Coal Camp Girl

by Lois Lenski

  “I saw him at the Tuckers’ when I came from the store,” said Tina. “He and Virgil wanted to ride Bright Eyes, but I wouldn’t let them. They rode their bikes up Slate Dump Hill. I don’t know where they went.”

  “The rain is over,” said Mama. “Go out and see if you can find him.”

  Tina ran up the road. She stopped at the Bryants’, the Hurleys’ and the Murphys’, but no one had seen Jeff. Then she came to the Tuckers’.

  “I haven’t seen Virgil since noon,” said Mrs. Tucker. “He ate quickly, then said he was going out to play with Jeff. They took their bikes and went off somewhere. I expect they’ll be back soon.”

  Tina went home. “Mrs. Tucker says the boys will be back soon,” she reported.

  “It’s getting late,” said Mama. “I wish Jeff would come.”

  “Queenie’s gone too, Mama,” said Tina.

  “Oh, she tags everywhere with Jeff,” said Mama.

  Chapter Nine

  LOST

  Meanwhile, when Jeff and Virgil left Tina, they rode on up over Slate Dump Hill and came into Crabapple Hollow.

  “You go home, Queenie!” called Jeff to his dog.

  Twice he stopped and threw stones, but the dog kept coming.

  “Queenie’s sulky and mean,” Jeff told Virgil. “She won’t mind only me.”

  “She’s not minding you now,” said Virgil.

  “Oh well, let her come,” Jeff said. “She’ll soon get tired and go off home.”

  The boys passed the Crouses’ house and called for Cliff. Cliff and his mother came to the door.

  “Why don’t you stay here and play?” Mrs. Crouse asked.

  “We told Trig we’d come over in the holler,” said Virgil. “Aw, come on, Cliff.”

  “My bike’s broke,” said Cliff.

  “Can’t you walk?” asked Jeff. “We’ll ride slow.”

  But Cliff and his mother went in and shut the door.

  “He’s an ole Mama-baby,” said Virgil as they went on.

  The boys stopped at Sammy Blagg’s house, and found him chopping wood in the yard.

  “Come on over to Crabapple Holler, Sammy,” called Virgil, “so we can beat you up!” All the younger boys in the coal camp hated Sammy because he was a bully and liked picking on them.

  “I’ll take you on one at a time and tear you to pieces!” said Sammy, but he did not come. He went back to chopping wood.

  The boys went on and at Grandpa Ferris’s house, Grandpa hailed them. “Where you boys off to?”

  “Goin’ over to Trig’s house, Gramp,” called Jeff. He turned to Virgil. “Let’s hurry, so he don’t start askin’ questions.” They rode on.

  Crabapple Hollow was a valley between two mountains and had a dirt road that followed a small brook. There were houses on both sides, with vegetable gardens and small fields of corn between. When the boys came to Uncle Chick’s house, Trig met them at the gate.

  “I thought you were never coming,” he said.

  “We had a little trouble,” said Jeff. “The other guys backed out and wouldn’t come. Cliff Crouse said his bike was broke down.”

  “He’s too lazy to think of walking,” said Virgil.

  “Where’s Sammy?” asked Trig. “This was to be our chance to clean up on him.”

  “He was scared to come,” said Jeff. “Even if he’s bigger than we are, he knew all of us together could whip him. That really scared him, so he didn’t come.”

  “Well,” said Trig, “three’s enough, I s’pose. I’ve got everything ready. Did you bring your hatchet, Jeff?”

  “Yes, and it’s brand new,” said Jeff. “Daddy bought it for me when he went to Mapleton last week.” He pulled the hatchet from under his belt and showed it proudly.

  The boys went to a shed behind Trig’s house. Trig had hard-shell bank caps for Jeff and Virgil. He wore a cloth cap himself. He had a miner’s carbide lamp and a package of matches.

  “Where’d you get it—the lamp?” asked Jeff.

  “Uncle Jack gave it to me,” said Trig.

  “Is it any good?” asked Virgil. “Bet it’s wore out.”

  Trig lighted the carbide light to show the boys, then put it out. “Let’s go,” he said. “It’s late already.” He brought his bicycle and they started out.

  “Trig! Trig!” someone was calling.

  Trig turned and saw his sister Dede running out after him.

  “Where you boys going?” called Dede.

  Trig pedaled faster. “Let’s not answer,” he said. “Let’s pretend we didn’t hear. She don’t need to know where we’re going.” He looked around later and saw Dede going back into the house.

  The boys rode past the houses to the head of the hollow, and at Trig’s suggestion, hid their bicycles in a tangle of bushes at the bottom of the mountain.

  “Nobody’ll find them there,” said Trig. “Nobody will guess we’re up here at all.”

  Trig knew just where he was going, and Jeff and Virgil followed. It was a rough, hard climb up the mountainside, but Trig called it a trail. The boys pushed brush and trees aside, clambered over rocks, and crawled on their knees. Sometimes Jeff chopped off a branch to get by.

  “Where you takin’ us?” growled Jeff. “There’s no trail here. Nobody’s been up this mountain in a hundred years.”

  “Aw, gee! This is no fun, Trig,” complained Virgil. “Every step I take I slip back two steps, so I’ll soon end up at the bottom.”

  “Keep comin’, boys,” said Trig. “Just wait till we get to the top.”

  “I want to be a miner,” said Jeff, “not a mountain-climber.”

  “You can be a miner if you get to the top,” promised Trig.

  Fallen branches blocked the way and had to be chopped. The boys climbed, crawled and pulled themselves up, getting scratched and bruised in the process. It took more than an hour to get to their goal.

  “Well, here we are!” said Trig.

  A dog yelped near by. Jeff looked and there was Queenie. She had followed them all the way up the mountain. He gave her a pat, wondering how she had made it. “Good girl, Queenie!” he said.

  Ahead was the portal of an abandoned mine. Above a lot of fallen rocks, the old cement face could be seen.

  “There used to be a fence here,” said Trig, “but somebody tore it down. The fence was supposed to keep people and animals out.” He grinned.

  Off at one side was an old slate dump dropping into the valley, with a water hole behind it. The boys went over to look.

  “The water’s crystal clear,” said Jeff, looking down.

  “It’s real deep too,” said Virgil. “Let’s have a swim. It won’t be cold on a hot day like this.”

  “No,” said Trig. “We’re goin’ in the mine. That’s what we came for.”

  They came back to the portal but it was blocked by fallen rocks.

  “How we gonna get in?” asked Jeff. “It’s closed up.”

  “I’ll show you,” said Trig. “I been here before.”

  Trig lighted the carbide lamp, exchanged his cap for Virgil’s hard-shell and put it on. He led the boys to the fan entry, pushed some rocks and brush aside and made his way in. The two other boys followed. The daylight at their back soon faded as they went farther in. They walked a short distance, then came to a place where the headroom was low.

  “Down on your knees, boys!” said Trig. “Here we go!”

  Trig was the smallest of the three boys, but the most daring. It was his idea to explore the mine, so he became the leader.

  The old mine was a big one and had been closed down for over five years. The roof timbers had rotted down and some passages were filled with fallen rock and slate. When the boys came to rusty coal-car tracks, they knew they were in the main hallway. Headroom was low here, so they had to hunch over.

  “Maybe we’ll find a shuttle buggy,” said Virgil. “Then we can take a ride.”

  “Who’ll push it?” asked Jeff.

  “We should a brought Bright Eyes to
pull it,” said Virgil, laughing.

  Now their eyes were getting accustomed to the darkness. The inside of the mine was black with a darkness that had never known daylight or the brightness of the sun. Even so, the boys could see nothing ahead but the feeble circle of light that shone from the lamp on Trig’s cap.

  “Why didn’t you get lamps for us, too?” asked Jeff.

  “I thought you’d have sense enough to bring your own,” said Trig.

  “You never told us to,” said Virgil.

  Trig had been pushing ahead eagerly and excitedly. Suddenly he got tired and stopped to rest awhile. He waited for the other boys to come up. They sat quietly talking, when they heard a rustle of movement.

  “What’s that?” asked Virgil.

  “A bat or a rat,” said Trig.

  A light yelp came, and there was Queenie with her tongue out, panting.

  “A dog, you mean,” said Jeff. He took Queenie on his lap. “You found us, didn’t you, old girl?”

  “Gee, it’s spooky in here,” said Virgil. “Let’s go back out. I’ve seen enough. This is no fun at all.”

  “Don’t be a quitter,” said Trig. “We haven’t even started exploring. I came this far alone, the other time I was up here.”

  Jeff was ready to leave too, so in spite of Trig, the boys turned around and found their way back through the fan entry. They came outdoors to daylight again, but a storm had come up and it was raining hard.

  “We’ll have to stay inside to keep dry,” said Jeff.

  They went part way in, fooled around and waited. Then they came back to the entry. It was only drizzling now. Jeff went outside and looked around.

  “I think the storm’s over,” he said. “Gee, boys, there’s a snake.”

  On top of the cement face of the main portal lay a snake curled in a circle.

  “Gimme your ax, Jeff,” said Trig. He climbed up and killed the snake. Then he went in the fan-entry again. “You guys coming?” he called. “I said I was going to explore this mine, and I’m gonna do it.”

  “Let’s go back in,” said Virgil.

  Virgil went first and Jeff followed. They crawled for a while and Trig said, “This is as far as we came before.”

  “No, it’s different,” said Virgil. “I didn’t hit my head on the top so often.”

  “Well, there’s miles more to explore,” said Trig. “Come on. Maybe we’ll find a treasure or something. Besides coal, there’s gold and silver and all kinds of precious stones imbedded in rocks …”

  “We might get lost,” said Virgil. “Let’s go back.”

  “Aw, come on,” coaxed Trig. “If you don’t come farther in, I’ll put my carbide light out.”

  “Then we wouldn’t know where we were going,” said Jeff.

  “So you better stay with me and the light,” said Trig.

  They crawled on. The headroom was getting lower.

  “Say, this sure was low coal in through here,” said Jeff. “The miners had to lie down on their stomachs to dig it!” Jeff was not enjoying himself much, but he tried to be cheerful.

  The boys laughed. Then Virgil said, “The roof must have fell, that’s why it’s so low here. It might fall still more.”

  “This is no fun,” said Jeff.

  “We’ve come far enough,” said Virgil. “Let’s go back. I know all I want to know about the inside of a mine.”

  “No, no, come on,” said Trig. “We’re not halfway in.”

  Jeff and Virgil did not want to be quitters, so they kept on following where Trig led.

  “We’ll soon come out on the other side of the mountain,” promised Trig. “That’s where they used to take the coal out, don’t you remember? The tipple’s over on the Kelton side, down by the railroad track. We’ll come out there and go home by the railroad.”

  “But we left our bikes on this side,” said Jeff.

  Trig kept stubbornly on, but they did not come to an opening. No signs of daylight appeared. Queenie came part way with them and then disappeared.

  “Queenie’s gone back out,” said Jeff. “Queenie’s got sense.”

  “Queenie’s got more sense than Trig’s got,” said Virgil. “Trig, are you taking us out on the Kelton side?”

  “Sure,” said Trig, “as soon as I find the opening.”

  “I want to go back to the side where we came in,” said Jeff. “Our bikes are down at the foot of the mountain.”

  They came to a wall of coal and could not go farther.

  “Now we’ve got to go back,” said Jeff. “What did you bring us here for, Trig?”

  Trig knew now there was no way out ahead. He knew now they were lost, but he would not admit it. “Just follow me,” he said, trying to be brave.

  They turned and started back. Trig tried all the different entries, but they all led to dead-ends and they had to come back. Queenie had not gone out after all. She kept coming up to Jeff, barking, and going away again. Once she got hold of Jeff’s overalls and tugged.

  “Let me alone, Queenie,” said Jeff. “That dog’s crazy—she keeps pullin’ at me. Gee, I’m thirsty …”

  They came to a pool of water and they all drank, even though they knew it was dirty.

  “You’re lost, Trig! I know you are!” said Virgil in a scared voice.

  Trig started to threaten the boys again, but now all his bravado was gone. “No, I’m not lost,” he said, but his voice trembled.

  Queenie pulled at Jeff again, then she started toward the pool. Jeff put his arm in the water and it was deeper than he could reach. The dog swam through the water and left them.

  “Maybe Queenie knows the way out,” said Virgil. “Sometimes dogs are smart and know more than people do.”

  “Not that dumb Queenie,” said Trig.

  “We can’t swim after her through that water,” said Jeff. “It’s over our heads. Where do we go now?”

  Trig started off in the other direction. He came to an opening eighteen inches high. He was so thin, he crawled through easily, but the two other boys had a tight squeeze. The going was rough now. The top had fallen, the rocks were slanting and water kept dripping off the roof. It fell on their backs, covered only by thin T shirts, and made them cold and wet. Trig’s carbide lamp had a blaze only a quarter inch long. It shone for only about two feet ahead and did not help much.

  Suddenly Virgil called, “Gosh! My foot! I’m caught!”

  While sliding down over some rocks, his foot became wedged between two of them. He tugged and tugged, but could not get it out. Tired and frightened, he began to cry.

  “Don’t be a cry-baby,” said Jeff.

  Trig and Jeff came back to help. They unlaced Virgil’s shoe and took his foot out. Then Virgil pulled the shoe out of the crack and put it on again. It was a tennis shoe, soaking wet. The boys tried to go on again, but were tired and discouraged.

  “Trig Ferris!” said Jeff. “We’re lost and you know it! You brought us in here—now you show us the way out!”

  Trig did not answer.

  “I know I’ve crawled thirty miles,” said Virgil. “I’m getting hungry, it must be supper time. Oh, what’ll my mother say?”

  Queenie found them again and came up, barking.

  “Shut up, you crazy dog!” said Trig crossly.

  No one, least of all Trig, guessed that the dog was trying to lead the boys out of the mine. They kept on crawling and crawling.

  At last they came to a big cement face inside a wide hallway. It was higher here, so Trig opened a half-rotted door and went inside. There was a box in the room with boards on it. Trig read the words FIRST AID, and knew it must be the old First Aid room of the mine. Perhaps they stored the powder here.

  Trig read the words and the next minute the carbide light went out. That was the last straw—Trig’s courage left him. Tired and exhausted, he fell to the ground and refused to talk.

  Outside the door, Jeff told Virgil, “Don’t go in there. If we go in there, they’ll never find us.”

  Virgi
l whispered, “Do you think they’ll come for us?”

  Jeff said, “Sure! My dad will come,” but in his heart he was not so sure. How would Dad ever find them way off in an abandoned mine on the top of Deerfoot mountain? Jeff had been told so often to stay away from old mines, his dad would not think of looking there.

  “Jeff,” said Virgil, “I wish we hadn’t hid our bikes. They’ll never find them back of those bushes. They’ll never guess we came up here.”

  “Even if they find them,” Jeff said, “they’ll think we went swimming in the slate dump pond … and got drowned!”

  Both boys were near to tears now. They were lying down, too tired to move. But worse than fatigue, they were sick at heart.

  “How are we ever gonna get out?” asked Virgil.

  Jeff gulped. “I don’t know,” he said. Inside, he was praying for guidance.

  “Hear that?” asked Virgil. “It’s rats gnawing. They make tracks as big as a dog’s. We’d better not go to sleep. They’ll come and bite us.”

  The boys sat up and made noises to scare the rats away. Then Jeff sniffed a strange smell. “GAS!” he cried, jumping up.

  “There’s gas coming from that door!” he said. “It’s coming from in there where Trig is. No wonder he went to sleep so quick. That place is full of gas—we’ve got to get Trig out.”

  Jeff and Virgil made their way into the room.

  “Where’s the light, Trig?” but Trig did not answer.

  It was so dark inside, they had to feel their way to Trig. The carbide light was out and Trig was sound asleep. They had a hard time waking him. They shook and shook him, but he would not waken.

  “We got to get out,” said Virgil. “There’s gas in here. It’ll kill us if we breathe it.”

  “What do I care?” said Trig. He was awake now, all right.

  He refused to get up. He kicked his feet against the wall and cried hysterically. He swore and laughed and cried and called the boys names.

  “Get hold of his feet, Virgil,” said Jeff. “I’ll take his head and arms.”

  Together the two boys tugged and pulled. They brought the fighting, protesting boy out through the door and pushed it shut again. They dropped him on the ground.

  “Now what we gonna do?” Virgil turned to Jeff.