Derrick Sterling A Story of the Mines   By: Kirk Monroe

A STORY OF THE MINES

BY KIRK MUNROE

Author of "THE FLAMINGO FEATHER"

[Illustration: IN THE BURNING BREAKER.]

NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY HARPER & BROTHERS COPYRIGHT, 19l6, BY KIRK MUNROE

PRINTED IN THE U. S. A.

CONTENTS

I. IN THE BURNING BREAKER

II. A FEARFUL RIDE

III. THE MINE BOSS TAKES DERRICK INTO HIS CONFIDENCE

IV. INTRODUCING HARRY, THE BUMPING MULE

V. ATTACKED BY ENEMIES, AND LOST IN THE MINE

VI. THE SECRET MEETING. A PLUNGE DOWN AN AIR SHAFT

VII. A CRIPPLE'S BRAVE DEED

VIII. DERRICK STERLING'S SPLENDID REVENGE

IX. SOCRATES, THE WISE MINE RAT

X. IN THE OLD WORKINGS. MISLED BY AN ALTERED LINE

XI. A FATAL EXPLOSION OF FIRE DAMP

XII. THE MINE BOSS IN A DILEMMA

XIII. LADIES IN THE MINE. HARRY MULE'S SAD MISHAP

XIV. A LIFE IS SAVED AND DERRICK IS PROMOTED

XV. A "SQUEEZE" AND A FALL OF ROCK

XVI. BURSTING OF AN UNDERGROUND RESERVOIR

XVII. IMPRISONED IN THE FLOODED MINE

XVIII. TO THE RESCUE! A MESSAGE FROM THE PRISONERS

XIX. RESTORED TO DAYLIGHT

XX. GOOD BY TO THE COLLIERY

ILLUSTRATIONS

In the burning breaker

"Here, lad, lead this mule down the rest of the way, will ye?"

Suddenly there came a blinding flash, a roar as of a cannon

Good by to the colliery

DERRICK STERLING: A STORY OF THE MINES

CHAPTER I

IN THE BURNING BREAKER

"Fire! Fire in the breaker! Oh, the boys! the poor boys!" These cries, and many like them wild, heartrending, and full of fear were heard on all sides. They served to empty the houses, and the one street of the little mining village of Raven Brook was quickly filled with excited people.

It was late in the afternoon of a hot summer's day, and the white faced miners of the night shift were just leaving their homes. Some of them, with lunch pails and water cans slung over their shoulders by light iron chains, were gathered about the mouth of the slope, prepared to descend into the dark underground depths where they toiled. The wives of the day shift men, some of whom, black as negroes with coal dust, powder smoke, and soot, had already been drawn up the long slope, were busy preparing supper. From the mountainous piles of refuse, of "culm," barefooted children, nearly as black as their miner fathers, were tramping homeward with burdens of coal that they had gleaned from the waste. High above the village, sharply outlined against the western sky, towered the huge, black bulk of the breaker.

The clang of its machinery had suddenly ceased, though the shutting down whistle had not yet sounded. From its many windows poured volumes of smoke, more dense than the clouds of coal dust with which they were generally filled, and little tongues of red flame were licking its weather beaten timbers. It was an old breaker that had been in use many years, and within a few days it would have been abandoned for the new one, recently built on the opposite side of the valley. It was still in operation, however, and within its grimy walls a hundred boys had sat beside the noisy coal chutes all through that summer's day, picking out bits of slate and tossing them into the waste bins. From early morning they had breathed the dust laden air, and in cramped positions had sorted the shallow streams of coal that constantly flowed down from the crushers and screens above. Most of them were between ten and fourteen years of age, though there were a few who were even younger than ten, and some who were more than sixteen years old.[1]

[Footnote 1: A law of the State of Pennsylvania forbids the employment of boys less than twelve years old in breakers, or less than fourteen in mines. This law is not, however, strictly enforced.]