n of burly Tom Evert, who gave the lad a cheery word whenever he
passed him, nobody spoke to him. Even Harry Mule seemed to realize that
his young driver was not having a very pleasant time, and rubbed his
nose sympathetically against his shoulder, as much as to say, "I'm sorry
for you, and I'll stand by you even if nobody else does."

At last, in some mysterious way, everybody seemed to know all at once,
that it was time to quit work, and Harry Mule knew it as quickly as
anybody. Before Derrick noticed that the miners had stopped work, this
remarkable animal, having just been unhitched from a car, threw up his
head, uttered a prolonged and ear-rasping bray, and started off on a
brisk trot, with a tremendous clatter and jingling of chains, towards
his stable.

The door-boys heard him coming, opened their doors to let him pass,
closed them after him, and started on a run for the foot of the slope.

Of course Derrick followed his charge as fast as possible, calling, as
he ran, "Whoa, Harry! Whoa! Stop that mule, he's running away!" Neither
Harry nor anybody else paid the slightest attention to him, and when he
finally reached the stable he found his mule already there, exchanging
squeals and kicks with several other bumping-mules that had come in from
other parts of the mine.

Then he knew that it was really quitting-time, and went to work, as
quickly as his inexperience would allow, to rub Harry down, water and
feed him, and make him comfortable for the night. Everybody else who had
stable-work to do finished it before he, and when at last he felt at
liberty to leave the mine and start towards the upper world and the
fresh air he longed so ardently to breathe again, he was alone.

Derrick found his way without difficulty to the large chamber at the
foot of the slope. There, as he did not see any cars ready to go up, he
turned towards the travelling-road, with the intention of climbing the
steep stairway he had descended that morning.

Suddenly there arose cries of "There he is! There he is! Head him off!"

Before the startled lad knew what was about to happen, he was surrounded
by a score of sooty-faced boys. Cutting him off from the
travelling-road, these boys pushed him, in spite of his opposition and
protests, into a far corner of the chamber, where, with his back against
the wall, he made a stand and demanded what they wanted of him.

"A treat! a treat!" shouted several.

Then room was made for one who seeme