Argosy All-Story Weekly, 4 February 1922 — page 78: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

888 Hugh pushed aside a brattice; a hot __ breath of sulphur-laden air came out. Be- _ + yond the brattice a narrow chamber was ' hewn into the rock; at the far end lights ‘were dancing and flickering on the untim- _ bered ore. —“Stope,” said Hugh. “ Burning out; work shifts half an hour at a time.” Crouching figures heaved at a machine, _ dragging it over a pile of broken rock to a position against the scarred face of the cut, ‘setting it in place upon a tripod, like a ' ._ machine gun directed at short range against the wall. A hose led from it, seeming in- - __- stinct with life and movement of its own; in : a moment the crash and rattle of the power- ful air-drill in the restricted space drowned * out all other lesser sounds. es There were five men who labored in this -_ place preparing the holes which, filled with _ powder at the end of each shift, tore the 2 metal down. Then they loaded the fallen '__ore and rubble into cars, pushing out those ' * cars to a chute that carried the ore to the devel below, where, on a “ main-line ” track, the “skips” into which it fell were “trammed ” to the hoist to be lifted to the surface, and discharged. Faint fumes of deadly carbon monoxide powder gas, from the shot set off by the de- parting shift, still lingered, mingled with the sulphur smell. Already William’s eyes | began to burn. His head was heavy as with __ unaccustomed drink—he was sure that his -__ body had melted inside his sticky clothing, - and would presently dissolve completely in ~ that torrid heat. The drill ceased clattering, creating a Hugh touched a driller _ void of silence. z on the shoulder, addressing him as one who had authority with that “ gang.” ** New man for you here,” said Hugh. _“*No miner—mucker. Let me know if he lays down on the job.” It made William intensely angry—that designation as applied to him. The only ___-way he had ever heard it used was as being | synonomous with cad. For the insult he - _-was prepared to call McGregor to account— when he was taught a meaning even more _ - unpleasant. __* A’right,” grunted the driller without en- ‘thusiasm. “ Shovel against the wall.” ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. William made no move in that direction. “Huh?” Then, with understanding: “* Ever muck before?” “No,” answered William, indignantly as- tonished. The driller grinned, gnomelike in the smutty darkness. “ A’right—see this pile o’ rock?” He pointed to the débris beneath his feet. “That’s muck. There’s more where that came from—got the whole inside o’ the mountain to tear down. Load it in a car, an’ after that ye load another one— see?”’ William saw. He also saw the departing back of Hugh. And he heard again the rough voice of the driller near his ear: “ A’right, get busy—we ain’t got a’ night. Them trammers don’t get paid fer waitin’ on no mucker—tell ye that!” Some one tossed a shovel at William’s feet. Again the air-drill filled the cham- ber with a crash of sound. William stooped over the pile of muck. The first heavy shovel-load clattered in the tram. That was an event, an epoch, a stupendous occa- sion from which he would number time — through all his days. It was the very first useful labor that the immaculate William had ever done. There was a hell of minutes. There was a hell of years. It was 4 boiling hot and torrid hell where sweat flowed in rivers down an aching back, and drops of, vitriol, hotter than that sweat, fell from living rock to burn a tender skin. There was a hell of sound that tore ear-drums to shreds; a hell of suffocation where strained lungs labored to get a breath of air, and the heart burst because there was no air to get. There were demons in hell who did not mind it much, but even. laughed be- tween the screaming periods of sound. A full twenty minutes had really passed when the chief demon, who labored at the drill, called “ Time!”’ Tools clattered on the rocky floor. There was an immediate movement toward the stopping, where the last man was just about to vanish before William realized that he was going to be left alone. He dropped his shovel thirty seconds late, and hurried after those departing forms—in that place oO com (e(o) choo <S' m