That first evening, while George went on with his description of the work, Steve sat quietly appraising Lamont and me with his keen, gray-green eyes. He had worked with Lamont at Bernterode, so I was his main target. Now and then he would look over at George and throw in a remark. Between the two there existed an extraordinary bond. As far as Steve was concerned, George was perfect, and Steve had no use for anyone who thought otherwise. If, at the end of a hard day, he occasionally beefed about George and his merciless perfection—well, that was Steve’s prerogative. For his part, George had a fatherly affection for Steve and a quiet admiration for his energy and resourcefulness and the way he handled the men under him.
Presently Steve announced that it was late and went off to bed. I wondered if he had sized me up. There was a flicker of amusement in Lamont’s eyes and I guessed that he was wondering the same thing. When George got up to go, he said, “You’ll find hot water down in the kitchen in the morning. Breakfast will be at seven-thirty.”
Steve roused us early with a knock on the door and said he’d show us the way to the kitchen. We rolled out, painfully conscious of the cold mountain air. Below, in the warm kitchen, the sun was pouring in through the open door. There were still traces of snow on the mountaintops. The highest peak, Steve said, was Loser. Its snowy coronet glistened in the bright morning light.
When my eyes became accustomed to the glare, I noticed that there were several other people in the kitchen. One of them, a wrinkled little fellow wearing Lederhosen and white socks, was standing by the stove. Steve saluted them cheerfully with a wave of his towel. They acknowledged his greeting with good-natured nods and gruff monosyllables. These curious mountain people, he said, belonged to families that had worked in the mine for five hundred years. They were working for us now, as members of his evacuation crew.
We washed at a row of basins along one wall. Above them hung a sign lettered with the homely motto:
“Nach der Arbeit
Vor dem Essen
Hände waschen
Nicht vergessen.”