Читать книгу A Slave of the Ring - J. Monk Foster - Страница 4

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THE COLLIERIES worked and owned by Mr. Jonathan Myrelands were situated in the suburbs of Ashlynton, and consist of some half-dozen pits, by means of which four or five different seams of coal were wrought. Altogether nearly half a dozen hundreds of men and youths, women and wenches, were employed in or about the different mines, and it was, therefore, one of the most considerable of the mining concerns in the neighbourhood.

When Paul Massilon gained the brow of the White Crow pit, which he had arranged to descend that morning, he found on glancing at his watch that it still wanted a few minutes to six of the clock.

Reaching the bank he seated himself on the edge of on empty tub (small pit waggon), and waited. That was the first morning he had ever appeared in harness as an under-manager of a series of mines, hence the situation was not devoid of some sense of strangeness, although he had worked in the mines for the better half of his seven and twenty years.

Near the gaping mouth of the shaft a huge fire was glowing in a great iron cresset, which stood upon a metal tripod, and the flare of the burning coals threw a vivid light across the length and breadth of the brow, shining on the frosty 'landing-plates' and narrow lines of rails, and casting the shadow of the towering headgear far across the tall engine-house to the stack of coal lying beyond.

Half a dozen 'datallers' and 'galloway' drivers were lounging about the pit top, waiting for the up-coming cage in which they were to descend to their daily toil, the banksman was at his post with his hand upon the lever, which controls the 'catches,' and a few pit-brow girls were standing inside the cabin, ready to spring out when the 'buzzer' cried out the hour of six.

Presently there was a loud rattle as the cage came gliding to the surface and fell back upon the 'catches,' eight miners stepped out upon the brow, the others took their places, and then when the brow-man cried 'Let down,' the huge iron structure and its living freight disappeared in the shaft's unlit depths.

A minute later, when the stridulous screams of half a dozen steam whistles were filling the air with their clangour at every point of the compass, and when Paul was stepping into the cage to descend, Mark Baldwin, the chief manager, came hurriedly upon the brow, and seeing the waiting cage, took his place by his subordinate's side.

'I'm glad I've seen you, Massilon,' the head official began, as they were plunged almost noiselessly along the lightless vertical tunnel. 'I wanted to see you, and I was afraid you might have gone down some of the other pits.'

'But don't you recollect, Mr. Baldwin,' Paul replied, 'that you told me yesterday that I was to pay special attention to the White Crow pit for a few days?'

'So I did; but I wanted to see you so that I could tell you something I could hardly say yesterday in Mr. Myrelands' presence. I'll tell you all about it when we get below.'

'All right, sir,' was Paul's nonchalant response.

A few moments later they alighted at the bottom of the shaft, and emerging from the cage, found themselves in the highly vaulted, far stretching arch called the pit eye. Here flaring red torches were hung from the walls, and the hooker-on and his assistants were getting the full waggons of coal ready for sending up the pit.

At his superior's heels Massilon went towards the office—a small chamber about a dozen feet square excavated in the rock—and here they found a knot of miners, comprising the under-looker, Josiah Simm, a fireman, and several day wage men.

In the course of ten minutes Baldwin and his subordinate were left alone, all the others having departed to fulfil their various duties.

'And now, Massilon,' the chief manager of the Myrelands collieries began, as he pushed from him the reports of the officials of the mine, which he had been reading, and fixed Paul with his keen eyes, 'tell me honestly and frankly what you think of your new position.'

'I scarcely know what to think yet, Mr. Baldwin,' the younger miner made answer somewhat hesitatingly.

'You don't know what to think when you have worked about these pits for a good ten years? You must know, my lad; but I can understand that you don't wish to tell me yet. That's it, Massilon, eh?'

'I have worked here a goodish bit, Mr. Baldwin,' was the answer, 'but not as an official, you must remember. I am new to my duties as yet, and cannot say with honesty what I do think of my position.'

'Oh, that's it, is it?' said the other, with a dry laugh. 'But, my man, you know all the mines well—very well indeed—or I should never have thought of advising Mr. Myrelands to place the under-managership at your disposal.'

'Yes, I know all the mines fairly well, Mr. Baldwin,' Paul answered, as he thought of the years he had spent in them.

'And you know me as well as the mines, I think, Paul?' the other interrogated with a chuckle.

'Quite as well, sir,' Massilon exclaimed readily, as he glanced with admiring gaze upon his burly, white-bearded old friend.

'Nor can you plead ignorance respecting our worthy employer, Mr. Jonathan Myrelands, the Hon. Member for the loyal and ancient borough of Ashlynton. All these things you know well, Paul'—here Baldwin's hand was laid almost paternally upon the young miner's shoulder. 'And yet I know, as if you had told me in so many words, that you are not satisfied—quite—with your appointment.'

Paul made a deprecatory gesture, but the old miner waved it aside.

'Don't prevaricate, Paul. I am telling you the truth because I am fond of you, and because I'd stake my life on your honesty and ability. Tell me why you are not quite satisfied. When I was your age I should have thought it a godsend to drop into the position of an under-manager at a comfortable screw of three pound ten a week.'

'Oh, the salary is all right!' Paul said firmly.

'And am I not all right also?' the chief demanded, with a mock grimace.

'Of course you are! If I had all the mining world to choose from, Mr. Baldwin, you are the man I should select as my chief.'

'Thank you, Paul; but you have not yet said what is the exact cause of your dissatisfaction.'

'I have not said I am disappointed,' the young man said quietly, as his eyes dropped before the other's clear gaze.

'No, but you showed it clearly enough. Why, our master was delighted with the idea of putting you in Burton's place; but you were scarcely thankful to accept it. And I used to think you were ambitious, too.'

'It wasn't that I was not glad to get the appointment,' Paul cried, 'for I was. And I make no secret of my ambition, Mr. Baldwin. If I can rise in the world I mean to spare myself no pains and labour.'

'Yet, now when your chance comes you feel half inclined to resent it.'

'Not the chance, Mr. Baldwin.'

'What then?'

'I hardly care to tell you the reason. You have invariably been so kind to me all these years that I do not wish to utter one word that would offend you. And I cannot speak my honest opinion without doing so.'

'You may speak, Paul.'

'Well, I like you very much, and I like the mines in a way, but I do not like our employer or his methods. That is the whole truth, sir.'

'What fault have you to find with the Hon. Member for Ashlynton?' Baldwin queried in a cynical manner.

'To enumerate all his shortcomings would take too long, sir. Even to mention a few of them, if I am overheard by some sneak, may cost me my place.'

'No one will overhear what you have to say, Paul. Go on, please. Let me know all Mr. Jonathan Myrelands' sins, whether of commission or omission.'

'Our employer's sins are chiefly sins of the latter kind. He has left undone many things he ought to have done—and could have done very easily.'

'For instance,' said Baldwin, suavely.

'Well, he is a wealthy man, and has amassed all his thousands out of the blood and sweat, and perhaps the lives of his workmen. He began life poorer than either of us and now he is said to be worth half a million!' Massilon went on with some heat.

'I do not blame him for being successful, Paul,' the chief manager retorted.

'Nor I. But what of his qualities, and the shady methods he has adopted all his life in order to accumulate a fortune? He is a member of the House of Commons, and in Parliament is looked upon as a great authority on all mining questions. But I wonder what the opinion of the House would be if the honourable gentlemen composing it had only an inkling of our employer's true character. If——'

'More quietly, lad!' Baldwin interrupted as he raised his hand; 'unless you wish to get both of us sent to the devil!'

'I was going to say,' Massilon went on in a lower key, 'that if the world knew what we know about him he would be loathed and abominated, instead of being honoured in the highest degree as an exemplar of all that a man can be!'

'The world is composed of so many millions, mostly fools, you know, Paul!' the elder man broke in with a shrug of his heavy shoulders.

'But the world does not know this master of ours or it would not honour him!' Paul retorted lowly, but passionately. 'If men were aware that men who worked at these pits had been crushed to death through falls of roof, which might have been avoided had they been provided with timber, would they regard this man as anything but a grinding, heartless money-grabber?'

'Probably not, but the man who told them would soon be in gaol. It isn't safe to tell the truth nowadays, my lad!'

'Perhaps not; but if Parliament knew that a certain Hon. Member's mines were scandalously neglected, because he refuses to supply his officials with the necessary funds, would they look up to him as at present? Of course, not. You know, Mr. Baldwin, that this very mine is one of the most gaseous in Lancashire—that the air-ways are nearly choked up, that firedamp is in every place, and that an explosion may happen at any moment!'

'The lives of miners are always in the hands of God, Paul!' Mr. Baldwin answered, reverently. 'We are only poor creatures after all, doomed to burrow in the earth.'

'But no man has a right to endanger our lives recklessly in order to enrich himself. I believe with Robert Browning that God's in heaven and all's right with the world; but the very devil himself must be down below here!' Paul cried, as he rose to his feet and paced about the narrow cabin.

'There would be the devil to play with us both, Paul, if somebody heard you. I hardly expected this when I began talking to you.'

'I have felt it a long time and I am glad it is out!' Paul answered grimly. 'But you know that all I have said is true.'

'I cannot serve two masters, and as Mr. Myrelands pays me my wages I prefer to hold my peace!' retorted the chief.

'Well, you know how I feel!' said Massilon. 'I have often wondered how it was that you stayed here so long when you knew how rotten everything was about the place.'

'I have given hostages to fortune, my lad, and I prefer good wages and a bit of danger to idleness and—perhaps worse!' was the gravely spoken rejoinder.

'I understand!' said Paul quietly.

'But I don't understand you!' was the unexpected reply. 'You are a young man, Massilon, able and ambitious, and have all the world to wander in. If you knew the White Crow pit was so dangerous why remain here so long?'

'Well, I was getting plenty of money, and—and there was something in the town that kept me in it.'

As the young miner spoke his thoughts reverted to the fair factory girl he had encountered that morning. For her sake he had run the gauntlet and hoarded his money, counting the danger as little.

'Well, come along,' said Baldwin, after a momentary silence, as he rose to quit the office. 'After all, Paul, things are not in such a bad state as you make out. So far we have had no really serious calamity, and with God's help we may escape one!'

'I earnestly echo your sentiments, Mr. Baldwin,' Massilon rejoined as he followed his superior from the place. 'But I have heard it said that God helps those who help themselves!'

'Then we must help ourselves. But never a word of all this to any other man about the colliery. Besides, Paul, our master, the member for Ashlynton, has promised to spend a lot of money on improving all the pits.'

'That is good news, sir!'

'Yes. And again, Paul, we mustn't overlook one thing.'

'What is that, Mr. Baldwin?' Massilon asked eagerly.

'If we were not here, somebody else would be, and probably some persons less careful than ourselves. Knowing the dangers of the mine as we do we are in a sense forearmed against them.'

'To some extent that is so,' Paul was compelled to admit.

Then they pressed forward towards the working places of some colliers in the higher parts of the seam, wherein, during the last few days, a somewhat alarming outburst of 'firedamp' had taken place.