Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1897-05-15

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'>1MJ MI "A tNA@ ought not to ask,
years, but is it usual for wife to wear
two wedding rings?'
Dead silence. He had ju, lowered
his violin, after very soft solo--for it
was considerably past midnight when
ventured that curious question.
There had been an evening arty, and,
as was to stay at the house till morn
ing, Carson's wife had sad "Good
night" and left lis to finish orr inevita-
BILE smoke and talk. His mouth
twitched little, but it was some time
! before he retorted in low tone:
''Is it usual for man we'll under
forty to have hair as white as mine?"
"Well, perhaps not-but 1 thought
you attributed that to some shock or
other. What has that to do with
with the two rings?"
Everything" He listened at the
door for moment, turned down the
lights and then came and sat down,
spreading his hands over the fire.
1.-TWO rings? Exactly, one is the ring
I put on her finger when I married
her; the second was put there by an
other man, and will stay there as long
as the first
Never mind now," I said. His
voice had trailed off huskily. II had
no idea there was any tragic element
behind the fact"
Tragic? Heavens! 1t was more
than that, Arthur" lie whispered,
turning up drawn face. 81 never
meant to touch upon it, but when you
spoke it came back with rush as vivid
as if 1 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 itself-the Langley Mine, in
Derbyshire. had only been assistant
surveyor at the pits there for about
nine months when it happened. At 8
o'clock that morning, Arthur, three of
us stepped into the cage-oll Jim
Halliday, the foreman, his son Jim,
and myself; the men had gone down
an hour before. I shall never forget
that young Jim's sweetheart had
walked over to the pit with him, as she
occasionally did. They were to be
married in week or two, and She
and she had on her finger the ring that
he had bought in Derby the day be-
fore-iust for safety's sake, or perhaps
out Of womanly pride. Irecollect that
just as the chain clanked and the win
ter sunshine was disappearing over
head, he shouted out third 'Good-by.'
to her little dreaming that it was
to be good-by. Little enough old Hal
liday and 1 thought that days would
elapse before we emerged into God's s
sunlight again!
ga new vein had been bored the
year before, and then abandoned be-
cause 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 lis
nearly month. Old Jim picked
and young Jim wheeled the coal away
to the nearest gallery, from where il
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 want the
water coming in
''Jim went back. We could hear
him singing out the PAGES in his light
hearted fashion rs he returned, his
voice echoing through the long CALLER
les. 'Two-sixty- y-nine-pooh! you re
miles off it, dadr He was only Il
score of yards off, though. 'Two-six.
ty-nine-two-seventy four. It'll allow
a full twenty yet, recon-.
He had just finished his count when
but there, no man could properly
describe it. 1t was something one
hal to realize for himself before he
could understand bare half of the
sudden terror that whitened our lips
and seemed to bring our hearts TO Il
standstill. There was rumbling in
one OF the distant galleries, and sick
eniug tremble of the ground under.
meath us; then-then the most paraly7
ing sound, [ do believe, that is to b,
heard in this world. How or why il
happened is something to be placed
among the host of unsolved mysteries
but there was one grinding. splinter
ing roar. as though the earth had spill
into pieces.
Before we could stir hand or foot
to save ourselves, before we could ever
take i'll that an explosion had occurred
while we were guarding against an
other sort of danger, down thundered
a mass of coal, tons upon tons of it
that blocked up the only passage lead
ing to the shaft. 1t Just reached
young jim; standing where he did, he
was struck down-we heard his screecl
stitied beneath the debris. For about
five more seconds the. earth seemed te
be heaving and threatening universe
chaos; then all became still as a tomb
"A tomb. We had our lamps: ol,
Jim and 1 looked, aud saw that W,
| were cut off from the rest of the world
What Happened next hardl,
Know: | was stupitied with the shock
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