: The Boy With the U.S. Miners by Rolt Wheeler Francis - Adventure stories; United States. Bureau of Mines Juvenile fiction

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Not Demons, but Saviors Frontispiece FACING PAGE How Anton's Father was Killed 12 Coal-Hewers at Work 13 Where the Branch Line Forks 13 Knockers 20 Gathon, Goblin of the Mines 20 Dwarfs in the Mine 21 Miners Descending a Shaft 54 Falling-in of a Mine 55 Explosion of "Fire Damp" 55 Into the Poison-Filled Air 82 U. S. Bureau of Mines Rescue Car 83 Interior View showing Life-Saving Equipment 83 Where the Timber goes 90 Geophone Expert Listening for Tapping of Survivors 91 Building the Wall for the "Sand-Hogs" 91 Divining-Rods 138 The World's Oldest Picture of Gold-Seekers 139 Australia's Treasure-House 158 In the Richest Gold Mine of the World 159 Sutter's Mill 176 The Rush to the Gold Mines 177 The Prospector of To-day 184 Flume at the Melones Mine 185 The Coming of the Forty-Niners 194 David Egelston 195 The Miner's Sluice 214 Panning Gold on the Klondyke 215 Where Deserts Yield Millions 236 The Eater of Mountains 237 The Top of the Chilkoot Pass 260 Pass in the Sierra Nevadas 261 Hydraulicking in Colorado 300 America's "Gold-Ship" at Work 301

THE BOY WITH THE U S. MINERS

UNDERGROUND TERRORS

"Ay, lad," said the old miner, the pale flame of his cap-lamp lighting up his wrinkled face and throwing a distorted shadow on the wall of coal behind, "there's goin' to be a plenty of us killed soon."

"Likely enough, if they're all as careless as you," Clem retorted.

"Carelessness ain't got nothin' to do with it," the old man replied. "The 'knockers' has got to be satisfied! There ain't been an accident here for months. It'll come soon! The spirits o' the mine is gettin' hungry for blood."

"Nonsense, Otto! The idea of an old-timer like you believing in goblins and all that superstitious stuff!"

"It's easy enough for you to say 'nonsense,' Clem Swinton, an' to make game o' men who were handlin' a coal pick when you was playin' with a rattle, but that don't change the facts. Why, even Anton, here, youngster that he is, knows better'n to deny the spirits below ground. The knockers got your father, Anton, didn't they?"

Anton Rover, one of the youngest boys in the mine, to whom the old miner had turned for affirmation, nodded his head in agreement. Like many of his fellows, the lad was profoundly credulous.

From his Polish mother--herself the daughter of a Polish miner--Anton had inherited a firm belief in demons, goblins, gnomes, trolls, kobolds, knockers, and the various races of weird creatures with which the Slavic and Teutonic peoples have dowered the world underground. From his earliest childhood he had been familiar with tales of subterranean terror, and he knew that his father had often foregone a day's work and a day's pay rather than go down the mine-shaft if some evil omen had occurred.

Yet Anton was willing to accept modern ideas, also. Clem was both his protector and his chum, and the boy had a great respect for his older comrade's knowledge and good sense. He was aware, too, that Clem was unusually well informed, for the young fellow was a natural student and was fitting himself for a higher position in the mine by hard reading. This Ohio mine, like many of the American collieries, maintained a free school and an admirable technical library for the use of those workers who wished to better themselves.

The young student miner was zealous in his efforts to promote modern ideas among his comrades, and knew that the old superstitions bred carelessness and a blind belief in Fate. Despite their differences in age and in points of view, he and Otto were warm friends, and he returned the old man's attack promptly.

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