Part 14 (1/2)

He was almost dropping with exhaustion, but he could not think of leaving his dead friend in there. So at last it was agreed that he should stay, and at least give the benefit of his advice. The others, more tired than ever they had been before in all their experience of the mines, where hard work is the rule, trudged wearily home, to be met by the waiting groups of women and children, who at all times stood at the corners of the village eagerly asking for news, ”If they'd been gotten yet.”

After a few minutes' deliberation a plan was decided on by Andrew and his comrades of trying to choke up the hole in the roof with timber, and the work went on desperately, silently, heroically. Time and again their efforts were baffled by new falls, but always the same persistent eager spirit drove them back to their toil. So they worked, risking and daring things of which no man who never saw a like calamity has any conception, and which would have appalled themselves at any other time.

”Look out, boys,” called Tam Donaldson, springing back to the road as the warning noise again began, and great ma.s.ses of rock came hurtling down, filling the place with dust and noise.

A cry of pain and horror broke upon them as they ran, and brought them back while the crumbling ma.s.s was still falling.

”Great G.o.d! It's wee Jamie Allan,” roared one man above the din. ”He's catched by the leg! Here, boys, hurry up! Try an' get this block broken afore ony mair comes doon. G.o.d Almichty! Are we a' goin' to be buried thegither? This bit, boys! Quick!” And they tore at the great ma.s.ses of stone, the sweat streaming from every pore of their bodies, cursing their impotence as they smashed with big hammers the rock which lay upon Jamie's leg.

”Mind yersel's, laddies!” warned Jamie, as again the trickling noise began, heralding another fall. ”Leave me, for G.o.d's sake, an' get back!”

But not one heeded. Desperate and strong with the strength of giants, they toiled on, the sight of suffering so manifest in Jamie's eyes, as he strove not to cry out, spurring them onward.

”Ye'll never lift that bit, Tam,” said Jamie, as four of them tore at the block which lay upon his leg. ”It's faur too big. Take an ax an'

hack the leg off. I doot it'll be wasted anyway. Oh, dear! Oh, dear!”

And unable longer to endure the pain, he roared aloud in agony, and tore at the stone himself with his fingers, like an imprisoned beast in a trap.

”Here, boys, quick!” cried Andrew, getting his long pinch in below the stone, upon a fine leverage. ”Put yir weight on this, Tam, an' Jock an'

Sanny'll try an' pull Jamie out. Hurry up, for she's working for anither collapse. A'thegither!” and so they tugged and tore, and strained and pulled, while the roars of the imprisoned man were deafening.

”A'thegither again, laddies!” encouraged Andrew. ”This time!” and with a tremendous effort the stone gave way, and Jamie was pulled clear, his leg a crushed ma.s.s of pulpy blood and shattered bones. They dragged him back clear of any further falls, and improvised a stretcher on which to carry home his now unconscious body.

”That was a h.e.l.l o' a narrow shave,” quietly observed Tam Donaldson, as they panted together, and tried to collect themselves. ”His leg's wasted, I doot, an' will need to come off.” When they had their stretcher ready, the wounded man was tenderly placed upon it, carefully covered up with the jackets of the others; whilst half-a-dozen of them carried him to the pit bottom, and finally bore him home, where the doctor was ready waiting to attend to him.

Andrew and a few others worked away, and at last managed to get the running sore in the roof choked up with long bars of timber, and even though it continued to rumble away above them, the heavy blocks of wood held, and so allowed them to work away in comparative safety.

Peter Pegg and Matthew Maitland returned at six o'clock next morning, bringing with them another band of workers to relieve those who had worked all night, but still Andrew Marshall would not leave the scene of the disaster. He worked and rested by turns, advising and guiding the younger men, who never spared themselves. They performed mighty epics of work down there in the darkness amid the rumbling, falling roof. It was a great task they were set, but they never s.h.i.+rked the consequences.

They never turned back. Risks were taken and accepted without a thought; tasks were eagerly jumped to, and the whole job accepted as if it were just what ordinarily they were asked to do.

Crash went the hammers; thump went the great blocks of material into the tubs, and the men quietly got away the tubs as they were filled. Night and day the great work went on, never ceasing, persistent, relentless.

If one man dropped out a minute to breathe and rest when exhausted, another sprang into his place, and toiled and strove like an engine.

There was something great and inspiring even to look on at those mighty efforts--something exhilarating and elevating in the play of muscles like great long shooting serpents under the glistening skins of the men.

Arms shot out, tugged and tore, jerked and wrenched, then doubled up and the muscles became knots, bulging out as if they would break through the skin, as the great blocks were lifted; and then the blocks were cast into the tub, the knots untied themselves, and slipped elastically back into their places, and the serpents were momentarily at rest until the body bent again to another block. Out and in they flew, supple and silent, quick as lightning playing in the heavens; they zig-zagged and shot this way and that, tying and untying themselves, darting out and doubling back, advancing and retiring in rhythmic action, graceful and easy, powerful and inevitable. Bending and rising, the swaying bodies gleamed and glistened with greasy dust and sweat, catching the gleams from the lamps and reflecting them in every streaming pore. Straining and tearing, the muscles, at every slightest wish, seemed to exude energy and health, glowing strength and power.

It was all so natural and apparently easy--an epic in moleskin and human flesh, with only the little glimmer of oil-lamps, which darted from side to side in a mad mazurka of toil, crossing and recrossing, swinging and halting, the flames flattening out with every heave of their owners'

bodies, then abruptly being brought to the steady again. Looked at from the road-foot, it was like a carnival of fireflies engaged in trying how quickly they could dart from side to side, and cross each other's path, without coming into collision.

Who shall sing in lyrical language the exhilaration of such splendid men's work? Who shall catch that glow of strength and health, and work it into deathless song? The ring of the hammers on the stone, the dull regular thud upon the timber, the crash of breaking rock, and the strong, warm-blooded, generous-hearted men; the pa.s.sionate glowing bodies, and above all, the great big heroic souls, fighting, working, striving in a h.e.l.l of hunger and death, toiling till one felt they were G.o.ds instead of humans--G.o.ds of succor and power, G.o.ds of helpfulness and strength.

So the work went on hour after hour, and now their efforts were beginning to tell. No more came the rumbling, treacherous falls; but perceptibly, irresistibly was the pa.s.sage gradually cleared, and the way opened up, until it seemed as if these men were literally eating their way into that rock-filled pa.s.sage.

”Can ye tell me where Black Jock is a' this time?” enquired Andrew, as Peter and Matthew and he sat back the road, resting while the others worked. ”Rundell has been here twa or three times, for hours at a time, but I hae never seen Walker yet.”

”I hae never seen him either, an' I was hearin' that he was badly,”

returned Peter, and his big eye seemed to turn as if it were looking for and expecting some one to slip up behind him.

”Ay,” broke in Matthew, ”badly! I wadna say, but it micht be that he's badly; but maybe he's not.”