The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1898-05-14

pastl1es time forithe train TO befpassins
oyerhtad with your kids aboard
Yer, but ltsllke TO be some limo yet
before Il does 70, was his answer. And
then Lazy Tim leaped to his feet and
stood trembling, In another isecond5 he
[Basped: What's that. JIM? Do iye hear
anything? Quick man. speak,,
~ atrnlned my ears and peered out
Into the black gangway. 4 think, / hear.
aqueaks, Timmy--but ! dunno
Yes. It's the rats. Jim, There
look there--they're leaving the mire!"
he screamed And as he spokeiI saw a
great furry gray rat pass the breast like
Q streak OF light, and then two came by
on the jump, and then q bunch OF a
dozen. more like spetrits than rats eS-
Lcept for their blond. curdling Equeals.
'Somethlngs happened, Jimmy! Save.
yOurselh' shouted, starting for the
Bangway, hut he flew past me with a
single bound. yelling: Tile pillars! The
pillarst I've been Obblng them for
weeks!'
AN used TO be pretty good on the spr!nt
hbhfore ! went 10 Harrisburg and got fat,
and the way / ran along that gangway
was O caution; but Lazy Tim went by
me like a cannon ball. and an eighth OF
a mile away he. met a car and a mule
standing still, where the driver boy had
LETT them when he heard, the rats com
Inc. Tim tore the traces loose. jumped
n the mules back. and started for the
foot Of the slope. q mile distant, yelling
like /! maniac. beating the beast with his
big ists. and kicking her with his heavy
boots, all the while lying nat over her
meek so his head wouldn't strike the
roof On they went, the mule tearing
Through the darkness with never q
stumble, ~splashing through the sulphur
water. leaplng over mud-holes and
shaking with fear. Now and thea one
OF her heavy hoofs would come down
soft on n rat-there would be a single
dying tsqpai-.nnd the next second her
shoes would strike sparks from,the rails.
Assfcr Timmy, his head was giddyTw with
terror, and he prayed and swore, as he
chung to the mule, his eyes shut 80 as
not TO see the dancing shadows cast by
his lamp, or the sleek rats as they Sklp,
ped past him, or the white moss on the
sides of the gangwny that looked like
streaks OF snow, SO hard was he riding.
Halfway to the slope he clattered by
the drlver-boy. and then some other
miners who were running for their lives
and before he knew It the mule cametto
q dead stop, so sudden that he pitched
over her head to the ground. He jump
ed close TO the signal bar, and by good
luck an empty car was waiting there!
He grasped the bar and sounded the
danger signal, and got his answer from
the engine room above. Then he crawl
ed Into the car and shut his eyes ns he
went whirllng UP toward the surface.
He tried to think of what he should do
and couldn't. All he knew was that he
had robbed the pillars near his breast:
the rats had fled: the surface was about
to cave in-at that very minute an ex-
,cnrslon train with 500 children was due
TO pass over the spot, and among them
were his wife, and Johnny and little
Cripple MaryS
mo wonder he wa half crazy when
the c a reached the .surface;l but his
faint feeling had gone, and with the
strength Of d%esperation.he vaulted to the
ltground and raced down the railroad
track, waving his o above his head
fand yelling with all his voice. But just
las he got in sight of the spot over his
breast there was a cracking sound, and
then a rush and n rnar like a thousand
thunder storms. ,Trees by the rail trem-
Shled and swayed and toppled over, as
they and q great body OF earth and the
tracks for a hundred yards dashed down
Into the mine.
I'VE picked Tim up from the ground
where he had fallen and carried him