lly locked, so that they might not open the lamp and expose
the flame to the surrounding air. They were driving a new gallery, and
as a good deal of fire-damp was likely to come out, it was necessary to
be very careful.

Samuel passed David Adams, who was still a trapper, on his way to his
trap. David asked after Dick.

"He'll be down with us in a few days, I hope," was the answer, in a
cheerful tone.

Nearly two hundred human beings were toiling away down in those long,
narrow passages. Some with pick-axes were getting out the huge lumps of
coal from the solid vein, others were breaking them up and shovelling
them into the baskets. The putters were dragging or pushing the baskets
towards a main road, where they were received by the "crane-hoister,"
who, with his crane, lifted them on the rolley-wagons. These were
dragged along a tramway by sleek, stout ponies to the foot of the shaft,
under charge of a wagoner.

Other men were engaged at the foot of the shaft, hooking on the corves
full of coal to be drawn up by the machinery above. There were three
shafts. At the bottom of one was a large furnace kept always burning
that it might assist to draw down the pure air from above and send the
bad air upwards. Down another shaft was a huge pump, pumping up the
water which got into the mine. The third shaft was that by which the
men chiefly went up and down, and the coals were drawn up, though the
furnace shaft could also be used for that purpose. There were men to
tend the furnaces, and stable-men to look after the horses, and
lamp-men, and blacksmiths to sharpen the tools and mend the iron-work of
the wagons, and rolley-way-men to keep the roads in order, besides
several for other sorts of jobs. All these were busy working away at
their several posts. Samuel Kempson was among the hewers farthest from
the main shaft. Near him was Bill Hagger. They had been working for
some hours when the welcome sound of blows on the trap-doors told them
that dinner and drink time had arrived. Leaving their tools, they
unhooked the lamps, which hung on nails above their heads, and hastened
to the drink place, an open space to which their dinners were brought
from the shaft on rolleys, chiefly in basins done up in handkerchiefs,
each having his proper mark. Some had the first letters of their names,
others bits of different coloured cloth, others buttons. Each man
having found his dinner, took his seat, when Samuel became