he
opens it with a key, and, closing it behind him, finds himself in a
passage which leads him straight into the pit.

Here he is in a busy world, very different from the solitude he has
left. The streets, which are narrow and close, are full of miners hard
at work with their hammers. The men are nearly naked, the boys who
push the wagons are wholly so. There is no sound heard but that of the
never-ceasing hammers. In the mine there are no jolly songs, no hearty
laughter. Over the mouth of each miner a thick cloth is tied, through
which he breathes.

Some of the passages are so narrow that the worker is obliged to lie
upon his back, and in this position to reach the coal with his pick.
When he has loosened it he drops it into the little wagon, which the
naked boys, crawling upon their stomachs, push before them to the
opening.

The man who has come out of the dark cavern does not differ in dress
from any of the others. He is clothed, certainly, but his clothes are
covered with coal-dust, his hands are just as coarse, and he carries
a pick and a hammer on his shoulder. Nevertheless, they all know him;
there is a rough civility in the tone of each man as he answers the
other's greeting, "Good-evening. Bad Weather is coming."

The word is repeated all round.

It was true. Bad Weather _was_ close at hand, and these men and boys,
who quietly come and go, hammer, shove the wagons, lie on their backs,
all know, as well as the convict who is awaiting the execution of his
sentence, that death is near.

The heavy, damp fog which lies upon each man's chest, and which fills
the mine with its unwholesome smell, needs only a spark, and those who
now live and move are dead men, buried underground, while overhead a
hundred widows and orphans weep and clamor for their lost ones.

And yet, knowing this, the miners continue calmly to work, as if quite
unconscious that the dread Angel of Death is hovering about them.

The man who has just entered is Ivan Behrend, the owner of the mine.
He unites in himself the office of overseer, director, surveyor, and
bookkeeper. He has enough to do; but we all know the proverb, and, if
we have lived long enough, have tested its truth, "If you want a thing
well done, do it yourself." Moreover, it is an encouragement to the
worker if he sees his employer go shoulder to shoulder with him in the
work. Therefore, as we have just seen, the master greets all his
workmen with the words, "Bad Weather