Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1894-07-05

tnank you III frighten me out OF
marrying MIN, for you won't; and
if l didn't marry him I'd never
marry such a miserable, wicked,
ugly wretch as you! So don't fat
ter yourself l would
And she gave a kind of sob, and
burst out at the door, and rushed
up our little fight of stairs, aud |
heard the door bang and the key
turn in her lock sharp and passion
ate.
/ waited, still as death, wonder
ing how he would take on, and hear
ing no stir / kind Of squinted
around the doorpost into the pas
sage.
There he stood in the dusk facing
toward the open entry door and the
starry sky. A desperate, hideous,
evil looking thing, with his mon
strous 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 | didn't let on to Hetty that /
had overheard them. The next
day We were all underground as
usual. Somehow or other Matty
and Marwood and me found our
selves always pretty close together.
He seemed to me to be hanging
onto Jim in q way l didn't like,
hearing what / had heard, and
kept as close to both as well could
keeping my tools ready to hand,
and watching the dwarf out of the
corner of my eye.
Jim never looked taller nor hand
somer nor straighter than he did
that day. Happy he was as a lark,
whistling over his work and laugh
ing as light hearted as could be.
couldn't be light, for there was
a curious weight on my mind, q
sense as if some mischief was going
to happen before nightfall.
/ noticed that the dwarf scarce
took his eyes of Jim, except at
twelve o'clock, when we stopped for
our bits of food, and then he sat in
a corner by himself under a truck
and scribbled on a scrap Of paper,
with queer sort of smile on his
face. / had the shivers more than
once, for he looked 80 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 sound
ed for all the world like the jabber-
ings of maniac.
In the afternoon we got down to
lower level. 1t was q dangerous
part of the mine, as we all knew,
and we kept our Davy lamps pretty
tight, l 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.
'Ah, that it wouldv Jim answer
ed.
A kind of sick fear came over me
that our lives were i'm the dwarfs
power, and hanging, as it might be,
on thread. Such longing came
over me for a mouthful of fresh air
and the sight of the open sky as !
had in the mines before.
People warming their toes at
their handsome 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 fire.
damp, however, and that day, the
longest day ] had ever known, came
around to six 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 60 now says ! to the dwarf.
No. he answers; 'I'm going to
stay a little overtime tonight. You
al 60 on, and send the cage down
again for me. And look here, give
this to your sister Hetty, will you?