The Killer Mine

By the time we'd rigged the clamp for the drill, screwing it like a bar horizontally across the face of the shaft, I had worked out where I was going to put my drill holes and the size of the blast I was going to use. I had forgotten about the rich lode that began in the pit below us, about Cripples' Ease and all that lay above ground. My whole mind was concentrated on the task before us.

By this you mustn't imagine that I hold with the idea of smuggling or wanted any part of the working and profits of the scheme. Mining is like any other job. Give a good miner a problem to work out and he'll become enthusiastic because of the job itself. And I figured I was a pretty good miner, even though I had been out of the game for six years.

Captain Manack came down shortly after four. We were drilling our third charge hole then. It was some time before we noticed him, for we were both of us right up in the roof of the shaft and the roar of the compressor and the clatter of the pneumatic drill and the sizzle of compressed air and water was shatteringly loud in that confined space. He clambered up the ladders beside us and when I saw the light of his lamp I turned off the juice. My ears were deafened. I could hardly hear what he said, though the only sound was the muffled roar of the compressor's engine and the hiss of escaping air. 'How are you getting on?' he shouted in my ear.

'Okay,' I said, and shone my lamp on the holes we had already drilled. 'We'll make about a dozen holes and put in light charges,' I shouted. 'It's more than usual for a face as small as this, but it'll be safer that way.'

He nodded, 'When will you be ready to blow?' he asked.

I looked at my watch. 'About seven, maybe eight o'clock,' I replied.

Again he nodded. 'I brought some tea down,' he said. He'd placed a canvas bag on the platform below. Out of the neck of it protruded the top of a Thermos flask. We knocked off then and the three of us had our tea seated on the platform of the scaffolding.

'I've just been going over my figures,' Manack said as he munched a jam sandwich. 'I reckon you've eighteen feet to go. How much headway will you make with each blasting?'

'About three feet,' I said. 'Maybe a little more.'

'It'll be the fifth or sixth blow, then?'

'Yes,' I said.

'Today's Friday. That makes it Sunday night or Monday morning if you do two blastings a day. Can you do two?'

'Yes, I can do two,' I told him.

'Good. Then I'll arrange for the Arisaig to take you and Dave off on Monday night.' He brought out a cigarette case and we sat smoking for a moment in silence. He leaned over the edge of the platform and shone his lamp down into the pit between the rock runways of the carriage. The dull surface of the tin in the hole reflected back the light. 'Pryce,' he said, 'will letting the sea into the Mermaid prevent us ever working that lode?'

'What's the next level?' I asked.

'Undersea level?'

'Yes.'

'It'd be the two hundred level. That's nearly five hundred feet below us.'

I said, 'That's a hell of a gap. It'll mean de-watering the mine down to that level. You'll be able to gauge the probable position of the lode from the geological charts your father has, but even if the charts are accurate, there'll be a deal of development work to do before you strike the lode. And even then you can't be sure that it's the same lode he saw at the sixteenth level. It may be just a pocket. You'd need a lot of capital with no return for your outlay until you hit the lode. And she'd make a fair amount of water with the sea in this gallery.'

He nodded and shrugged his shoulders. 'Oh, well, it's just too bad.'

'The old man's pretty mad, is he?' I asked.

'Yes. Mad as hell. But you needn't worry. He won't interfere.'

I thought of what I'd do to any son of mine who insisted on letting the sea in on a lode as rich in tin as that, and I wasn't so sure the old man wouldn't interfere. 'It seems a pity,' I said. 'Why don't you throw up the smuggling racket and take to a legitimate business, mining that lode.'

'Because I'm not interested in mining,' he replied.

'But God,' I said. 'If that lode goes down like the old man says it does, you'd both make a lot of money.'

He peered at me, eyes suddenly narrowed. 'What's the idea, Pryce?' he said. 'You don't want to do that blasting job, that's it, isn't it?'

'I don't care what I do here,' I replied, 'so long as I get out of the place quick.'

'Then you stick to your job and leave me to handle my own affairs.'

I started to make some angry retort, but he got to his feet. 'You get on now, I'll bring the charges down soon after six. What size do you want them?'

I told him what size I wanted and he left us then. 'The Capting don't want advice,' Friar said as we watched Manack's lamp going down the gallery.

'He's a fool,' I said. 'If that lode goes on he'd make a fortune.'

'Wot, wiv taxation like it is na'?' Friar laughed. 'I can just see the Capting coping wiv forms and regulations and accounts. 'E just ain't cut a't fer it.'

We clambered back up the ladders then and continued with the drilling. At a quarter to seven Manack phoned up to find out what progress we'd made. There were still three more drills to do, so we knocked off for the evening meal. Friar went up to the house for his. I had mine alone like a badger in my rock-hewn hole. By eight-thirty we had begun drilling again and by ten I had inserted the charges and fused the detonators. We took the compressor and all equipment back with us on the carriage out of the way of the blast. The pit had been covered over with heavy timbers.

Slim left the capstan controls as the carriage came to rest at the bottom of the main shaft and came towards us. His face looked even longer than usual. 'Got some bad news for you.' he said to Captain Manack.

'What is it?' Manack asked.

'Dave's turned up.'

'Dave? At Cripples' Ease?'

Slim nodded.

The bloody fool!' Manack was beside himself with fury. 'I warned him that if there was ever any trouble he wasn't to come near the place. God! Where is he now? Not up at the house. I hope?'

'No,' Slim replied. 'He had that much sense. He came straight to the mine. I put him in the bolt hole where Pryce is living.'

'Good. I'll go up and have a few words with Master Tanner. He's scared, is he?'

'Scared as hell.'

'That's the trouble with Welshmen,' Manack snarled. 'Too emotional. And they dramatise everything, like the Italians. Right now I suppose he thinks he's Gypo Nolan being chased all over the streets of Dublin.' He crossed over to the gig. As the cage rattled upwards, he said nothing. But his eyes gleamed in the light of the four lamps. He'd taken his helmet off and was running his long fingers through his hair.

We followed him into the bolt hole. Bedding had been brought down and put on one of the beds. Dave was leaning against the rolled-up mattress, smoking a cigarette as we came in. He leapt to his feet when he saw Manack. His quick dark eyes roved round the rock walls. He almost cringed away as Manack went up to him.

'Well?' Manack's voice was soft, but the tone abrupt.

'I had to come,' Dave said softly. He took a puff at his cigarette. 'It was the only safe place. I never thought the Coran girl would give me away like that. I was over at Clynt's farm near Morvah. Lizzie Clynt brought me the paper herself. I didn't trust her after that. So I came here. I had to, man — don't you understand?'

'You disobeyed orders and endangered the lives of the rest of us.' Manack's voice was cold and violent. 'You'll leave for Italy on the Arisaig Monday night. In the meantime you'll live here with Pryce. And you'll stay here, do you understand? No going up to the surface. You'll stay here and you'll keep the entrance closed. I'll give you instructions, money and papers on Monday.'

He turned to me. 'See he stays down here,' he said. 'I don't trust him in his present state.'