ails seem all correct;
but there must be something wrong, because "one of those idiots" is
asked why in the name of all he considers sacred he does not ram the
ballast properly.

"What would happen if you threw an engine off the line?" "Can't say that
I know exactly. You see, our business is to keep them _on_, and we do
that. Here's rather a curiosity. You see that pointsman! They say he's
an old mutineer, and when he relaxes he boasts of the Sahibs he has
killed. He's glad enough to eat the Company's salt now." Such a withered
old face was the face of the pointsman at No. 11 point! The information
suggested a host of questions, and the answers were these: "You won't be
able to understand till you've been down into a mine. We work our men in
two ways: some by direct payment--under our own hand, and some by
contractors. The contractor undertakes to deliver us the coal, supplying
his own men, tools, and props. He's responsible for the safety of his
men, and of course the Company knows and sees his work. Just fancy,
among these five thousand people, what sort of effect the news of an
accident would produce! It would go all through the Sonthal Parganas. We
have any amount of Sonthals besides Mahometans and Hindus of every
possible caste, down to those Musahers who eat pig. They don't require
much administering in the civilian sense of the word. On Sundays, as a
rule, if any man has had his daughter eloped with, or anything of that
kind, he generally comes up to the manager's bungalow to get the matter
put straight. If a man is disabled through accident he knows that as
long as he's in the hospital he gets full wages, and the Company pays
for the food of any of his women-folk who come to look after him. _One_,
of course; not the whole clan. That makes our service popular with the
people. Don't you believe that a native is a fool. You can train him to
everything except responsibility. There's a rule in the workings that if
there is any dangerous work--we haven't choke-damp; I will show you when
we get down--no gang must work without an Englishman to look after them.
A native wouldn't be wise enough to understand what the danger was, or
where it came in. Even if he did, he'd shirk the responsibility. We
can't afford to risk a single life. All our output is just as much as
the Company want--about a thousand tons per working day. Three hundred
thousand in the year. We could turn out more? Yes--a little. Well, yes,
twice as much.