TALES FROM THE LAND OF LIGNITE, GOLD, AND BARREN HILLS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2268, 19 August 1897, Page 46

TALES FROM THE LAND OF LIGNITE, GOLD, AND BARREN HILLS.

— : «. By %C. Bend.

I.— M'INTOSH'S LAST NIGHT SHIFT. [All Rights Reserved.] We were ]ust about to turn in for the night, when " Big Fred," the nozzle-man on the night shift, came into the bat, lantern in hand, his oilskin frozen stiff and his beard covered with icicles. He looked ' rather savage — as a man with so much ica about him could afford to— so no one ventured to remark anything until a thaw had set in. At last, when the heat of the room had reduced his beard and coat to a limp and dripping aspect, and a pmall pool of water had began to shape itself around the soles of his gum I boots, the silence was broken by " Scatterbrains," the juvenile of the camp, who ventured to inquire what was up. " What's up, eh 1 " said Fred. " G-od'a truth, you might as well ask I The night's not fit for a Chinaman to be out in, and if i any man here is^fool enough to finish my J shift he can do ao. I'll take my oath that I don't go out again — not for all the gold in ! the cursed country 1 " With that he began to divest himself of his clothing preparatory to turning in, and nothing more was said by anyone until it was noticed that Sandy M'lntooh had slipped on j a pair of gum boots and was reaching for his sou-wester and oilskin. Now we all knew that " Big Fred " was the last man in the claim to shirk a job without j some solid reason for doing so, and with unanimous voice, therefore, tried to dissuade M'lntosh from attempting to tackle what the haidiest and most experienced amongst us thought well enough to give in to. None of us liked M'lntoah, for he was , alwayß at the boss's elbow, trying to curry favour, mostly, we uuspected, to the dis- i advantage of some one else. Besides, he was of a mean, grasping disposition, which of itnelf would have been sufficient to raise an animus against him. Yet, despite this general dislike, the objections urged were purely disinterested on the present occasion ; but they only acted as incentives to him to go out, and he went — probably with the intention of glorifying himself in the eyes of ' the boss as much as for the sake of the | extra wages. • It was usual at this time of the year — mid jj a ly — to expect a complete freezing out and shutting down of the claims for at least a fortnight ; but during the month previous there had been some exceptionally heavy snow falls in Central Otago, and a few of the water races in our locality in consjijuence thereof had become bridged by a covering of snow about 18in deep. This snow had frozen hard enough to form a .substantial culvert top, under which the water ran freely, and out of the reach of any subsequent frost, thus enabling the claims to keep going. The ground on this particular night was hard as rock, and the water splashed against the frozen "faceß" of the mine without making any visible alteration in their appearance. It was almost impossible to walk about without slipping on the icy surface of the bottom, and the iron sluicing nozzle blistered the fingers when touched with the naked band. Besides this a blizzard had sprung up, and, as "Big Fred" remarked, it wasn't fit for a Chinaman to be out in. But the water was available, and while such is the case the persistent white man gives small, heed to obstacles of weather in his arduous pursuit of the " yellow curse of the world." M'lntosh "slithered" rather than walked

into tbs paddook, but it wasn't locg until the roaring nozzle proclaimed that he had begun operations. Big Fred told us that he bad found it necessary himself to dance about all the time he was working in order to keep himself warm — and it was about the moot miserable jig that he had ever shaken a leg to. Said he, "By the time that Sandy knocks off he'll be fib to take a prize for fanoy steppin'." Bnt ib turned out afterwards that Sandy* dancing wasn't intended to qualify him for Buch a gratifying purpoEe. About a oonpie of hours after M'lntosh had gone to work our sleep was broken by a ■accession of yells that reached us from the claim. Immediately on bearing them every man of us jumped up and hastened to the scene of the disturbance as fast as the ground would allow us to slide. On reaching the paddock it was found that about 4tt of water had risen therein; and on looking for M'lntosh we discovered him standing straight up against the " elevator " with his two arms folded around one. of its uptake sections. 11 What the dickens are you doing there ? '• roared out B : g Fred. " Why don't you try to climb up, you fool ? " " I can't 1 " said Sandy. " For God's sake turn the water off one of you, and someone come down here and help me to get my foot out of the intake." One of the party rushed off immediately to shut down the valves, while the rest brought a ladder and clambeted'down it to try and help Sandy out of his predicament. M'lntosb, it seemed, while pursuing biff duties had occasion to go rather close to the elevator — the machinery which lifts, by suction through its intake, the sluiced material and water from the paddock, and discharges both at a higher level into the tail race, or ditch, in which the gold is saved. Happening to stand in an unsafe place, he had slipped and fallen in such a position as to allow his foot to get into the orifice of the intake pipe, and before heoould recover, himself it had been sucked in further by the hydraulic action of the elevator. Had the opening been wide enough he would have been sucked up bodily and discharged into the tail race a lifeless corpse, but owing to its narrowness his foot only acted as a stop-gap, which deprived the water coming in from, the nozzle of an outlet from the paddook. Sandy vainly endeavoured to extricate himself, for the suction was too powerful ; and seeing the water beginning to rise up around him he began to call out for assistance. The roar of the nozzle, however, prevented his voice from being heard until the water had risen high enough to cover its mouth and deaden the noise it was making. Hence he was forced to stay helplessly looking on at what promised to be for him a watery grave. Not until after the closing of the valves had stopped the suction were we able to release him, and when we dragged him out he was numbed to the marrow. Next morning foand him unable to rise from his bunk. Bheumatic fever ensued, and the ambitious Sandy found himself for a long time incapacitated for work of any kind. When be did recover he decided to leave hydraulic sluicing alone; and though none of us mourned bis absence we used of cen to talk of M'lntosh and his last and adventurous night shift.