ngly,--"are you quite sure of that?"

The words had escaped his lips in spite of himself.

Derrick started and turned toward him with a sudden movement

"Grace!" he said.

"I asked if you were sure of that," answered Grace, coloring. "I am
not."

CHAPTER XXXV - In the Pit

The next morning Derrick went down to the mine as usual. There were
several things he wished to do in these last two days. He had heard that
the managers had entered into negotiations with a new engineer, and he
wished the man to find no half-done work. The day was bright and frosty,
and the sharp, bracing air seemed to clear his brain. He felt more
hopeful, and less inclined to view matters darkly.

He remembered afterward that, as he stepped into the cage, he turned to
look at the unpicturesque little town, brightened by the winter's
sun; and that, as he went down, he glanced up at the sky and marked how
intense appeared the bit of blue, which was framed in by the mouth of
the shaft.

Even in the few hours that had elapsed since the meeting the rumor of
what he had said and done had been bruited about. Some collier had heard
it and had told it to his comrades, and so it had gone from one to the
other. It had been talked over at the evening and morning meal in divers
cottages, and many an anxious woman had warmed into praise of the man
who had "had a thowt for th' men."

In the first gallery he entered he found a deputation of men awaiting
him,--a group of burly miners with picks and shovels over their
shoulders,--and the head of this deputation, a spokesman burlier and
generally gruffer than the rest, stopped him.

"Mester," he said, "we chaps 'ud loike to ha' a word wi' yo'."

"All right," was Derrick's reply, "I am ready to listen."

The rest crowded nearer as if anxious to participate as much as
possible, and give their spokesman the support of their presence.

"It is na mich as we ha' getten to say," said the man, "but we're fain
to say it. Are na we, mates?"

"Ay, we are, lad," in chorus.

"It's about summat as we'n heerd. Theer wur a chap as towd some on us
last neet, as yo'd getten th' sack fro' th' managers--or leastways as
yo'd turned th' tables on 'em an' gi'en them th' sack yo'rsen. An' we'n
heerd as it begun wi' yo're standin' up fur us chaps--axin fur things
as wur wanted i' th' pit to save us fro' runnin' more risk than we need.
An' we heerd as yo' spoke up bold, an' argied fur us an' stood to what
yo' thowt wa