CHAPTER II--AT THE SILENT SUE
Those few yards between the corral and the back door of the Havens'pretty home in the Silver Run suburb were the hardest steps Chet hadever taken. For his age he was naturally a thoughtful boy, and he hadbeen impressed by the manner in which his father ever shielded thedelicate, gentle mother from all the rough things of life. If there wasan accident in the mine, Mr. Havens seldom mentioned it before his wife,and never did he repeat the particulars.
Chet had seen and understood. He knew that his mother was not to betroubled by ordinary things if it could be helped. Of course, she mustknow of his father's danger; but the news must be broken to hercarefully. He could not allow rough but kind-hearted Dan Gubbins to goin with his story of the accident at the Silent Sue claim.
As he entered the sewing-room where his mother was engaged at her work,she looked up with a little smile on her face.
"What's wanted, Chetwood?" she asked.
She was a small woman, with a very delicate pink flush in her cheeks andbands of prematurely grey hair above her forehead and over the tops ofher ears. Chet often said, laughingly, that if he ever wanted to marry agirl, he'd wait to find one who wore her hair just like his mother worehers.
"What's wanted, Chetwood?" she repeated, as the boy remained silentafter quietly closing the door. Then she saw his troubled face and thework on which she was busied fell from her hands and, from her lap,slipped to the floor as she slowly rose.
"Chetwood! My son! your father--?"
Her cry was low, but it thrilled Chet to the heart. He sprang forward toseize her shaking hands. He knew that she was ever fearful when Mr.Havens was in the mine.
"It's not so bad as all that, Mother! Wait! don't believe the worst!"begged the boy, his voice choked with emotion.
"He--he isn't killed?"
"Not a bit of it! There's been a--a little accident. Father is downthere with some of the other men."
"Down where?" she asked sharply.
"In Number Two drift. There was a cave-in. Of course they'll get themout. Old Rafe Peters is on the job already with a gang. I'm going rightup there."
"Oh, Chet! Are you _sure_ that is all? They are still alive?"
"Of course!" cried the boy, with strong conviction and even calling up asmile. "Dan Gubbins came down to bring the news and get some more men.Dig and I are going to ride right up."
"Where is Digby's father?" queried Mrs. Havens anxiously.
"He didn't happen to be there when the cave-in took place. But he'sprobably there now. We'll get at them all right. Don't you fear,Mother."
"Oh, but my son! I shall be fearful indeed until I know your father issafe. I am always afraid when he is in the mine. The men take suchchances!"
"Well, the Silent Sue has not recorded many accidents. Father and Dig'sfather are both very careful. Now, Mother, don't worry any more than youcan help. I'll send down word just as soon as we know anything forsure."
He kissed her--and kissed her cheerfully. That was the hardest part ofhis mission, for he, too, was greatly worried. Then he seized his capand quirt and hurried out to the corral. Dig Fordham had, for once, beenprompt. He held Chet's handsome bay, Hero, by the bridle, while his ownsleepy-looking, Roman-nosed Poke was cropping grass at the edge of theroad.
"Come on, Dig!" Chet cried, hastily jerking the reins from his chum'shand. "We must hurry."
"Did you tell her?" whispered his chum, awe-struck.
"All she needed to know now," snapped back Chet. "Look alive!"
He was astride of Hero in a moment and the noble animal took the trailwithout urging. Dig whistled for Poke. Then he whistled again. The ugly,sleepy-looking animal stopped for just one more bite.
"Isn't that just like you, you ornery brute!" growled Digby. "If ever Iwanted you in a hurry you wouldn't mind. Come on!"
He jumped for the horse, caught at the trailing bridle, and Poke stoodon his hind legs and pawed the air, his eyes suddenly afire, striving towheel about and escape Dig's clutching hand.
Digby Fordham wasn't afraid of any horse. He sprang right in under thepawing hoofs, and seized the dangling reins. His hold was secure; hiswrist firm. At his first jerk Poke's head came down and, naturally, thehorse's forefeet as well.
The instant the hoofs struck the ground, and before Poke could begin anyfurther display of antics, Dig was in the saddle. Chet, looking backover his shoulder as Hero set the pace up the mountain, saw that hischum was securely astride Poke. Give Dig both feet in the stirrups, andno horse living could dismount him. He rode as though he were a part ofthe horse.
Digby and Poke were not always in accord, but Poke was tireless andcarried the heavy boy as though he were a feather-weight. Poke could gowithout food and water much longer than most mountain-bred mustangs. Digdeclared there must be a strain of camel in him. But there was not anattractive thing about the brute, either in temper or appearance.
In a minute he was neck and neck with Hero, and both horses werecarrying their young masters up the slope at a fast pace. Dig grumbled:
"This old rascal always cuts up when I want him in a hurry. I'm going totrade him off for a horned toad, and then use the toad for a currycomb.Your Hero is a regular lady's horse 'side o' him."
"You know you wouldn't take any money for old Poke," returned Chet,reaching out and smiting the black across his ugly nose with his ownpalm. "Why do you give him a chance to get away from you?"
"Because hope springs eternal in my breast," declared Dig, who wouldjoke under any and all circumstances. "I'm always hopin' I've got therascal broken of his bad habits."
Chet was not in a mood for laughter; nor was his chum careless ofthought. He really hoped to get Chet's mind off the mine accident. Itmight not be anywhere near so bad as Dan Gubbins had said.
Mining at Silver Run was now carried on with much more care for humanlife than it had been when the claims were first staked out and theoriginal owners had begun to get out "pay dirt." Mr. Havens was apractical engineer, a graduate from a College of Mines, and with a longexperience at other diggings before he had obtained a controllinginterest in the Silent Sue.
It was a mine the stock of which had never been exploited in the easternmarket. Mr. Fordham and Mr. Havens had always been able to obtainsufficient capital to buy machinery and improve their methods of gettingout the ore; and they found the Silent Sue too steadily productive toneed any other partners.
Mr. Havens owned, also, a second claim near the first that might someday develop into a rich one.
When the two chums rode up to the collection of rude miners' cabins,sheds, the stamp-mill, and other shanties that surrounded the mouth ofthe mine-shaft, they found a crowd already gathered. Men and women alikewere commingling excitedly about the shaft in which the rescue party wasat work.
A big, bushy-whiskered man in yellow overalls and a tarpaulin hat wasurging on the workers, and trying to keep the women and children backfrom the open mouth of the pit.
"Oh, Rafe!" cried Chet, throwing himself out of the saddle and runningup to the mine boss. "Are they down there yet?"
"They're all right so fur, Chet," declared the man.
"Can you get them out?"
"I kin try--and that's what I'm doin'," the mine boss said huskily."Thirty foot of the bottom of the shaft's caved in. It's caved from allfour sides. We're diggin' out the earth and rubbage and sendin' it up bythe bucket-load. Fast as we kin, we're replacin' the timbering. That'sthe best we can do."
Chet had a quick mind and he knew a good deal about such accidents,although there had been nothing like this at the Silent Sue since hecould remember.
"You can't work a big gang in the shaft, Rafe," he said anxiously. "Howlong will it take 'em to get down to the bottom and into the sidetunnels?"
"I dunno, boy, I dunno," the old man said, plainly worried. "But we'reworkin' jest as fast as ever we can. I'm shiftin' the men ev'ry twohours and they're all puttin' in their very best licks."
"You haven't heard--h
eard from fa-father?" gasped Chet, trying tocontrol his voice.
"Golly! No, boy!" exclaimed the mine boss. "Thar's thirty foot ofrubbage, I tell yer, at the bottom of the shaft. If they was hollerin'their heads off we wouldn't hear 'em yet. The fall of earth and stuff ispacked like iron."
"Oh, it'll be all right, Chet! It'll be all right," urged his chum, whohad come up after hitching the two mustangs.
Dig's father had not as yet arrived. Nobody seemed to have much headabout him but old Rafe. But perhaps nobody could do much. Chet stared athis chum and the mine boss hopelessly.
"Why, see!" he gasped. "It may be a week before you can clear the bottomof that shaft--it may be longer! What will father--and the others--doall that time? Oh, Dig! it's awful--it's _awful_! They'll starve todeath!"
"Whew! I hadn't thought of that," muttered Digby Fordham.
Old Rafe Peters shook his head. He was keeping his eyes on the bucketsof "rubbage," as he called it, that were being swiftly brought to thesurface by the steam winch. He had excavated the lower end of the shafthimself and he knew the strata of earth through which it passed. By thecolour of that which came up in the buckets, he knew the diggers had notgone far as yet.
One bucket went down as the other came up. It was not down three minutesbefore the signal rang for it to be hoisted again. But thousands uponthousands of buckets of debris would have to be hoisted out of the shaftere the way would be opened into tunnel Number Two, lower level, inwhich Mr. Havens and the miners were entombed.