rruption, if, indeed, he heard
it.

"That way, I always knew that the knockers were on my side, an' I've
been willin' to hole coal in mines that folks said weren't safe.
What's more, in forty years o' work, I've never lost a day's time from
an accident of any kind. I know I'm safe, because of what happened to
me when I was still a kid.

"One day--I don't know just why, maybe the air was worse'n
usual--after I'd been lookin' after the door for the bigger part o'
the shift, I dropped right off asleep. Half-dreamin', I heard a loaded
car come roarin' down, but I didn't wake up until it was so close as
to be too late.

"I scrambled up on my feet an' was just makin' a wild jump forward to
the door, when I felt a little fist--it seemed about the size of a
baby's, but was strong an' hard--hit me right in the chest. It pushed
me back into the corner, out o' the way o' the car, an' held me there.

"At the same minute, an' just in the nick o' time, the door swung
open.

"Rubbin' my eyes--they was so gritty wi' coal that I could hardly look
out o' them--I saw what looked like a little man made o' coal
standin' back against the door an' holdin' it open for the car to pass
through. His face was sort o' pale, like a whitewashed wall in the
dark, an' his eyes were red, like sparks. I thought he had a pointed
hat an' long pointed shoes, but I was so scared that I couldn't be
rightly sure. I could just see his whitish face movin' up an' down,
like he was noddin' his head. Then the door slammed shut, the hand
suddenly lifted off my chest an' I didn't see nothin' more. I tell
you, I kept awake after that."

"You must have opened the door unconsciously, while half-asleep, and
dreamed about seeing the goblin," was Clem's comment.

But, before the old man could retort, Anton broke in.

"Father told me he's seen some, just like that. It was in Wales. A
woman visitor had gone down to see the mine."

Otto shook his head gravely.

"Never a woman went down a coal mine yet, but an accident happened
right after," he declared. "In the big explosion at Loosburg, when
over four hundred miners were killed, it was found out, after, that
one o' the miners was a woman who had dressed herself in men's
clothes an' was pickin' coal. But what was it your father saw, Anton?"

"It happened right when the visiting party was in the mine," the boy
explained. "It was in one of the main galleries, which was strongly
timbered. A prop, which had been st