He was soon at work again. The hope of escape put energy into his weak muscles.
Once, a block as large as his two hands broke away and fell down on the other side. That was a great help. But he had to stop and rest again. Indeed, after that he had very frequently to stop and rest.
The s.p.a.ce was widening steadily, but very, very slowly.
After a time he threw down the pick and pa.s.sed his head through the opening, but it was not yet large enough to receive his body.
The air that was now coming up the chamber was very bad, and it was blue with smoke, besides.
The boy bent to his task with renewed energy; but every blow exhausted him, and he had to wait before striking another. He was chipping the coal away, though, piece by piece, inch by inch.
By and by, by a stroke of rare good-fortune, a blow that drew the pick from the lad"s weak hands and sent it rattling down upon the other side, loosened a large block at the top of the opening, and it fell with a crash.
Now he could get through, and it would be none too soon either. He dropped his oil-can down on the other side, then his lamp, and then, after a single moment"s rest, he crawled into the aperture, and tumbled heavily to the floor of the old mine.
It was not a great fall; he fell from a height of only a few feet, but in his exhausted condition it stunned him, and he lay for some minutes in a state of unconsciousness.
The air was better in here, he was below the line of the poisoned current, and he soon revived, sat up, picked up his lamp, and looked around him.
He was evidently in a worked-out chamber. Over his head in the side-wall was the opening through which he had fallen, and he knew that the first thing to be done was to close it up and prevent the entrance of any more foul air.
There was plenty of slate and of coal and of dirt near by, but he could not reach up so high and work easily, and he had first to build a platform against the wall, on which to stand.
It took a long time to do this, but when it was completed he stood up on it to put the first stone in place.
On the other side of the opening he heard a hoa.r.s.e sound of distress, then a scrambling noise, and then Jasper"s nose was pushed through against his hand. The mule had stood patiently and watched Ralph while he was at work, but when the boy disappeared he had become frightened, and had clambered up on the shelf of coal at the face to try to follow him. He was down on his knees now, with his head wedged into the aperture, drawing in his breath with long, forced gasps, looking piteously into the boy"s face.
"Poor Jasper!" said Ralph, "poor fellow! I didn"t think of you. I"d get you in here too if I could."
He looked around him, as if contemplating the possibility of such a scheme; but he knew that it could not be accomplished.
"I can"t do it, Jasper," he said, rubbing the animal"s face as he spoke. "I can"t do it. Don"t you see the hole ain"t big enough? an" I couldn"t never make it big enough for you, never."
But the look in Jasper"s eyes was very beseeching, and he tried to push his head in so that he might lay his nose against Ralph"s breast.
The boy put his arms about the beast"s neck.
"I can"t do it, Jasper," he repeated, sobbing. "Don"t you see I can"t?
I wisht I could, oh, I wisht I could!"
The animal drew his head back. His position was uncomfortable, and it choked him to stretch his neck out that way.
Ralph knew that he must proceed with the building of his wall. One after another he laid up the pieces of slate and coal, c.h.i.n.king in the crevices with dirt, keeping his head as much as possible out of the foul current, stopping often to rest, talking affectionately to Jasper, and trying, in a childish way, to console him.
At last his work was nearly completed, but the gruff sounds of distress from the frightened mule had ceased. Ralph held his lamp up out of the current, so that the light would fall through the little opening, and looked in.
Jasper lay there on his side, his head resting on the coal bottom, a long, convulsive respiration at intervals the only movement of his body. He was unconscious, and dying. The boy drew back with tears in his eyes and with sorrow at his heart. The beast had been his friend and companion, not only in his daily toil, but here also, in the loneliness and peril of the poisoned mine. For the time being, he forgot his own misfortunes in his sympathy for Jasper. He put his face once more to the opening.
"Good-by, Jasper!" he said, "good-by, old fellow! I couldn"t help it, you know, an"--an" it won"t hurt you any more--good-by!"
He drew back his head, put the few remaining stones in place, c.h.i.n.ked the crevices with dirt and culm, and then, trembling and faint, he fell to the floor of the old mine, and lay there, panting and exhausted, for a long time in silent thought.
But it was not of himself he was thinking; it was of poor old Jasper, dying on the other side of the black wall, deserted, barred out, alone.
Finally it occurred to him that he should go to some other place in the mine. The poisonous gases must still be entering through the crevices of his imperfectly built and rudely plastered wall, and it would be wise for him to get farther away. His oil had nearly burned out again, and he refilled his lamp from the can. Then he arose and went down the chamber.
It was a very long chamber. When he reached the foot of it he found the entrances into the heading walled up, and he turned and went along the air-way for a little distance, and then sat down to rest.
For the first time he noticed that he had cut his hands badly, on the sharp pieces of coal he had been handling, and he felt that there was a bruise on his side, doubtless made when he fell through the opening.
Hitherto he had not had a clear idea as to the course he should pursue when he should have obtained entrance into the old mine. His princ.i.p.al object had been to get into pure air.
Now, however, he began to consider the matter of his escape. It was obvious that two methods were open to him. He could either try to make his way out alone to the old slope near the Dunmore road, or he could remain in the vicinity of Conway"s chamber till help should reach him from the Burnham mine.
But it might be many hours before a.s.sistance would come. The shaft would have first to be cleared out, and that he knew would be no easy matter. After that the mine would need to be ventilated before men could make their way through it. All this could not be done in a day, indeed it might take many days, and when they should finally come in to search for him, they would not find him in the Burnham mine; he would not be there.
If he could discover the way to the old slope, and the path should be un.o.bstructed, he would be in the open air within half an hour. In the open air! The very thought of such a possibility decided the question for him. And when he should reach the surface he would go straight to Mrs. Burnham, straight to his mother, and place in her hands the letter he had found. She would be glad to read it; she would be very, very glad to know that Ralph was her son. Sitting there in the darkness and the desolation he could almost see her look of great delight, he could almost feel her kisses on his lips as she gave him tender greeting. Oh! it would be beautiful, so beautiful!
But, then, there was Uncle Billy. He had come near to forgetting him.
He would go first to Uncle Billy, that would be better, and then they would go together to his mother"s house and would both enjoy her words of welcome.
But if he was going he must be about it. It would not do to sit there all night. All night? Ralph wondered what time it had come to be.
Whether hours or days had pa.s.sed since his imprisonment he could hardly tell.
He picked up his lamp and can and started on. At no great distance he found an old door-way opening into the heading. He pa.s.sed through it and began to trudge along the narrow, winding pa.s.sage. He had often to stop and rest, he felt so very weak. A long time he walked, slowly, unsteadily, but without much pain. Then, suddenly, he came to the end of the heading. The black, solid wall faced him before he was hardly aware of it. He had taken the wrong direction when he entered the gallery, that was all. He had followed the heading in instead of out.
His journey had not been without its use, however, for it settled definitely the course he ought to take to reach the slope, and that, he thought, was a matter of no little importance.
He sat down for a few minutes to rest, and then started on his return.
It seemed to be taking so much more time to get back that he feared he had pa.s.sed the door-way by which he had entered the heading. But he came to it at last and stopped there.
He began to feel hungry. He wondered why he had not thought to look for some one"s dinner pail, before he came over into the old mine. He knew that his own still had fragments of food in it; he wished that he had them now. But wishing was of no use, the only thing for him to do was to push ahead toward the surface. When he should reach his mother"s house his craving would be satisfied with all that could tempt the palate.
He started on again. The course of the heading was far from straight, and his progress was very slow.
At last he came to a place where there had been a fall. They had robbed the pillars till they had become too weak to support the roof, and it had tumbled in.
Ralph turned back a little, crossed the air-way and went up into the chambers, thinking to get around the area of the fall. He went a long way up before he found an unblocked opening. Then, striking across through the entrances, he came out again, suddenly, to a heading. He thought it must have curved very rapidly to the right that he should find it so soon, if it were the one he had been on before. But he followed it as best he could, stopping very often to catch a few moments of rest, finding even his light oil-can a heavy burden in his hands, trying constantly to give strength to his heart and his limbs by thoughts of the fond greeting that awaited him when once he should escape from the gloomy pa.s.sages of the mine.
The heading grew to be very devious. It wound here and there, with entrances on both sides, it crossed chambers and turned corners till the boy became so bewildered that he gave up trying to trace it. He pushed on, however, through the openings that seemed most likely to lead outward, looking for pathways and trackways, hungering, thirsting, faint in both body and spirit, till he reached a solid wall at the side of a long, broad chamber, and there he stopped to consider which way to turn. He struck some object at his feet. It was a pick.
He looked up at the wall in front of him, and he saw in it the filled-up entrance through which he had made his way from the Burnham mine.
It came upon him like a blow, and he sank to the floor in sudden despair.
This was worse than anything that had happened to him since the time when he ran back to the shaft to find the carriage gone and its place filled with firebrands. His journey had been such a mournful waste of time, of energy, and of hopeful antic.i.p.ation.
But, after a little, he began to think that it was not quite so bad as it might have been after all. He had his lamp and his oil-can, and he was in a place where the air was fit to breathe. That was better, certainly, than to be lying on the other side of the wall with poor old Jasper. He forced new courage into his heart, he whipped his flagging spirits into fresh activity, and resolved to try once more to find a pa.s.sage to the outside world.
But he needed rest; that was apparent. He thought that if he could lie down and be quiet and contented for fifteen or twenty minutes he would gain strength and vigor enough to sustain him through a long journey.
He arose and moved up the chamber a little way, out of the current of poisoned air that still sifted in through the crevices of his rudely built wall.