The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-24
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and round reyolveS the great drum as IL
turns coiling the wire rope.
The engine is running faster than 1T ever
has, but-and perhaps it is not to be
wondered att seems to the surveyor, as
with throbbing brow he leans over the edge
of the vertical shaft watching for 1t, as II
the skip never would reach the surface.
All! Here she comes
''Stopl' excitedly shouts Colonel Bestor.
The engine stops and the captain hastens
to the pits mouth.
Several miners have arrived and are
crowding around the shaft.
Hits Gathon* p says one.
"'E's the devili' says another.
"'E's deader'n doornail in that kivered
hover skipT' another declares.
The surveyor has entered the skip.
Its Jimmie" he said, as he put his
head out of the entrance.
" 'Oo-ray!" wildly shout the miners.
"'Ooray! 'oorayW
Take these weights" orders Colonel
Bestor, handing out the weights he had
helped the chain bearer to take off.
The surveyor and Jimmie get out of the
skip and are received with boundless en-
thusiasm.
Foremost Of those who greet the chain
bearer is Don Sanchez.
"Is the Senior Clemow living?" he eagerly
asks.
"Who else?" inquiries Captain Vivian.
-Four men an boy" and the chain
bearer names them.
BE they SAFE" asks Captain Black, who
has just arrived.
Safe henough. But told 'em you uns
'u'd want t. know bout EN-, an so coined
back"
"Why were you so long?' asked Colonel
Bestor, 1--WE had all given you up except
Vivian"
II coined s soon s hever I could, sorr;
but the bag busted, an ard time us ad
t. fix hit sorr." And Jimmie asked,
where's Mr.. Rose?'
Down t. the 'acienda. ''**
"Mr. Rose has telephoned for you to
meet him at the Office" said Mr.. Langdon,
the bookkeeper, after congratulating and
praising Jimmie and hearing his report.
"He will be there as soon as his coachman
can get him up the hill.'
Soon has ye're rested We'll co." said
Captain Vivian.
"Im rested 'nough now" Jimmie re-
piled.
No hurry" said Mr. Langton.
" E can't be t the hotfice noways him
side of 'alf an hour" added Captain Black.
But the bearer insists, and, refusing
all offers of carriage, he is soon at the COM
pany's Office, although, to his surprise, he
found several rests necessary on the way.
After hearing that Steve Clemow is alive
in the mine and that Mr.. Rose is on his
way to the Office, certain plan had sug-
gested itself TO Don Sanchez. Without as
yet fully giving himself up to this plan, so
far as he himself is conscious, Don Sanchez
is walking down the road which he knows
the manager must take coming up from
the Hacienda.
A sudden turn and the carriage is almost
upon him. Scarce knowing what he does,
the Mexican raises his hand.
The carriage stops.
What is it Mr.. Rose impatiently
asks.
Forced, as it were to speak, Don Sanchez
begins to tell what has happened.
"Were you there?" interrupts the man.
ager.
Eyes, senior, II
did you see Jimmie2 Did you hear
his report?''
Eyes. SEN"
"Get in! Quick! Quick! Drive onp'
orders Mr.. Rose. Now tell me all, and
no palaver!"
AS best he can Don Sanchez obeys. "But
why" he says in conclusion, "should
those poo-a man stay below two, three or
four days yet, until all the water-a ees
pumpt out? Why should not man go
down-a as deed the brave Senior Gimmie
Games; but weeth an apparatus for an
other man?
What an Englees has done Castilian
can do; and, besides, for the cour-rage-eous
Senior GIMME Games to again go ees too
much. And then one of those who ees cen
the mine-a ees the Senior ClemoW, who ees
a parteecular-r-r friend-a to me and to my
countrymans, and boards cen our camp
weeth the Widow Truson. Therefore, eef
Don Senior the manager weel be SO kinda
as to allow eet. |, Don Sanchez, weel be
most happy to go at once to the rescue-a of
Senior Clemow, my ferry dear friend-a, and
those who are weeth heem."
Mr.. Rose has no time for wonder at Don
SancheZ's magnanimous offer, for as he
concluded his request the carriage stopped.
"If it seems best" said the manager
with quick decision, "you shall go. Wait
outside"
Entering the Office, Mr.. Rose learns from
Jimmie that the men had fortunately left
the north drift and gone with their boss up
into the ''raise" off the south drift, where
the Ingersoll drill was, to see if the air
there would not be better to work in after
dinner, and that they were about to leave
the raise" to get their dinner buckets at
the station when the accident occurred.
One, a Mexican, tried to swim out, and
was undoubtedly lost. The other four men
and the boy, Tommy Pearce. who had
brought down the dinner buckets, are in
the raise waiting for deliverance.
Jimmie also told how the men below had
gathered all the ''snuffs" Chat is, small
pieces of candle used to fire blasts they
could find for light or food; that they tore
off the bottom of a tin dinner bucket
which one of the men had taken as they
passed the station, and had put it fast
under a timber overhead after blackenmg
it with candle smoke and scratching on it
with knife the names of those who were
there and the words, ''shut in by water"
and the date; that they supposed reser-
voir had been tapped, and were sure that
the water in the shaft could not be as high
as where they were in the raise, and so
that it would soon be pumped out. But
how, finally, the lapse of time (although
of time it was afterward learned they had
no correct idea), and the increased diff
Guilty they had in breathing, and the pres
sure of the atmosphere of the "raise" led
Jarvis, who had worked on the foundation
of the Brooklyn bridge in New York when
it was laid, to conclude that the sudden
tumble and rush of water which
had shut them in the "raise" was held
back by the air it had compressed into that
alright compartment, and if so that the
water must be much higher in the shaft
than they were in the ''raise."g And when
the men came to this belief they utterly
despaired of keeping alive until the mine
with its long drifts was emptied of water.
Still, for his widowed mothers sake, they
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