Part 24 (1/2)

As long as they were within hearing the boys, shouted back such answers as, ”We'll try to!” ”Thank you, Ike! We won't forget you; never fear!”

”Good-by all!”

Then the train came along. A few loving words were hastily spoken, and they were off. The hard, grimy, perilous life of the breaker and the mine was left behind, and a new one of study, ambitious dreams, and successes was opening broadly before them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GOOD-BY TO THE COLLIERY]

At first the boys were inclined to feel very homesick, and their conversation was only of the dear ones whom they had just left.

Gradually the feeling wore off, as their attention was attracted by the grand scenery through which they were travelling.

Paul revelled in the gorgeous coloring of the autumnal foliage which covered mountain, hill, and valley with splendid mantles of crimson and gold. As the train, following the picturesque windings of the Lehigh, crept along some mountain-side hundreds of feet above the low-lying bottom lands, his delight at the vast expanse of exquisite scenery unfolded before them knew no bounds.

”I didn't know the world was so beautiful,” he said to Derrick, with a sigh of deep content, as the vivid pictures of the grand panorama flashed rapidly by.

Derrick shared this enthusiasm, though to a less extent. He was more interested in the various forms of mining operations which were to be seen on all sides. His continued exclamations of, ”Oh, Paul! look at that new breaker,” or, ”Isn't that a capital idea for a slope?” at last attracted the attention of a middle-aged gentleman who, with a lady, occupied the seat immediately behind them.

Finally he leaned forward, and, speaking to Derrick, said, ”Excuse me; but as you seem to be familiar with mining operations, perhaps you will kindly tell me what the great black buildings, of which we now see so many, are used for?”

”Why,” answered Derrick, somewhat surprised that anybody should be ignorant regarding what to him were among the commonest objects of life, ”those are breakers.” Then seeing that the other was still puzzled, he explained, simply and clearly, the uses of breakers, and in a few minutes found himself engaged in earnest conversation with the stranger upon mining in general, and coal mining in particular.

At last the gentleman said, ”You seem to be as well informed on the subject as a miner.”

”I am, or rather I have been employed in a mine until very recently,”

answered Derrick.

”Indeed! It must be a most interesting occupation, but I should think a very dangerous one. I have a son who visited one of these coal-mines at the time of a disaster that threatened a number of lives, and his accounts of what he saw and experienced at the time are very thrilling.

It was, I believe, at a place called Raven Brook.”

It was now Derrick's turn to be interested, and he said, ”Why, that's where we have just come from! Raven Brook is the station at which we took the train.”

”If I had known that we were to stop there,” said the gentleman, ”I believe my wife and I would have got off and waited over one train, for we have been very curious to see the place. We have been on a trip to the West,” he added, by way of explanation, ”and our son's accounts of his experience came to us by letter. Besides, we read much of that disaster in the papers.”

”It was awful,” said Derrick, simply.

”Then you were in the village at the time? Perhaps you know a brave young fellow named Derrick Sterling?”

A quick flush spread over the boy's face as he answered, ”That is my name.”

”What!” exclaimed the gentleman; ”are you the young man who went back into the mine and risked his life to save a friend?”