ee that I have made one step forward;
but it will go hard with me before I am beaten. Some of the men I have
to deal with are as bat-blind as they are cantankerous. One would think
that experience might have taught them wisdom. Would you believe that
some of those working in the most dangerous parts of the mine have false
keys to their Davys, and use the flame to light their pipes? I have
heard of the thing being done before, but I only discovered the other
day that we had such madmen in the pits here. If I could only be sure
of them I would settle the matter at once, but they are crafty enough to
keep their secret, and it only drifts to the master as a rumor."

"Have you no suspicion as to who they are?" asked Anice.

"I suspect one man," he answered, "but only suspect him because he is a
bad fellow, reckless in all things, and always ready to break the rules.
I suspect Dan Lowrie."

"Joan's father?" exclaimed Anice in distress.

Derrick made a gesture of assent.

"He is the worst man in the mines," he said, "The man with the worst
influence, the man who can work best if he will, the man whose feeling
against any authority is the strongest, and whose feeling against me
amounts to bitter enmity."

"Against you? But why?"

"I suppose because I have no liking for him myself, and because I will
have orders obeyed, whether they are my orders or the orders of the
owners. I will have work done as it should be done, and I will not be
frightened by bullies."

"But if he is a dangerous man--"

"He would knock me down from behind, or spoil my beauty with vitriol as
coolly as he would toss off a pint of beer, if he had the opportunity,
and chanced to feel vicious enough at the time," said Derrick, "But his
mood has not quite come to that yet. Just now he feels that he would
like to have a row,--and really, if we could have a row, it would be
the best thing for us both. If one of us could thrash the other at the
outset, it might never come to the vitriol."

He was cool enough himself, and spoke in quite a matter-of-fact way, but
Anice suddenly lost her color. When, later, she bade him goodnight--

"I am afraid of that man," she said, as he held her hand for the moment.
"Don't let him harm you."

"What man?" asked Derrick. "Is it possible you are thinking about what I
said of Lowrie?"

"Yes. It is so horrible. I cannot bear the thought of it. I am not used
to hear of such things. I am afraid for you."

"You are ver