Les indes-noirs. English Read online

  CHAPTER III. THE DOCHART PIT

  HARRY FORD was a fine, strapping fellow of five and twenty. His gravelooks, his habitually passive expression, had from childhood beennoticed among his comrades in the mine. His regular features, his deepblue eyes, his curly hair, rather chestnut than fair, the natural graceof his person, altogether made him a fine specimen of a lowlander.Accustomed from his earliest days to the work of the mine, he was strongand hardy, as well as brave and good. Guided by his father, and impelledby his own inclinations, he had early begun his education, and at an agewhen most lads are little more than apprentices, he had managed to makehimself of some importance, a leader, in fact, among his fellows, andfew are very ignorant in a country which does all it can to removeignorance. Though, during the first years of his youth, the pick wasnever out of Harry's hand, nevertheless the young miner was not long inacquiring sufficient knowledge to raise him into the upper class of theminers, and he would certainly have succeeded his father as overman ofthe Dochart pit, if the colliery had not been abandoned.

  James Starr was still a good walker, yet he could not easily have keptup with his guide, if the latter had not slackened his pace. The youngman, carrying the engineer's bag, followed the left bank of the riverfor about a mile. Leaving its winding course, they took a road undertall, dripping trees. Wide fields lay on either side, around isolatedfarms. In one field a herd of hornless cows were quietly grazing; inanother sheep with silky wool, like those in a child's toy sheep fold.

  The Yarrow shaft was situated four miles from Callander. Whilst walking,James Starr could not but be struck with the change in the country. Hehad not seen it since the day when the last ton of Aberfoyle coal hadbeen emptied into railway trucks to be sent to Glasgow. Agriculturallife had now taken the place of the more stirring, active, industriallife. The contrast was all the greater because, during winter, fieldwork is at a standstill. But formerly, at whatever season, the miningpopulation, above and below ground, filled the scene with animation.Great wagons of coal used to be passing night and day. The rails, withtheir rotten sleepers, now disused, were then constantly ground bythe weight of wagons. Now stony roads took the place of the old miningtramways. James Starr felt as if he was traversing a desert.

  The engineer gazed about him with a saddened eye. He stopped now andthen to take breath. He listened. The air was no longer filled withdistant whistlings and the panting of engines. None of those blackvapors which the manufacturer loves to see, hung in the horizon,mingling with the clouds. No tall cylindrical or prismatic chimneyvomited out smoke, after being fed from the mine itself; no blast-pipewas puffing out its white vapor. The ground, formerly black withcoal dust, had a bright look, to which James Starr's eyes were notaccustomed.

  When the engineer stood still, Harry Ford stopped also. The young minerwaited in silence. He felt what was passing in his companion's mind, andhe shared his feelings; he, a child of the mine, whose whole life hadbeen passed in its depths.

  "Yes, Harry, it is all changed," said Starr. "But at the rate we worked,of course the treasures of coal would have been exhausted some day. Doyou regret that time?"

  "I do regret it, Mr. Starr," answered Harry. "The work was hard, but itwas interesting, as are all struggles."

  "No doubt, my lad. A continuous struggle against the dangers oflandslips, fires, inundations, explosions of firedamp, like claps ofthunder. One had to guard against all those perils! You say well! It wasa struggle, and consequently an exciting life."

  "The miners of Alva have been more favored than the miners of Aberfoyle,Mr. Starr!"

  "Ay, Harry, so they have," replied the engineer.

  "Indeed," cried the young man, "it's a pity that all the globe was notmade of coal; then there would have been enough to last millions ofyears!"

  "No doubt there would, Harry; it must be acknowledged, however, thatnature has shown more forethought by forming our sphere principally ofsandstone, limestone, and granite, which fire cannot consume."

  "Do you mean to say, Mr. Starr, that mankind would have ended by burningtheir own globe?"

  "Yes! The whole of it, my lad," answered the engineer. "The earth wouldhave passed to the last bit into the furnaces of engines, machines,steamers, gas factories; certainly, that would have been the end of ourworld one fine day!"

  "There is no fear of that now, Mr. Starr. But yet, the mines will beexhausted, no doubt, and more rapidly than the statistics make out!"

  "That will happen, Harry; and in my opinion England is very wrong inexchanging her fuel for the gold of other nations! I know well," addedthe engineer, "that neither hydraulics nor electricity has yet shown allthey can do, and that some day these two forces will be more completelyutilized. But no matter! Coal is of a very practical use, and lendsitself easily to the various wants of industry. Unfortunately man cannotproduce it at will. Though our external forests grow incessantly underthe influence of heat and water, our subterranean forests will not bereproduced, and if they were, the globe would never be in the statenecessary to make them into coal."

  James Starr and his guide, whilst talking, had continued their walk ata rapid pace. An hour after leaving Callander they reached the Dochartpit.

  The most indifferent person would have been touched at the appearancethis deserted spot presented. It was like the skeleton of somethingthat had formerly lived. A few wretched trees bordered a plain wherethe ground was hidden under the black dust of the mineral fuel, but nocinders nor even fragments of coal were to be seen. All had been carriedaway and consumed long ago.

  They walked into the shed which covered the opening of the Yarrow shaft,whence ladders still gave access to the lower galleries of the pit. Theengineer bent over the opening. Formerly from this place could be heardthe powerful whistle of the air inhaled by the ventilators. It was now asilent abyss. It was like being at the mouth of some extinct volcano.

  When the mine was being worked, ingenious machines were used in certainshafts of the Aberfoyle colliery, which in this respect was very welloff; frames furnished with automatic lifts, working in wooden slides,oscillating ladders, called "man-engines," which, by a simple movement,permitted the miners to descend without danger.

  But all these appliances had been carried away, after the cessation ofthe works. In the Yarrow shaft there remained only a long successionof ladders, separated at every fifty feet by narrow landings. Thirty ofthese ladders placed thus end to end led the visitor down into thelower gallery, a depth of fifteen hundred feet. This was the only wayof communication which existed between the bottom of the Dochart pit andthe open air. As to air, that came in by the Yarrow shaft, from whencegalleries communicated with another shaft whose orifice opened at ahigher level; the warm air naturally escaped by this species of invertedsiphon.

  "I will follow you, my lad," said the engineer, signing to the young manto precede him.

  "As you please, Mr. Starr."

  "Have you your lamp?"

  "Yes, and I only wish it was still the safety lamp, which we formerlyhad to use!"

  "Sure enough," returned James Starr, "there is no fear of fire-dampexplosions now!"

  Harry was provided with a simple oil lamp, the wick of which he lighted.In the mine, now empty of coal, escapes of light carburetted hydrogencould not occur. As no explosion need be feared, there was no necessityfor interposing between the flame and the surrounding air that metallicscreen which prevents the gas from catching fire. The Davy lamp was ofno use here. But if the danger did not exist, it was because the causeof it had disappeared, and with this cause, the combustible in whichformerly consisted the riches of the Dochart pit.

  Harry descended the first steps of the upper ladder. Starr followed.They soon found themselves in a profound obscurity, which was onlyrelieved by the glimmer of the lamp. The young man held it above hishead, the better to light his companion. A dozen ladders were descendedby the engineer and his guide, with the measured step habitual to theminer. They were all still in good condition.

  James Starr examined
, as well as the insufficient light would permit,the sides of the dark shaft, which were covered by a partly rottenlining of wood.

  Arrived at the fifteenth landing, that is to say, half way down, theyhalted for a few minutes.

  "Decidedly, I have not your legs, my lad," said the engineer, panting.

  "You are very stout, Mr. Starr," replied Harry, "and it's something too,you see, to live all one's life in the mine."

  "Right, Harry. Formerly, when I was twenty, I could have gone down allat a breath. Come, forward!"

  But just as the two were about to leave the platform, a voice, as yetfar distant, was heard in the depths of the shaft. It came up like asonorous billow, swelling as it advanced, and becoming more and moredistinct.

  "Halloo! who comes here?" asked the engineer, stopping Harry.

  "I cannot say," answered the young miner.

  "Is it not your father?"

  "My father, Mr. Starr? no."

  "Some neighbor, then?"

  "We have no neighbors in the bottom of the pit," replied Harry. "We arealone, quite alone."

  "Well, we must let this intruder pass," said James Starr. "Those who aredescending must yield the path to those who are ascending."

  They waited. The voice broke out again with a magnificent burst, asif it had been carried through a vast speaking trumpet; and soon a fewwords of a Scotch song came clearly to the ears of the young miner.

  "The Hundred Pipers!" cried Harry. "Well, I shall be much surprised ifthat comes from the lungs of any man but Jack Ryan."

  "And who is this Jack Ryan?" asked James Starr.

  "An old mining comrade," replied Harry. Then leaning from the platform,"Halloo! Jack!" he shouted.

  "Is that you, Harry?" was the reply. "Wait a bit, I'm coming." And thesong broke forth again.

  In a few minutes, a tall fellow of five and twenty, with a merry face,smiling eyes, a laughing mouth, and sandy hair, appeared at the bottomof the luminous cone which was thrown from his lantern, and set footon the landing of the fifteenth ladder. His first act was to vigorouslywring the hand which Harry extended to him.

  "Delighted to meet you!" he exclaimed. "If I had only known you were tobe above ground to-day, I would have spared myself going down the Yarrowshaft!"

  "This is Mr. James Starr," said Harry, turning his lamp towards theengineer, who was in the shadow.

  "Mr. Starr!" cried Jack Ryan. "Ah, sir, I could not see. Since I leftthe mine, my eyes have not been accustomed to see in the dark, as theyused to do."

  "Ah, I remember a laddie who was always singing. That was ten years ago.It was you, no doubt?"

  "Ay, Mr. Starr, but in changing my trade, I haven't changed mydisposition. It's far better to laugh and sing than to cry and whine!"

  "You're right there, Jack Ryan. And what do you do now, as you have leftthe mine?"

  "I am working on the Melrose farm, forty miles from here. Ah, it's notlike our Aberfoyle mines! The pick comes better to my hand than thespade or hoe. And then, in the old pit, there were vaulted roofs, tomerrily echo one's songs, while up above ground!--But you are going tosee old Simon, Mr. Starr?"

  "Yes, Jack," answered the engineer.

  "Don't let me keep you then."

  "Tell me, Jack," said Harry, "what was taking you to our cottageto-day?"

  "I wanted to see you, man," replied Jack, "and ask you to come tothe Irvine games. You know I am the piper of the place. There will bedancing and singing."

  "Thank you, Jack, but it's impossible."

  "Impossible?"

  "Yes; Mr. Starr's visit will last some time, and I must take him back toCallander."

  "Well, Harry, it won't be for a week yet. By that time Mr. Starr's visitwill be over, I should think, and there will be nothing to keep you atthe cottage."

  "Indeed, Harry," said James Starr, "you must profit by your friendJack's invitation."

  "Well, I accept it, Jack," said Harry. "In a week we will meet atIrvine."

  "In a week, that's settled," returned Ryan. "Good-by, Harry! Yourservant, Mr. Starr. I am very glad to have seen you again! I can givenews of you to all my friends. No one has forgotten you, sir."

  "And I have forgotten no one," said Starr.

  "Thanks for all, sir," replied Jack.

  "Good-by, Jack," said Harry, shaking his hand. And Jack Ryan, singing ashe went, soon disappeared in the heights of the shaft, dimly lighted byhis lamp.

  A quarter of an hour afterwards James Starr and Harry descended the lastladder, and set foot on the lowest floor of the pit.

  From the bottom of the Yarrow shaft radiated numerous empty galleries.They ran through the wall of schist and sandstone, some shored up withgreat, roughly-hewn beams, others lined with a thick casing of wood. Inevery direction embankments supplied the place of the excavated veins.Artificial pillars were made of stone from neighboring quarries, and nowthey supported the ground, that is to say, the double layer of tertiaryand quaternary soil, which formerly rested on the seam itself. Darknessnow filled the galleries, formerly lighted either by the miner's lampor by the electric light, the use of which had been introduced in themines.

  "Will you not rest a while, Mr. Starr?" asked the young man.

  "No, my lad," replied the engineer, "for I am anxious to be at yourfather's cottage."

  "Follow me then, Mr. Starr. I will guide you, and yet I daresay youcould find your way perfectly well through this dark labyrinth."

  "Yes, indeed! I have the whole plan of the old pit still in my head."

  Harry, followed by the engineer, and holding his lamp high the betterto light their way, walked along a high gallery, like the nave of acathedral. Their feet still struck against the wooden sleepers whichused to support the rails.

  They had not gone more than fifty paces, when a huge stone fell at thefeet of James Starr. "Take care, Mr. Starr!" cried Harry, seizing theengineer by the arm.

  "A stone, Harry! Ah! these old vaultings are no longer quite secure, ofcourse, and--"

  "Mr. Starr," said Harry Ford, "it seems to me that stone was thrown,thrown as by the hand of man!"

  "Thrown!" exclaimed James Starr. "What do you mean, lad?"

  "Nothing, nothing, Mr. Starr," replied Harry evasively, his anxious gazeendeavoring to pierce the darkness. "Let us go on. Take my arm, sir, anddon't be afraid of making a false step."

  "Here I am, Harry." And they both advanced, whilst Harry looked onevery side, throwing the light of his lamp into all the corners of thegallery.

  "Shall we soon be there?" asked the engineer.

  "In ten minutes at most."

  "Good."

  "But," muttered Harry, "that was a most singular thing. It is the firsttime such an accident has happened to me.

  "That stone falling just at the moment we were passing."

  "Harry, it was a mere chance."

  "Chance," replied the young man, shaking his head. "Yes, chance." Hestopped and listened.

  "What is the matter, Harry?" asked the engineer.

  "I thought I heard someone walking behind us," replied the youngminer, listening more attentively. Then he added, "No, I must have beenmistaken. Lean harder on my arm, Mr. Starr. Use me like a staff."

  "A good solid staff, Harry," answered James Starr. "I could not wish fora better than a fine fellow like you."

  They continued in silence along the dark nave. Harry was evidentlypreoccupied, and frequently turned, trying to catch, either some distantnoise, or remote glimmer of light.

  But behind and before, all was silence and darkness.