Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-07-07

stem, and on her first happiness
party Save us! but it makes me all
choke up to think of it now, and it
happened years and years ago:
''Finally I got up and put my pipe
in my pocket and started to go on
again, but stopped minute, lookin'
at the breast he was working in, and
said: 'Ain't you beyond your line on
that pillar, Timmy?"
ga little, praps,' he replied, but
| haven't cut away much of any, and
the inside boss hasn't kicked yet
Its no business of mine, Timmy,
but as friend, 1 want to tell you that
robbin' pillar is risky
"'I know that, Jim,' he begain
again, hut must have work. Befbre
you go, what time is it?'
1 pulls out my watch. Just half.
past twelve, time for the train to be
passin' overhead with your kids
aboard
"'Yes, but it's like to be some time
yet before it does 60, was the answer.
And then Lazy Tim leapt to his feet
and stood trembling. In another
second he gasped: What's that, Jim?
Do ye hear anything? Quick, man,
speak'
81 strained my ears and peered out
into the black gangway, L think I
hear squeaks, Tommy-but I dun
no
"'Yes, it's the rats, Jim! There
look there they're leaving the minep
he screamed. And as he spoke saw
great furry gray rat pass the breast
like streak of light, and then two
came by on the jump, and then
bunch of dozen, more like sperrits
than rats except for their ood-curd-
ling squeals. Something's happened,
Timmy Save yourselfp 1 shouted,
starting for the gangway, but he flew
past me with a single bound, yelling:
THE pillars! The pillars! I've been
robbing them for weeks'
81 used to be pretty good on the
sprint before 1 went to Harrisburg
and got fat, and the way ran along
that gangway was caution; but
Lazy Tim went by me like q cannon
ball, and an eighth of a mile away he
met car and mule standing still,
where the driver-boy had left them
when he heard the rats coming. Tim
tore the traces loose, jumped on the
mules back, and started for the foot
of the slope, mile distant, yelling
like lunatic, beating the beast with
his big fists, and kicking her with his
heavy boots, all the while lying flat
over her neck so his head wouldn't
strike the roof. On they went, the
mule tearing through the darkness
with never stumble, splashing
through sulphur water, leaping over
mudholes and shaking with fear.
Now and then one of her heavy hoofs
would come down soft ON rat
there would be single dying squeal
and the next second her shoes
would strike sparks from the rails.
AS for Jimmy, his head was giddy
with terror, and he prayed and swore,
as he clung to the mule, his eyes shut
so as not to see the dancing shadows
cast by his lamp, or the sleek rats as
they skipped by him, or the white
moss on the sides of the gangway that
looked like streaks of snow. so hard
was he riding. Halfway to the slope
he clattered by the driver-boy, and
then by other miners who were run
ming for their lives; and before he
knew it the mule came to dead
stop, so sudden that he pitched over
her head to the ground. He jumped
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 far above. Then
he crawled into the car and shut his
eyes as he went whiriing up toward
the surface He tried to think what
he should do and couldn't. All he
knew was that he had robbed the pill
lars near his breast; the rats had
fed; the surface was about to cave in
at that very minute an excursion train
with five hundred children was due to
pass over the spot. and among them
were his wife, and Johnny, and little
Cripple Mary.
''No wonder he was hall crazy when
the car reached the surface; but his
faint feeling had gone, and with the
strength of desperation he vaulted to
the ground and raced down the rail-
road track, waving his coat above his
head and yelling with all his voice.
But just as he got in sight of the spot
over his breast there was a cracking
sound, and then a rush and roar like
a thousand thunder-storms. Trees by
the rail trembled and swayed and
toppled over, as they and great body
of earth and the tracks for hundred
yards dashed down into the mine
"We picked Tim up from the
ground where he had fallen and car
ried him home, and when he opened
his eyes that night Johnny was pley-
ing on the floor and little Mary sat in
her basket-chair holding his hand,
and his wife was cooking supper. The
last section of the train had just got
by and around the curve before the
cavern occurred. And I'm glad to
say that not man on the surface or
below was killed or even hurt.
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