the breaker.

Of course Bill gratefully accepted this offer; and either because he had
a feeling of sympathy for an animal that was suffering in much the same
way that he was, or because his own trials and the kindness shown him
had really softened his nature, he proved a capital and most attentive
nurse.

Often after this, when Derrick entered the stable unexpectedly, he
discovered these two cripples engaged in conversation. At least he would
find Bill Tooley perched on the edge of the manger, where he balanced
himself with his crutch, talking in his uncouth way to the mule; while
the latter, with great ears pricked forward, and wondering eyes fixed
unwinkingly upon the speaker, seemed to pay most earnest attention to
all that he said.

As Derrick watched the train bearing his recently made friends roll away
from the little station, and disappear around a sharp curve in the
valley, he experienced a feeling of sadness, for which he was at first
unable to account. In thinking it over, he decided that it was because
he felt sorry to have anybody go away who had been so kind to his
much-loved bumping-mule.

Turning away from the station, he walked slowly back to the mouth of the
slope, jumped into an empty car, and was lowered into the mine.

Why did the place appear so strange to him? All the interest, of which
it had seemed so full but the day before, was gone from it, and Derrick
felt that he hated these underground delvings. A feeling of dread came
over him as he started along one of the gangways in search of Tom Evert,
to whom he had been ordered to report for duty. The air seemed close and
suffocating, and the lamps to burn with a more sickly flame than usual.
To the boy the faces of the miners looked haggard, and their voices
sounded unnaturally harsh. He overheard one of them say, "Ay, she's
working, there's no doubt o' that; but it's naught to worrit over; just
a bit settlin' into place like."

Derrick wondered, as he passed out of hearing, what the man meant; and
as he wondered he was startled by a sharp report like the crack of a
rifle, only much louder, and a horrible grinding, crushing sound that
came from the rock wall of the gangway close beside him. The sound
filled him with such terror that he fled from it, running at full speed
through the black, dripping gallery. He ran until he came to a group of
miners who were strengthening the roof with additional props and braces
of new timber. He told them o