The Miller sun. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 190?-19??, 1906-12-29
-S3STGEc-
by Fergus Hume

ing at O'Clock the first shift were not
set up, and some OF the miners who had
to go on at s were sleeping heavily in
their beds. The sleeping places were
| berths, ranging along two sides of the
room, and divided into upper and lower
i compartments like those on shipboard.
| CASTOR having reused himself natural
| ly wanted to see where he was, so rubbing
his eyes and yawning he leaned on his ell
bow and took a leisurely survey of his po-
| sition.
CASTOR yawned once or twice, then
| feeling disinclined for any more sleep, he
| softly put on his clothes, so as not to
awake Pierre, who slept in the berth be-
low, and descending from his sleeping
place CROPPED his way to the door and went
out into the cool, fragrant morning.
There was chill wind blowing from
the bush, bringing with it faint aromatic
odor, and on glancing downwards he saw
| that the grass was vet with dew. The
dawn was burning redly in the east, and
the vivid crimson of the sky put him in
mind of that sunset under which he had
landed with his companion on the
| Queensland coast
He was near the mine by this time
and hearing some one calling to him he
| looked up, and saw Mcintosh There
was stir in the mems quarters now, and
| he could see the door was open and sew
eral figures were moving rapidly about
while number of others were crossing
| the fields. The regular beat o. the ma
| chinery still continued, and the smoke
was pouring out thick from the tall red
| IL, II Al. H. a..
round in the poppet-.eads as the mine
slowly disgorged the men who had been
working all night.
Mcintosh came slowly along with his
hands in his pockets and puzzled look
on his severe face. He could not make up
his mind whether to like or dislike this
young man, but Madame Midas had seem
ed 50 impressed that he had half made up
his mind to dislike him out of spirit of
contradiction.
Women are so easy pleased, poor
bodies" he said to himself, "a bonny
face is all they bother their heads ABBOTT"
He looked grimly at the young man as
he came briskly forward with gay smile.
"Ye're very early bird" he said,
| fondling his frill of white hair, and look
ing keenly at the tall, slim figure of the
Frenchman.
"Case of must, my friend" returned
vaudeloup, coolly tits only rich men can
afford to be in bed, not poor fellows like
me-"
''Your no much like other folk" said
the suspicious old Scotchman, with q con-
demnatory sniff.
"Of that / am glad" retorted Vande-
loup, with suavity, as he walked beside
him to the mems quarters. What hor-
rible thing to be the duplicate of half-a-
dozen other men. BY the way" break
ing off into new subject, Madame
Midas Is charming"
AYE, aye" said Archie jealously, eve
know all ABBOTT the French-fangled way o.
giving pretty words, and not scrap of
| truth in any o. them"
CASTOR was about to protest that he
said no more than he felt, which was
indeed the truth, but Archie mpatiently
hurried him off to breakfast at the office.
| They made a hearty meal, and, having
had talk, prepared to go below.
| First of all, they arrayed themselves
in underground garments, which consisted
| of canvas trousers, heavy boots, blue
sou'wester each. Thus ACQUIRED, they
| went along to the foot of the poppet
| heads, and Archie having opened a door
| therein, Vandeloup saw the mouth of the
shaft yawning dark and gloomy at his
feet. As he stood there, gazing at the
black hole which seemed to pierce down
into the entrails of the earth, he turned
round to take one last look at the sun
before descending to the neither world.
This is quite a new experience to me-"
| he said, as they stepped into the wet
| iron cage, which had assembled to receive
| them in answer to Archie's signal, and
now commenced to drop down silently and
swiftly into the pitchy darkness.
| Archie did not reply, for he was too
much occupied in lighting his candle to
| answer. SO they went on sliding down
/ noiselessly into the gloom, while the
water, falling from all parts OF the shaft,
kept splashing constantly on the top of
the cage and running in little streams
over their shoulders.
Its like nightmare" thought the
Frenchman, with nervous shudder, as he
saw the wet walls cleaning in the faint
light of the candle
Al last tney reacned the ground, ana
found themselves in the main chamber,
from whence the galleries branched off
to east and west.
Being accustomed to the darkness and
knowing every inch Of the way, the man
ager moved forward rapidly, and some
times vandeloup Jagged 50 far behind that
all he could see of his guide was the can.
die he carried, shining like a pale yellow
star in the pitchy darkness. At last
Mcintosh went into one of the side gall
leries, and going up an iron ladder fixed
| To the side OF the wall they came to a