The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-06-29
Two Rings.


nearly three years, but it is unusual
for q wife to yea two wedding rings9"
Dead silence. H9 had just lowered
his violin after a very soft solo, for it
was considerably past midnight when
I ventured that curious question.
There had been an evening party, and
as I "a to stay at the house till morn
ing Carson's wife had said Good
night" and left us to finish our inevita-
BILE smUke and talk. His mouth tWitChed
a little, but it was some time before he
retorted in a low tone:
''Is it unusual for q man we'll nigh
40 to have hair as white as mines"
"WeIl, perhaps not. But I thought
you attributed that to some shock or
other. What has that to do with-with
the two ringsH"
"Everythingw He listened at the
door for q moment, turned down the
lights and then came and sat down,
spreading his hands over the fire.
1.-Two ringsR Exactly. One is the
ring I put on her finger when I married
her. The second was put there by
another man and will stay there as
long as the first"
Never mind now," I said. His
voice had trailed off huskily. 81 had
no idea there was any tragic element
behind the fact"
"Tragic9 Heavensl It was more
than that. Arthur" he whispered,
turning up a drawn face, 81 never
meant to touch upon it, but when you
spoke it came back with a rush as vivid
az if I had been standing at the mouth
of the old north shaft again. And
that was six years ago.
you've heard me speak at least of
the mine itselt-the Langley mine in
Derbyshire. I had only been assistant
surveyor at the pits there for about
nine months when it happened. At 9
o'clock that morning, Arthur, three of
us stepped into the cage-old Jim Hal
liday, the foreman; his son Jim and
myself. The men had gone down a
hour before. l shall never forget that
young Jim's sweetheart had walked
over to the pit with him, as she occa-
sionally did. They were to be married
in a week or two, and she-and she
had on her finger the ring that he had
bought in Derby the day before, just
for safety's sake, or perhaps out of
womanly pride. I recollect that just
as the chain clanked and the winter
sunshine was disappearing overhead
he shouted out a third good bye to
her, little dreaming that it was to be
goodbye Little enough old Halli
day and I thought that days would
elapse before we emerged into Gods
sunlight again.
A new vein had been bored the year
before and then abandoned because it
ran in the direction of the river. We
three had had instructions to widen it
for a space of 800 yards, a piece of
work that had occupied US nearly a
month. Old Jim picked, and young
jim wheeled the coal away to the
nearest gallery, from where it was
carried over rails TO the bottom of the
main shaft.
"Well, by 4 o'clock that afternoon
we calculated roughly that we had
reached the limit laid down.
81 think it's as near as possible, Mr..
Carson old Halliday said Jim,
give another count. We don't went
the water coming in
Jim went back. We could hear
him singing out the PAGES in his light
hearted fashion as he returned, his
voice echoing through the long gale
ries. Two sixty eight-poohl You're
miles off it, dadr He was only a score
of yards off, though. Two sixty. nine
x y + two seventy four. It'll allow
a full 20 yet, I reckon
He had just finished his count
When-but no man can properly de-
scribe it. 1t was something one mad to
realize for himself before he could I'M
derstand a bare half of the sudden ter
ror that Whitened our lips and seemed
to bring cur hearts to a standstill.
There were q rumbling in one OF the
distant galleries and q sickening tremble
of the ground underneath US; then
then the most paralyzing sound, I do
believe, that is be heard in the world.
Why or how it happened is something
to be placed among the host of unsolved
mysteries. But there was one grind
ing splitting roar, as though the earth
had split into pieces.
t'Before we could stir hand or foot to