Son Philip | Page 6

they were passing to reach a distant
portion where the men were at work on the "new four-foot."
"Indeed!" said Philip, smiling, "I think you'll find me twice as strict."
"Not yo'," chuckled the man; "I used to think the same when I was
young; but, bless thee, lad, a man's life would be a burden to him if he
was fancying the pit o' fire at every bit of gas. There'd be no
coal-mining at all, for the lads'd be too scarred to come down."
"If I live and have my way," said Philip sternly, "the pit here shall be so
safe that work can go on in peace for every one, and every man shall
act as guardian of his fellow's safety."

"Sounds very pratty, lad," said the overman, "but it weant wuck. Look
here, there's a bit o' gas in this corner."
He held the lamp up close to the roof, and tiny explosions again began
inside the gauze.
Then he lowered the lamp, and they ceased, showing how light the
explosive gas was, and how it floated about the roof.
"Sithee," continued the overman, holding up the lamp again, so that
Philip could make out that there was a rift above their heads, where at
some time or other the roof had fallen; "that place has got part gas in it,
for the ventilation don't touch here; but that don't mean as the whole
mine's dangerous."
"But the whole mine is dangerous," said Philip hastily. "It's made
dangerous by the recklessness of the men. Stop, man, what are you
going to do?"
He was too late, for, unperceived by him, the overman had unlocked
the lamp, and held it up open above their heads, when there was a
blinding flash, and an echoing report, and then a rumbling, distant,
rushing noise.
"What do you think o' that, lad?" said the overman coolly, relocking his
lamp.
"I think it was madness," said Philip excitedly. "You might have fired
the mine."
"Nay, lad, there was no fear o' that I knowed well enew what I was
doing, and that bit o' gas was just as well away."
The young deputy's heart beat fast, and he was about to speak angrily,
but he felt that it would be better to consult with his father to see if a
stop could not be put to such reckless ways. For he argued if an
overman would run such a risk as this, knowing that the detached
portion of gas might possibly communicate with a larger body, was it

not likely that the ordinary winners of the coal would, without the
overman's knowledge and experience, run even greater risks?
"Yo'll get used to it all by and by," said the man condescendingly; "and
if yo'll take my bit of advice, yo'll let the men tak' care o' theirsens."
Philip Hexton must have walked in and out quite a couple of miles,
examining ventilating-doors, seeing that the boys who opened and shut
them for the corves to pass were doing their duty, and the like; and,
trifling as it may sound, a great deal depends in a coal-mine upon such
a thing as the opening and shutting of a door, for by means of these
doors the current of air that is sucked, as it were, through the passages
of the pit by the great furnace at the bottom of the shaft is altered in its
course, and turned down this or that passage, sweeping out the foul air
or gas, and making safe the pit. Hence, then, the neglect of one boy
may alter the whole ventilation of some part of a mine, the purifying
draught may be stopped from coursing through some dangerous
gallery where the gas comes singing out of the seams, a light be taken
inadvertently there, and ruin and death be the result.
The young deputy was going on thinking to himself whether it would
not be possible to invent a process by which the dangerous gas of a
mine might be collected in great gasholders, and then burned within
gauze shades for the lighting up of the pit, when the distant
chip--chip--chip ringing and echoing where the men were at work in
the new four-foot grew less persistent, and in place of becoming louder
as they drew nearer, gradually began to cease, as if first one man and
then another had thrown aside his took.
"Hadn't we better turn down here now, Master Hexton?" said the
overman.
"No; I want to inspect the new four-foot," replied Philip.
"My lad, thee needn't go theer to-neet," said the overman. "That's all
right, I warrant."
"He has some reason for stopping me from going there," was Philip

Hexton's first thought. "The men have ceased working; something must
be wrong."
"This is the gainest