During the earlier portion of the journey, as they encountered these obstacles, the mine boss urged, almost commanded, Derrick to go back and leave him to continue the undertaking alone. In spite of some faults the lad was no coward, and he begged so earnestly to be allowed to keep on that the other consented, on condition that no greater danger presented itself.
At length they had overcome so many difficulties that the road behind them fairly bristled with dangers, and the young man felt it would be an act of cruelty to send the boy back to encounter them alone.
Now and then, as they crawled over piles of fallen debris, and there was but little space between them and the roof, the flames within their safety-lamps burned faint and blue, and they breathed with great difficulty. The mine boss knew they were passing through spaces filled with the deadly "fire-damp," and he urged Derrick to make all possible haste towards more open places where they could keep below its influence.
They passed through a door in a fair state of preservation, but fairly covered with the pure white fungus growth of glistening frost-like sprays, which in the mine are called "water crystals." Everywhere were the signs of long neglect and decay, and unenlivened by the cheering sounds of human toil the place was weird and awful. The very drippings from the roof fell with an uncanny splash that struck a chill into Derrick's heart. Long before they reached the end of their journey he regretted having planned and proposed it; but he bravely kept his fears and regrets to himself, and plodded sturdily on behind his companion. As for the latter, his thoughts were also of a most dismal character. He realized even more fully than Derrick the dangerous position in which they had placed themselves, and felt that his experience should have warned him against such an undertaking.
Meantime those who were to meet in the old chamber at the bottom of the air-shaft were already gathered together, and were earnestly discussing the affairs of their order. Job Taskar, as presiding officer, made a long speech. In it he denounced the mine boss for discharging several of their members, and refusing to take them back, though petitioned to do so by a large number of those who remained at work. He also charged him with placing a spy in the mine in the person of Derrick Sterling, and of having removed the son of one of their most prominent members to make room for him. At this point he looked steadily at Monk Tooley.
"Don't yer say nothin' agin Derrick Sterling," growled that miner, "fer I won't hear ter it. He's doin' fer my lad this minute what dere isn't anoder man in de meetin' er in Raven Brook Colliery, nor I don't believe in de State, would ha' done in his place."
"Do yer know what he's doing it for?" interrupted another member, springing to his feet. "No, yer don't, an' yer can't make a guess at it; but I can tell yer. It's for revenge, an' nothing else. I heerd him say it his own self to Paul the cripple, coming down the slope, only yesterday morning. 'I'm taking out my revenge on him,' says he; them's his very words."
"All right," replied Monk Tooley, "if yer heerd him say it, den he's doin' it fer revenge, and it's de biggest kind of revenge I ever knowed of a man or a boy ter take out on anoder. Do yer know dat he's give up his own bed ter my Bill, an' dat he sets up nights awaitin' on him an' a-nussin' of him? No, yer don't know nothin' about it, an' I don't want ter hear anoder word from yer agin him. I'm his friend, I am."
An awkward silence followed this announcement, for the members thought that perhaps if Monk Tooley were Derrick Sterling's friend, he might also be a friend of the mine boss, whom they had almost decided should be put out of the way.
The silence was finally broken by Job Taskar, who asked sarcastically if Monk Tooley knew who stole his three checks from the check-board two days before.