ded Derrick the
sheet of paper on which he had been working.

It was an outline sketch of the figures composing their underground
picnic party of the day before, including Socrates, and Derrick had no
sooner set eyes on it than he declared he must have it.

"I was doing it for you, 'Dare,'" said Paul, using his especial pet name
for Derrick, which he never did except when they were alone. "But you
must let me finish it, and that will take some time; there is so much to
put in, and my light is so bad."

Derrick was obliged to agree to this, though he would have valued the
sketch just as it was, and handing it back, he went on towards where
Paul thought his father was at work. At last he found him, in a distant
heading that was exhausted and about to be abandoned, engaged in the
dangerous task of "robbing back."

In cutting into a vein it is often necessary to leave walls and pillars
of solid coal standing to support the roof, and when the workings about
them are exhausted it is customary to break away these supports for the
sake of what coal they contain. This is called "robbing back," and is so
dangerous a job that only the very best and most experienced miners are
intrusted with it. Sometimes the roof, thus robbed of its support,
falls, and sometimes it does not. If it does fall, perhaps the miner
"robber" gets killed, and perhaps he escapes entirely, or with only
bruises and cuts.

Tom Evert was a "company man"; that is, he received regular wages from
the company owning the mine, no matter what quantity of coal he sent
out, or what kind of work he was engaged upon. Most of the other men
were paid so much per cubic yard, or so much by the car-load, for all
the coal they mined. Evert was considered one of the best workmen in the
mine, and for that reason was often employed on the most dangerous jobs.
On this occasion he was "robbing back" in company with another skilful
miner; but they had only one helper between them. The burly miner would
have been glad to welcome any addition to their force, but he greeted
Derrick with especial cordiality, for the boy was a great favorite with
him.

"It does me good to see thee, lad," he exclaimed, when Derrick reported
to him as helper, "and I'll be proud to have thy feyther's son working
alongside of me. Pick up yon shovel and help load the wagon, while we
tackle this chunk a bit more, and see if we can't fetch it."

A miner's helper has to do all kinds of work, such as run