The Glenwood post., 1924-08-07
Found
Only Way
to Win
By JAMES BLACK

ny JAMES 0xAANA
20. 1924. Western Newspaper unioa)
WRlL. 1t amt no use your coming
here no more. You're Citing too
Old to work underground, and that's
the plain truth. You kin get your pay
tonight"
Old Bill stared in dismay at McCar.
thy, the. superintendent of the construc-
don gang. He had lived In dread of
Just those words for months now-but
that did not make them any easier.
Years before Bill had himself been
foreman. He had lost that job through
drinking, but there had always been
place for him In the coal mine. And
yet he had known 1t could not last
forever.
His life had not been a very happy
one. There was Rose-they had never
got along together at all. And his
son. the only child. had died In the
war. No, life hadn't much to hold out
for him.
All his savings he had put into life
insurance. When he died Rose would
get four thousand dollars, enough to
establish her for life comfortably with
little shop, or Something like that.
But what was the use of that? Fired
from the only job he knew, he couldn't
turn in the weekly pay envelope. Nor
could he keep up the premiums. And
worse than anything he dreaded the
scOlding that he knew would come
when he got back and told his wife
that the mine was finished so far as
he was concerned.
All the morning he brooded over 1t
as he picked at the thin seam of coal
for old Bill got the thinnest and most
Improbable seams nowadays. He
hated Mccarthy, the Irish giant with
whom lay the decision that meant life
or death to him. Meanwhile In some
way the news had got about among
the men.
"Old Bills fred" Bill heard one
whisper to another. "Time he was.
too guess The company's only been
keeping him out of charity for years
past. He's past work"
The words sank into his soul. No
use, no use to any one. Useless here,
and useless at home. His wife had
commented acridly upon that fact, as
old Bills pay envelope dwindled and
grew smaller week by week.
No use-and he must starve in his
old age. Rose must starve, too. Why
couldn't he die, so that she could col
lect that four thousand dollars? No
such luck. He must just 90 on, bur-
den upon everybody.
He was picking away in the far end
Of the gallery when he heard strange
rumbling sound in the distance. He
stopped and listened. His ears were
not SO good as they had been. but he
remembered that he had heard sound
like that once, long years before.
That was when the cave-in occurred
at an adjacent mine. He had been one
Of those who escaped. Nineteen min
ers were killed when the ground coll
lapsed. They were buried under half
a mile Of stone and rubble.
Shouts, shouts OF warming. Now old
Bill flung down his pick and ran along
the gallery. He could not mistake that
warning.
When he drew near the entrance he
saw a strange thing. The miners were
scurrying like ants toward the distant
light. And straddling the corridor was
a figure looking like one Of those stat
ues that he had seen outside the lower
stories of buildings in the city-men
carrying the weight of the building on
their backs. -
And then he knew what 1t was. 1t
was Mccarthy, the superintendent,
bearing the entire weight of the caving
timbers on his shoulders. A Hercules.
the big Irlshman stood there, his bowed
legs set into the coal dust his mighty
muscles upholding the sagging timbers.
And the moment Mccarthy let go
he would be buried-as those nineteen
had been buried. He was giving his
life for the men.
"Bill." He gasped under the strain.
"Hurry, man, can't hold 'em up much
longer"
Then old Bill did a strange thing.
Deliberately he took his stand behind
Mccarthy. He braced his strong old
shoulders under the sagging timbers.
Run, Mac" he gasped. "You got
a wife and four kids"
"Blll you burned old fooll Git!"
'I won't git. Mac. If you don't git.
I'll stay here with you. Quick l amt
as strong as was. It's no use talking.
Mac"
"Bill, can't do It,"
"You got to do 1t, Mac"
"God bless you, Bill. If 1t wasn't
I'll see to your wife.
"Quick can't hold on! Good-by,
Mac"
As Mccarthy emerged into the light
he heard the mine cave in behind him.
Changed