'm going
to stay a little overtime tonight
You all 60 OH 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 a bundle into my hand
tied in handkerchief. / took ii
gingerly enough, for with such
suspicious in my mind, ] half ex-
pected it might go off in my face
somehow.
"What are you afraid Off" he
says sharply.
Nothing" l says, as sharp.
| And we touched the signal rope,
and up went Jim and me and the
dwarf stood underneath and turned
his face up, watching us out of
sight.
Well! felt more comfortable
when we put our feet on firm
ground OH top of the shaft and had
sent the cage down again for him.
wonder what's in that bundleP"
says Jim.
Maybe Hetty will tell you some
time," | replies little thinking how
it concerned him.
took it home and called Hetty
to open it. Our cottage wasn't far
from the pits, and it couldn't have
been above ten minutes since the
dwarf had put it into my hand.
She undid the knot, and there
If Won would believe it-were the