Derrick Sterling

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Derrick Sterling, by Kirk Monroe

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Title: Derrick Sterling A Story of the Mines
Author: Kirk Monroe
Release Date: June 19, 2007 [EBook #21863]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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DERRICK STERLING
A STORY OF THE MINES
BY KIRK MUNROE
Author of "THE FLAMINGO FEATHER"

NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY HARPER & BROTHERS COPYRIGHT, 19l6, BY KIRK MUNROE
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A.

CONTENTS
I. IN THE BURNING BREAKER
II. A FEARFUL RIDE
III. THE MINE BOSS TAKES DERRICK INTO HIS CONFIDENCE
IV. INTRODUCING HARRY, THE BUMPING-MULE
V. ATTACKED BY ENEMIES, AND LOST IN THE MINE
VI. THE SECRET MEETING.--A PLUNGE DOWN AN AIR SHAFT
VII. A CRIPPLE'S BRAVE DEED
VIII. DERRICK STERLING'S SPLENDID REVENGE
IX. SOCRATES, THE WISE MINE RAT
X. IN THE OLD WORKINGS.--MISLED BY AN ALTERED LINE
XI. A FATAL EXPLOSION OF FIRE-DAMP
XII. THE MINE BOSS IN A DILEMMA
XIII. LADIES IN THE MINE.--HARRY MULE'S SAD MISHAP
XIV. A LIFE IS SAVED AND DERRICK IS PROMOTED
XV. A "SQUEEZE" AND A FALL OF ROCK
XVI. BURSTING OF AN UNDERGROUND RESERVOIR
XVII. IMPRISONED IN THE FLOODED MINE
XVIII. TO THE RESCUE!--A MESSAGE FROM THE PRISONERS
XIX. RESTORED TO DAYLIGHT
XX. GOOD-BY TO THE COLLIERY

ILLUSTRATIONS
[Transcriber's note: Illustrations were not available]
In the burning breaker
"Here, lad, lead this mule down the rest of the way, will ye?"
Suddenly there came a blinding flash, a roar as of a cannon
Good-by to the colliery

DERRICK STERLING: A STORY OF THE MINES
CHAPTER I
IN THE BURNING BREAKER
"Fire! Fire in the breaker! Oh, the boys! the poor boys!" These cries, and many like them--wild, heartrending, and full of fear--were heard on all sides. They served to empty the houses, and the one street of the little mining village of Raven Brook was quickly filled with excited people.
It was late in the afternoon of a hot summer's day, and the white-faced miners of the night shift were just leaving their homes. Some of them, with lunch-pails and water-cans slung over their shoulders by light iron chains, were gathered about the mouth of the slope, prepared to descend into the dark underground depths where they toiled. The wives of the day shift men, some of whom, black as negroes with coal-dust, powder-smoke, and soot, had already been drawn up the long slope, were busy preparing supper. From the mountainous piles of refuse, of "culm," barefooted children, nearly as black as their miner fathers, were tramping homeward with burdens of coal that they had gleaned from the waste. High above the village, sharply outlined against the western sky, towered the huge, black bulk of the breaker.
The clang of its machinery had suddenly ceased, though the shutting-down whistle had not yet sounded. From its many windows poured volumes of smoke, more dense than the clouds of coal-dust with which they were generally filled, and little tongues of red flame were licking its weather-beaten timbers. It was an old breaker that had been in use many years, and within a few days it would have been abandoned for the new one, recently built on the opposite side of the valley. It was still in operation, however, and within its grimy walls a hundred boys had sat beside the noisy coal chutes all through that summer's day, picking out bits of slate and tossing them into the waste-bins. From early morning they had breathed the dust-laden air, and in cramped positions had sorted the shallow streams of coal that constantly flowed down from the crushers and screens above. Most of them were between ten and fourteen years of age, though there were a few who were even younger than ten, and some who were more than sixteen years old.[1]
[Footnote 1: A law of the State of Pennsylvania forbids the employment of boys less than twelve years old in breakers, or less than fourteen in mines. This law is not, however, strictly enforced.]
Among these breaker boys two were particularly noticeable, although they were just as black and grimy as the others, and were doing exactly the same work. The elder of these, Derrick Sterling, was a manly-looking fellow, whose face, in spite of its coating of coal-dust, expressed energy, determination, and a quicker intelligence than that of any of his young companions. He was the only son of Gilbert Sterling, who had been one of the mining engineers connected with the Raven Brook Colliery. The father had been disabled by an accident in the mines, and after lingering for more than a year, had died a few months before the date of this