id, "if you will look as human as that again, you may
burn the other hand!"

The human moles who empty these pockets of ore are inured. Life down
there is normal to them. After a few years' work, the skin becomes
calloused and tough. The hands become claws or talons--broken and
disfigured. The muckers laughed at us. They saw we were concerned
about trifles. Bloody sweat and hot oil held the red dust around us
like a tight-fitting garment. Our scanty clothing was glued to our
bodies. Our shoes were filled with water, but that was a luxury--it
was cool.

What a hades of noise and dust! The continual noise and clatter of the
pumps, the rattle of the drillers, the hissing of steam and the
ear-splitting roar of the dynamite explosions are matters that one
gets accustomed to in time. The frenzied desire to get cars filled and
run out leaves little time for novel sensations--for that, brute force
_alone_ is needed.

At the end of the first day we had filled and run out ten cars. Our
pay for that was sixty-six cents apiece. During the same time, Philo,
the mule boy, made seventy-five cents and Emma--she had earned what
would enable her to return to-morrow to repeat the work of to-day.

About five o'clock in the afternoon we were sandwiched into the big
iron skip with a score of others--black and white. Eight hours had
taken our newness away. We were as others in colour and condition. We
looked into their faces and felt their hot breath. Then a signal was
given and the panting, squirming mass was jerked to the surface.

As we passed over the hill to the camp I was in an ecstasy. The sense
of relief under the open sky was intense. Others seemed to have
it--for they joked and laughed boisterously over trifles as we went
"home."

Seven of us together went to the big wash-house. It was rather
crowded. I marvelled that nobody was using the shower-baths. I soaped
myself, stood beneath the big iron water-pipe and waited, but there
was no response. There was a loud laugh, then a miner asked:

"Air ye posin' for yer photo, mister?"

"No. What's the matter with the water?"

"Fits, Buttie--it's got fits!"

There was plenty of food, of a kind. The supper, at the close of the
day was a brief function, but brutal as it was brief. It was something
of a shock, the first night we were in camp, but at the close of my
first day's work I found myself on a level with the grossest. The
finer instincts were blunted or gone and I was in th