The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-01-05
CHAPTER XVI.
The Shadow Cast Before.

III hiihNoNh. LAY AFTER uaNi instead
of the usual Aprilly weather varie-
gated by thunderstorms which usually
passes for summer in Scotland, the
Kirktonians had basked in the glow
of an almost tropical sun. The wagons
of Incubus, Romer & Co. clucked dumb
~ by the roadways. along which they
had formerly clattered, up to the inner
side of the felloe in dust.
The children, at home from school,
ran barefoot and barelegged all the
summer, till the extraction of thorns
and pieces of glass became an ord-
nary land unremunerative) part of the
duties of Mr.. William Stewart A. L.
S. of the local Apothecaries Hall.
In the pits down below, of course
nothing was changed. Twice day.
at morn and eve. tired mln rose to the
surface, and with white faces passed
the word" as to the condition of the
air and other matters below, to the
comrades who were there waiting for
the cage to descend.
Vic had been able to move for a gem
eral inquiry through a labor member
whom he had known on the same bench
as himself at the City of London
Technical School.
But, with the best will in the world.
from a government point of view, it
was a difficult matter to appoint such
a commission directly. To do so would
be to eensure their own officials. New
ertheless, filtering through some chan
mel, there came a suggestion TO these
gentlemen. that caey had better ar
range for a day on which to make a
surprise to the Incubus Coal and Iron
Works.
Whereupon. filtering through chan
nels yet more mysterious, the news
also reached Mr.. Walter Grinding and
his faithful co-worker, Mr.. Hector Nc
Kill. They held council together on
what was TO be done, Mr.. Grinding
taking high ground
Now, see here" he said, emphasize
ing his points with one clen/ed fist
driven noiselessly into the followed
palm of the 9th n, "see here McKill.
this is not a matter for the Oddfellows'
Hall nor yet for the One
Thousand. Three Hundred, and Five and
Thirty. This is serious. l have got
to see it through. There is no use
troubling the chief-nor yet Mr.. Kahn
you understand. The chief is too much
of a swell, too authoritative, also, with
such men. And as foreigner, Kahn
is handicapped. He does not know how
to treat government officials. Now. I
do. They are to stop with me, mind
and in some way or other 1 am to be
Unidentified for my trouble and Ks
now mind that-enter so much ore as
of a grade lower, perhaps-something
like that.
you know that I cannot conscien
tiously approve of such proceedings!
said Hector McKill.
'And you are not asked tot" said
Grinding. "An you have to do is to
keep your mouth shut, and stick your
initials in the corner of a sheet or two.
You know 1 have the welfare of the
concern too much at heart to spend a
penny needlessly. have never done
it in my life! You go elsewhere and
farther with your conscientious ap-
proval"
Il know, Grindling-I know" said
Hector McKill, touched almost to tears
to think that he had wronged his
friend. For, strangely enough, these
gentry had among themselves a species
of honor, which was not without a
certain contorted nobility. They were
working not for themselves, but for
~ firm-cheating, lying, deceivins,
lives of hundreds of men, putting
prices, and cutting down wages, all
the honor, glory and profit OF IN
bus Romer & Co, the firm which
ey had served all their lives.
But all that year there was in the
lder world of the workings great
,ubt and uncertainty. This came to
head after the fire, and the dismissal
Vic Morris. Vague impressions and
ain hopes were reused by the whis-
pered name of that distant entity called
Parliament Something was wrong
down below Everybody knew that. Yet
they did Vic Morris will, as it was eX-
pressed privately through this Foreman,
and that inspector of ways. They knew
it was the dismissed engineers will
that they were doing. But they would
have died rather than own it.
Yes there was something wrong
with the pits-not with one. but with
all Some said that old workings, dat
ing a hundred years back, stood full
of water, ready to be tapped, and ulat
some day the chance stroke of a pick
would flood the whole series from end
to end leaving not living soul within.
Others, who had worked in distpnt
English mines where the dread fire
damp follows the f1re-blast along de-
vastated passa ges, declared that they
had seen the little detached bluest
flame, which tells of mine becoming
fiery, lowering above theNr lanterns
Others had tales of ponies, which, hay-
ing once laid down, ro9e never more
And there were tally-boys and gate
boys who would not have taken a nap
on the sly for a hundred pounds-so
much they feared the invisible gas,
heavy as water, the drinking of which
was death.
Still, at six of the morning - 'every
second house, down at the endless
blocks of the Incubus Pit Rows-num-
bered from A to Q-hundreds of men
and boys stolidly got themselves ready
for their days work. In the strait little
tagged kitchens they breakfasted,
father with his boys, or brother with
brother-those who did not know them
would have said a little doggedly-
somewhat sullenly At least, little was
said. Silence is particularly morn
Ing virtue among Scottish workingfolk.
And this not the less, that, at Kirk
town many were waits and strays from
half the workings of the three king
doms-these being especially plentiful
in Pit No. 3-the sinking of which was
not yet completed. These "sinkers" had
the name of wild lot, even for Kirk
town. And the staid men of Pit No. 2
Scots of the old faith, and Cornishmen
of "the people called Wesleyans"-ex-
pected nothing less than that judg-
ment should fall on them for their lam
guage during the week. and their be-
havior on Saturday nights. Because
of the "sinkers" the Kirktown police
had to be increased. Yet in spite of
all, the lesson of Job held true. And
it was not on them that the tower of
Sloan fell for all their frequent sac
rifices to Bacchus and other divinities
even less reputable.
AS each miner in the blocks got him
self ready, he glanced about him for the
days provision which the Woman of
the House-'IIer," that is-Wife, moth
er. sister, daughter, sometimes grand
Gil 70, IA