How Rob Won.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue XX, 15 November 1902, Page 1271

How Rob Won.

A STORY OF AN AMERICAN BOY. Rob. the new boy in school, stood irresolute. With scarlet cheeks, dilating nostrils, and fists tightly clenched, he stood, the centre of a group of his schoolmates. Buck Clark, a boy of his own size, with coat and vest off and sleeves rolled up, blocked Rob’s homeward way. “Put up your fists and fight. What’re ye 'fraid of?” sneered Buck. “I have already told you that I do not care to fight,” Rob answered. “You’re a coward, that’s what’s the matter with you. Take that and that to remember me by,” said Buck as he struck at Rob.

“Leave him alone. Buck; you’re always picking a fight,” Interposed an older boy. The little boys standing about on the outskirts of the crowd, whooped and shouted. “ 'Fraid cat, 'fraid cat —’Buck can lick you with one hand tied behind him—cowardly calf, cowardly calf.” Stung by these taunts, Rob said: “I would fight soon enough, but I promised my mother I wouldn’t, and a McArthur never breaks his word.” Then, lowering his voice and unclenching his fists at the thought of his mother, he added, “She isn’t very strong and I’m all she’s got. I don’t like you boys to think I’m a coward, but I promised her I wouldn’t fight and I won’t.” “Girly hoy. Tied to his mother'* apron string. Where’s your sunbonnet. sissy ?” derisively booted the small boys. Rob, raising his head very high, apparently unmindful of the jeers and taunts flung at him, bruehed Buck to one side and started homeward.

"Buck, you had better be a little careful which way you stroke that new boy’s fur,” said one of the older boys. “He eould lick you if he wanted to.” “Oh, he’s strong all right, but he hasn’t any sand. He’s a coward,” answered Buck. “That’s what he is.” chimed in several of Buck’s supporters. The next few weeks were hard weeks for Rob. Buck Clark and his crowd made the boy’s life miserable by all the petty annoyances they could devise; but Rob had good Scotch grit, and though his eyes flashed and his flats involuntarily clenched at times, he kept the pro mise he had given. At home a frail and gentle little mother greeted him lovingly, smoothing his brow with her soft and gentle hand or caressing his wavy brown hair. Not for worlds would Rob let his mother know by word or sign how much it was costing him to keep his promise. “Ah. Rob, my laddie, you are such a comfort to me, so tender, so thoughtful, and so manly. How proud your father would be of you, laddie; yon are his very picture. God grant you may be as strong and brave and true as he.”

Rob had all an active, growing boy’s interest and curiosity in his new surroundings. He had come from an eastern state, and until hie arrival in Butte a few months previous, he had never seen a mine or * smelter. Rob spent all his spare time visiting the mines and prospect holes near his home. One Saturday afternoon he went down in the cage at the Alice to the thousand foof level. It seemed like a page out of a fairy book to see men nearly a quarter of a mile beneath the surface of the earth, picking, drilling and blasting in - the different drifts and tunnels. Rob was all the more attracted to mining as his uncle had been foreman in a mine for many years, until he had been killed by the premature discharge of a blast a short time before they came to Butte. This uncle had left his property to Rob’s mother; it consisted of a house and lot, a few hundred dollars In the bank, and several thousand shares in a mine, which in its early days had given promise of being a rich silver producer. Grossly incompetent management, coupled with the fact that expensive machinery must be purchased to keep the shaft free from water, led to the temporary closing of the mine. Then the shares, which had been quoted at nearly par, could be had for a few cents. Rob’s mother brought the certifb cates of stock out to Rob one dsg.

saying, “Here, laddie, you are so much interested in mines, you may have these shares for your very own.” Rob was very anxious to visit “his mine,” as he termed ft, so the following Saturday his mother put up a good lunch for him, and cautioning him to be very careful, she let him visit it. After a brisk walk of several miles and a stiff climb up the mountain side, he reached the abandoned mine. The shaft house was standing and appeared to be In good condition. The long dump of grey ore from the mine extended along the hillside, and the dump ear, red with rust, was still on the track.

After investigating the outside thoroughly, Rob climbed through one of the windows to explore the interior of the shaft house. The machinery had been removed, all was confusion and disorder, bits of caudle, well-worn oilskins and ore-stain-ed overalls littered the floor. He peered down the dark mouth of the shaft. The ladder extended as far as be could see. Picking up a fragment of rock he dropped it down the abaft. After a short interval he heard the splash of the rock as it struck the water far below. He had not been in the shaft house long before he heard a muffled report down the mountain side in the direction of the tunnel. Wondering who could be blasting there, he hurried out of the shaft house and down the mountain side. When he arrived at. the mouth of the tunnel, he peered in, but saw’ and heard nothing. In another moment he was* startled by a loud report. close at hand. Looking around hastily, he saw Buck Clark lowering an old army musket from his shoulder. Rob called out: “What are you shooting at?" Buck glanced quickly around at him and answered, “A jack rabbit. That's the second shot I’ve had at him, but I missed him both times.” Putting the gun over his shoulder he joined Rob and glanced into the tunnel. “I’ll baek you out going in there," he said. Rob looked in doubtfully and answered, “I would kind of like to go in, but mother told me to be careful about going into dangerous places.” “Huh! When you're afraid to do anything, your mother is a pretty good excuse. What, are you afraid of; anyway? There ain’t no danger. I guess the trouble is it’s pretty dark and sloppy and you haven’t got the nerve to go in. Huh, before I'd be such a coward I’d wear dresses and play with a doll.” Buck looked contemptuously at Rob. Rob flushed scarlet, but he gave no other sign of resentment. “Maybe there is no danger after all. We will go to the end of the tunnel, come on,” Rob said quietly. Near the entrance a miner's candlestick with a few inches of candle in it was found stuck in one of the side timbers. Rob pulled it loose, and, protecting the candle from the draught, lit it. Buck hid hisgun in the bushes near the t unnel, and the boys started in. Water seeped from the roof and trickled through the side timbers. The footboard was wet and slippery. The smell of mould, of dampness and rotting wood, peculiar to abandoned mines and tunnels, pervaded the place. Attached to the timbers overhead and on both sides were beautiful snow-white fungus growths, which the flickering gleam of the moving candle brought into ghostlike relief against, the blackness of the wet and sodden timbers, like dim wraiths of the wildflowers abloom on the hillside above. As the boys advanced, the trickle of water became more noticeable, and in places the plank underfoot was afloat. Several hundred, feet from the entrance they came to a place where some of the timber overhead had rotted away, exposing the earth. Seeing a shiny bit of ore overhead. Buck picked up a fragment of the fallen timber and dislodged it. Several bushels of loosened earth fell with it. Rob stopped. and by the uncertain light of the candle the two examined it. Rob. who was always on the alert to find a good specimen of wire-silver, examined it critically. “It's pyrites of iron, ain’t it?” he asked. . “Yes,” Buck answered. “ it’s pretty enough, but not of any value. I know a place where there is any amount of such ‘fool's gold’ as this." Throwing the. specimen down, they pressed on, picking their way carefully over the slippery and uncertain footing by the dim light of their candle. A few score yards farther on they stopped to examine a

curious growth of fungus.' While doing so they heard the sound of breaking timbers, and then a terrific crash. Turning quickly toward the source of the sound they found the little square of daylight that marked the entrance to the tunnel blotted out. A momentary panic seized both of the boys, and in blind, unreasoning terror they rushed back the way they had come. Stumbling and falling they ran on till a pile of freshly fallen earth blocked their farther flight. Buck, with shrill cries 1 of fear, like an imprisoned animal, furiously attacked the mass of earth. Rob, his momentary panic over, said, “Take it cool. Buck, it will take us both a good many hours, and maybe days, to move that dirt back out of the way.”

Buck, realising how futile his efforts were, stopped .and began to sob. Perhaps it was because he lacked the higher form of moral courage Rob possessed, or it may be he knew better than Rob the danger of their situation and the hopelessness of their being rescued, that caused him to break down and lose his nerve. “Don’t worry. Buck,” said Rob, “we can dig out of this in a day or two, and even if we. can’t we shall be missed and the searching parties will probably look in here. Brace up and don't cry.” With their hands and 'bits of timber which they wrenched from the wall they dug at. the mass of earth for hours, but their progress was pitifully slow.

While they were digging another small eave-in occurred, burying Buck completely from sight. Rob fell to work frantically and dug him out. A large piece of rock had fallen on Buck’s hand, .making a painful bruise. The earth overhead, saturated with the water seeping through it, needed but little encouragement to fall. Tearful lest a more extensive cavein might occur, the boys drew back. The candle had been lost in the wild scramble at the beginning, and the darkness was total and complete. No sound came to their ears, but the drip, drip, drip of the water. The boys then sat down some distance back from the cave-in and rested. Buck could not stand the inaction and broke down. “We’re shut up here to die like rats in a trap. Our people will never know what has become of us. They will never think of looking here. It will take, days and days for us to starve to death.” “Don't cry. Buck; keep a stiff upper lip: we’ll get out of this some way,” said Rob. “I wouldn’t care so much,” sobbed Buck, “if we had a light. It’s so dark I can’t see my hand before my face, and my hand is mashed and I am awfully hungry. I don’t believe we’ll ever see daylight again.” ‘“Let's see how far the tunnel runs back.” Rob suggested. “It’s better for us to be doing something than to sit here and get the blues.” Rob, taking the lead, they groped their way onward. The tunnel seemed to sag slightly, the waiter becoming deeper as they advanced; it was now up to their shoe tops. “Let’s stop; there’s no good getting wet,” Buck wailed. “No, I’m going on as far as I can. I want to find out if this tunnel leads to the shaft of the mine above. An old miner once told me that while tunnels were generally made to follow an out-cropping vein of ore or to strike an ore vein, sometimes they were made to connect with a shaft to drain a mine where the pumps couldn’t keep the water out. This one may be only a blind tunnel, or it may be an adit level.” With every step the water rose.; now it was knee deep and icy cold, but the boys pressed on till it was waist deep. Buck, with woe-begone voice and chattering teeth, finally announced that he. would go no farther. “We’ll die soon enough, from starvation, without going out of our way to drown or be frozen to death in this ice water. I’m numb from my waist down, for all the feeling in them I don't know whether I’ve got an/ legs or not.” , “I'm going on. Buck; you cnn go back if you want to. I'll come back pretty soon.” “I don't want to go back alone. I’m afraid you will get drowned, and I would go crazy if I was left here all alone to starve to. death while you were dead and floating around in the dark there. No, I'll stay here, and every little while we’ll holler to each other.” Rob, feeing his way inch by inch,

went forward. Higher and higher the water rose until only his arms and head were above water. Now la was walking on his tiptoes with the water splashing against his chin. lie his courage almost failed him; he put his hand out and was startled to touch some object floating -in the water. Finding it was a piece of timber, he put his hand upon it so that if he should cramp he would have some support, then letting go his footing he began to swim. After a dozen strokes he let his feet down and found he could touch bottom. Pushing the stick before him he went on, the water rapidly becoming shallower. Suddenly the thought flaShed into his mind, wdiat if in the intense darkness he -hhould come to the shaft and •walk over the edge and fall down, down, down to the water belojg. He stopped; then /feeling forward before taking his steps, he slowly went ahead.

In a Httle while it seemed as though '.the darkness was not so dense. He advanced cautiously and tflnslly came to where the tunnel entered the main shaft. He clung tightly to the side wall and looked up to seethe roof of the shaft house, two hundred feet above. - “Cometon, Buck, we’re saved.” No answer. -Again he called, and he :tecard a -faint cry, “I can’t come; my legs are Mil drawn up with cramps.” Rob retraced his way through the -water-filled depression in the tunnel, and rejoined Buck. He rubbed his -legs and made him stamp up and down till the cramp had become less severe. Walking ahead with Buck’s hand on his shoulder, they entered the water. When they were shoulder deep Stub got the floating timber for Buck, and with its help got him safely across the deepest place. Soon they were both at the edge of the shaft A ladder fastened to the shaft seemed to offer an immediate prospect of deliverance. Rob took off !his wet clothing,-wrung it as dry as -possible, emptied the water out of his shoes, then testing each rung before he trusted his weight to it, he began the long climb. If Rob reached the lop in safety, Buck was to follow him. Up. up, up, rung by rung, and ladder by ladder, he climbed. He was halt way up; and finding the ladders sound arid in good condition, he grew »■ trifle less cautious. Suddenly, ■■withoutvwarning, when he was about in the centre of one section of ladder, its top end came loose, and, Rob's weight pulling it outward, the ladder swung across the shaft and lodged against the opposite side, the lower fastening holding firm. It happened so suddenly that Rob was suspended on the under side of the ladder, his feet dangling in the air. For a second he was sick with the horror of the situation. Holding his breath, for fear of loosening the ladder, he lowered himself hand over hand till he regained the ladder beneath the broken one. then he climbed down -and rejoined Buck. It seemed ■ -madness to tempt fate by another trial. “We will wait a dayor two before we risk, it, and if we -are not discovered we can try it as a last resource,” Rob suggested, with -all the oalmness he could summon.

The day wore on, darkness settled on the shaft house, and night came. “In a few hours they will begin to get pretty anxious because we don’t

come,” said Hob. “My mother knew I was coming to this mine, so she will send some one here to look tor us. We will take turns keeping awake, so that if anyone comes we shall hear him.”

A few hours later a party of men broke open the shaft house, peered down the yawning Hack shaft and shouted. Through it all two utterly worn out boys slept soundly. The searchers went back to Rob’s mother and told her that Rob had probably wandered back into the hills and lost his way, _and that he would doubtless turn up safely in the morning. They did not telf her about ft, but they intended as soon as daylight came to take a rope and windlass and bucket and recover. Rob’s body, which they decided was probably afloat at the bottom of the shaft.

Stiff and lame, Rob arose next morning. Fpr a moment the hard plank, the darkness, the unfamiliar surroundings, bewildered him; then it all flashed into his mind, and he hurried to the edge of the shaft to look up. It was growing light in the shaft house, so he knew a new day was dawning. Buck moved in his sleep.

“Poor fellow. I'll let him sleep as long as he will,” Rob whispered to himself; then he sat down to wait. Presently a sound caught his attention. Looking up eagerly, a dark form outlined itself above, and he heard a voice, “Hello, below there!” “Here we are, both of us,” shouted Rob eagerly. “Thank God, lad,” came back the voice. “Keep your courage up, lads. We’ll have you up here in a jiffy.” Then the men at the top rigged up a windlass, lowered a bucket with a miner in it., and a few minutes later two very happy boys were on terra firm* once more.

Buck never again accused Rob of cowardice, and new boys In school who tried to impose on Rob and make him fight were astonished at a vigorous attack from Buck, who had no compunctions about fighting. “You’ll leave him be after this. Him a coward? Huh! There’s no braver boy in the whole school.” Buck said this one day to a boy on whose chest he was sitting. Rob heard the remark and told Buck to let the boy up. “I’ll do what you say, Rob,” Buck answered, “but just remember, I don’t expect you to do any fighting; I’ll do it for you.” Buck is older now and less warlike, and though his devotion for Rob is no less than of yore, he shows his friendship in other and gentler ways.