a mong the group of men and boys assembled round the mouth of the vaughan pit on the 7th of june were two little lads, jack simpson and harry shepherd, who were to make the descent for the first time. the boys were fast friends. harry was the taller but was slighter than jack, and far less sturdy and strong. both were glad that they were to go into the pit, for although the life of a gate-boy is dull and monotonous, yet in the pit villages the boys look forward to it as marking the first step in a man's life, as putting school and lessons behind, and as raising them to a position far in advance of their former associates.
nowadays the law has stepped in, and the employment of such mere children in the mines is forbidden, but at that time it had not been changed, and if a boy was big enough to shut a door he was big enough to go into a mine.
"dost feel skeary, jack?" harry asked.
"noa," jack said; "what be there to be skeary aboot? [pg 40]i bean't afeard of the dark, and they say in time 'ee get used to it, and can see pretty nigh loike a cat. there be dad a calling. good-bye, harry, i'll see thee to-night."
the yard of the vaughan resembled that of other large collieries. it was a large space, black and grimy, on which lines of rails were laid down in all directions; on these stood trains of waggons, while here and there were great piles of coal. in the centre rose up a lofty scaffolding of massive beams. at the top of this was the wheel over which a strong wire rope or band ran to the winding engine close by, while from the other end hung the cage, a wooden box some six feet square. at the corner of this box were clips or runners which fitted on to the guides in the shaft and so prevented any motion of swinging or swaying. so smoothly do these cages work that, standing in one as it is lowered or drawn up, only a very slight vibration or tremor tells that you are in motion. near the square house in which stood the winding engine was another precisely similar occupied by the pumping engine.
the vaughan was worked by a single shaft divided by a strong wooden partition into two, one of these known as the downcast shaft, that is, the shaft through which the air descends into the mine, the other the upcast, through which the current, having made its way through all the windings and turnings of the roadways below, again ascends to the surface. this system of working by a single shaft, however, is very dangerous, [pg 41]as, in the event of an explosion, both shafts may become involved in the disaster and there will be no means of getting at the imprisoned miners. nowadays all well-regulated mines have two shafts, one at a distance from the other, but this was less common thirty years back, and the vaughan, like most of its neighbours, was worked with a single shaft.
each miner before descending went to the lamp-room and received a lighted "davy." as almost every one is aware, the principle of this lamp, and indeed of all that have since been invented, is that flame will not pass through a close wire-gauze. the lamp is surrounded with this gauze, and although, should the air be filled with gas to an explosive point, it will ignite if it comes in contact with flame, the gauze prevents the light of the lamp from exploding the gas-charged air outside. when the air is of a very explosive character even the davy-lamps have to be extinguished, as the heat caused by the frequent ignitions within the lamp raises the gauze to a red heat, and the gas beyond will take fire.
jack took his place in the cage with bill haden and as many others as it could contain. he gave a little start as he felt a sudden sinking; the sides of the shaft seemed to shoot up all round him, wet, shining, and black. a few seconds and the light of day had vanished, and they were in darkness, save that overhead was a square blue patch of sky every moment diminishing in size.
[pg 42]
"be'st afeard, jack?" bill haden asked, raising his lamp so as to get a sight of the boy's face.
"noa, why should i?" jack said; "i heard 'ee say that the ropes were new last month, so there ain't nothin to be afeard on!"
"that is the young un they call bull-dog, ain't it, bill?"
"ay!" bill haden answered; "he's game, he is; you can't make him yelp. i've licked him till i was tired, but he never whimpered. now then, out you go;" and as the cage stopped the men all stepped out and started for the places in which they were working.
"coom along, jack; the viewer told me to put you at no. 10 gate."
it was ten minutes fast—and as jack thought very unpleasant—walking. the sleepers on which the rails for the corves, or little waggons, were laid, were very slippery. pools of water stood between them and often covered them, and blocks of coal of all sizes, which had shaken from the corves, lay in the road. when it was not water it was black mud. sometimes a line of waggons full or empty stood on the rails, and to pass these they had to squeeze against the damp walls. before he reached his post the gloss of jack's new mining clothes had departed for ever. the white jumper was covered with black smears, and two or three falls on the slippery wooden sleepers had effectively blackened his canvas trousers.
"there, lad," bill haden said at length, holding his [pg 43]lamp high to afford a general view of the situation; "that's your place."
"the place" was a hollow like a cupboard, some five feet high, two deep, and a little wider. there was a wooden seat in it, a peg or two had been driven into the rock to hang things from, and a handful or so of hay upon the ground showed that jack's predecessor had an idea of comfort.
"there you are, and not a bad place either, jack. you see this cord? now when thou hearst a team of corves coming along, pull yon end and open the door. when they have passed let go the cord and the door shuts o' 'tself, for it's got a weight and pulley. it's thy business to see that it has shut, for if a chunk of coal has happened to fall and stops the door from shutting, the ventilation goes wrong and we all goes to kingdom come in no time. that's all thou'st got to do 'cept to keep awake. of course you woan't do that; no boy does. so that you larn to wake up when the corves come along, that ull do foine."
"but if i doan't?" jack asked.
"well, if thou doan't thou'lt get waked with a cuff o' th' ear by the driver, and it depends on what sort o' chap he be how hard the cuff thou'lt get. i doan't think thou'lt feel lonely here, for along that side road they bring down other corves and the horse comes and takes 'em on. on this main road the horses go through to the upper end of the mine, half a mile farther."
[pg 44]
"how do it make a differ whether this door be open or shut, father?"
"well, lad, the air comes up the road we ha come by. now it's wanted to go round about by the workings on that side road. this door be put to stop it from going by the straight road, so there's nothing for it but for to go round by the workings, maybe for a mile, maybe three miles, till it gets back into the main road again. so when the door is open the ventilation is checked right round the workings; so mind doan't 'ee open the door till the horse is close to it, and shut it directly it's past."
when the door closed behind his foster-father, and jack simpson remained alone in the dense darkness, a feeling of utter loneliness and desertion stole over him. the blackness was intense and absolute; a low confused murmur, the reverberation of far-off noises in the pit, sounded in his ears. he spoke, and his voice sounded muffled and dull.
"this be worse nor i looked for," the boy said to himself; "i suppose i'll get used to it, but i doan't wonder that some young uns who ain't strong as i be are badly frighted at first."
presently the confused noise seemed to get louder, then a distinct rumble was heard, and jack felt with delight that a train of waggons was approaching. then he saw far along the gallery a light swinging, as the man who bore it walked ahead of the horse. the water in the little pools between the sleepers reflected [pg 45]it in a score of little lines of light. now he could hear the hollow splashing sound of the horses' hoofs, and prepared to answer to the shout of "door" by pulling at the string beside him. when the light came within twenty yards it changed its direction; he heard the grating of the wheels against the points, and saw that the waggons were going up the other road. there upon a siding they came to a stop, and a minute or two later a number of full waggons were brought down by another horse. a few words were exchanged by the drivers, but jack's ear, unaccustomed to the echoes of a mine, could not catch what they said; then the first man hitched his horse on to the full waggons, and started for the shaft, while the other with the empties went up the road to the workings.
the incident, slight as it had been, had altogether dissipated the feeling of uneasiness of which jack had been conscious. before, he had seemed shut out from the world, as if within a living tomb, but the sight of men engaged at their ordinary work close by him completely restored the balance of his mind, and henceforth he never felt the slightest discomfort at being alone in the dark.
a few minutes after the rumbling of the departing train of "tubs" had died in his ear, he again heard it. again he watched the slowly approaching light, and when it came within a few yards of him he heard the expected shout of "gate!" he replied by a shout of [pg 46]"all right!" and as the driver came level with him pulled the cord and the door opened.
"g'long, smiler," the driver said, and the horse went forward. the man leaned forward and raised his lamp to jack's face.
"i thawt 'twasn't jim brown's voice. who be'st thou?"
"jack simpson; i live along wi' bill haden."
"ay, ay, i know'st, i knew thy father, a good sort he was too. be'st thy first day doon the pit?"
"ay," jack said.
"foind it dark and lonesome, eh? thou'lt get used to it soon."
"how often do the corves come along?" jack asked as the man prepared to run on after the waggons, the last of which had just passed.
"there be a set goes out every ten minutes, maybe, on this road, and every twenty minutes on the other, two o' ours to one o' theirs;" and he moved forward.
jack let the door slam after him, went out and felt that it had shut firmly, and then resumed his seat in his niche. he whistled for a bit, and then his thoughts turned to the learning which he had determined firmly to acquire.
"i wish i'd ha' took to it afore," he said to himself. "what a sight o' time i ha' lost! i'll go over in my head all the lessons i can remember; and them as i doant know, and that's the best part, i reckon i'll look up when i get hoame. every day what i learns fresh [pg 47]i'll go over down here. i shall get it perfect then, and it will pass the time away finely. i'll begin at oncet. twice two is four;" and so jack passed the hours of his first day in the pit, recalling his lessons, reproaching himself continually and bitterly with the time he had wasted, breaking off every ten minutes from his rehearsals to open the door for the train of corves going in empty and going out full, exchanging a few words each time with the drivers, all of whom were good-naturedly anxious to cheer up the new boy, who must, as they supposed, be feeling the loneliness of his first day in the pit keenly. such was by no means the case with jack, and he was quite taken by surprise when a driver said to him, "this be the last train this shift."
"why, it bean't nigh two o'clock, surely?" he said.
"it be," the driver said; "wants ten minutes, that's all."
soon the miners began to come along.
"hullo, jack!" bill haden's voice said. "be'st still here. come along of me. why didst stop, lad? thou canst always quit thy post when the first man comes through on his way out. hast felt it lonely, lad?"
"not a bit, dad."
"that's strange too," bill said. "most young boys finds it awful lonely o' first. i know i thowt that first day were never coming to an end. weren't frighted at t' dark?"
"i thought it was onnatural dark and still the first [pg 48]ten minutes," jack admitted honestly; "but arter the first set o' corves came along i never thawt no more about the dark."
"here we are at the shaft, joomp in, there's just room for you and me."
