A HERO AND A HERO’S DEATH.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1080, 5 January 1883, Page 3

A HERO AND A HERO’S DEATH.

Town and Country Journal. The deeply interesting story of “ I *ove the I >ebt’’ is finished in the “ Cornhill” for March. It having become necessary in the end to got rid of one ot the two rivals for the hand of the heroine, Mabel, the author has invented an appropriate death for Lawley, who had been doing good all his life long, in a manner which brings home vividly to the mind of the reader the horrors of mining accidents. Lawley had found that, on the return of her old lover from supposed death in Australia, Ins chances with Mabel were irretrievably gone, and he was wandering about the next night to cool his agitation, when he heard that an accident had occurred at the Garthoylee pit, where 67 men and boys were at work. It was hopeless to attempt anything, and nothing was attempted. A fev men stood sileut and paralysed, looking down the mouth of shaft; round them was a crowd of women, the wives and mothers of the doomed miners—some still, as though turned to stone, others shrieking piteously ; a few besieging the engine-house and clamouring savagely for the enginetenter, while those nearest the inner circle of men clutched and clung to them, asking the same question in the same words a hundred limes over. A sudden and a moment’s silence stilled them all when Lawley appealed. It was a touching tribute to the character he had earned for helping the helpless. There was hardly a man or woman there whom he had not helped at some time and in some way, and who had not vague hope of help from him now. In another moment, and as they made way for him to approach the pit’s mouth, the silence was broken, the women appealed to him in heartrending tones for the lives of there sons and husbands, as if he held them in his hand. “ it’s awr Tom; he taiched i’t’ Sunday schooil.” Another, pushing her roughlv aside and clutching his arm with the grip of a vice, cried in a fierce hoarse voice, ‘‘Think on, aw’ve nowt abnon ground nah. Aw’ve five dahu, de ye hear, live!” Another, with an insane look in her eyes, pressed upon him a basket with her husband and boy’s “ drinking” in it, which, upon hearing of the accident, she had set to and deliberately packed. “ Tak’ it to ’em, wilt ta 1 Shoo 'ays,” nodding towards a neivhboar, “ they’ll niver coom up agin no more.” I.awley made his way through all t this misery to ihe pit’s mouth. “ How was it T The pit steward told him. “ Have you been down 1” “ We’ve lowered the bucket, si’’, and it won’t go much more than halfway.” Lawley stepped into the bucket, taking a safety-lamp from one of the men. “ Lower away j” he cried. r l he voices of these poor women in h's ears drove hinnupon action of some kind. “The sides are falling in, sir ■” “Lower away!” he cried impa'iently “ For God’s sake, Mr Lawley— ’’ “ I shall not stay down more than a minute, Look. Lower quickly, and draw up quickly, when I pull the i ope.” The men lowered him at first slowly, but very fast as the bucket neared the wreck. It stopped, and while it stayed below the men, as they stooped over, could hear another fall of debris. The rope was chucked, and thehauled up the bucket swiftly, and Lawley soon re-anpeared with a very ugly gash in his forehead, from which the blood Streamed down his pale face, giving him a ghastly look of a rues senger of death. A groan burst from the wretched women at his appearance, from which they augured the woist. “ it’s » ten’. ■ le business,” he said as he reached the top “ You’re badly hurt, sir.” “ No ; it’s nothing, thank you. How deep was the shaft ?” Thirty yards to the black bed, sir. Let me tie your handkerchief round i r .” “ Thank you. It would take ten days to clear!” “ Ten days,'sir! It wouldn’t be cleared in three weeks if men could go to work at it at once. Hut they’d have to repair the sides first before they dared put a spade into it." Lawley sat on the bucket turned bottom upwards, whils Cook bound the handkerchief about his forehead Suddenly he sprang up, dislodging the bandage and re-opening the would. “ Where does it drain into 1” “By Gow 1” cried one of the men “I be ieve there's a water hole into * the Brattle ' ” “ Hie Brattle” was an old pit which had been worked out years ago. Just at tins moment Mr Murgatroyd, the managi r, drove up, leaped out of the dog-cart, and joined them. Cook explained the nature of the accident to him, while one of the men rebound the bandage about Lawloy’s forehead. “Mr Lawley has been down, and got badly hurt as you see, and it’s a wonder lie wasn’t killed. T:eve’s another 1" as a sound like distant thunder came up through the s ! alt. “ Does it drain into the Brattle, Mr Murgatroyd 1” asked Lawley. “ Yes ; but that won’t help us much, the Bnttle’s foul as a cesspool It hasn't been worked this 20 years.” “ Does the drain come oui near the shaft 1”

“I can’t say. It was before my time. “ Who knows anything about the Brattle ?” asked Lawley of Cook. He was irritated at the calculating coolness of Mr Murgatroyd, who, to tell the truth, was thinking more of the blame that might attach to him for the accident than ot the livesofthe minors. “ Bob o’ Ben’s his worked in it. Him that’s watchman at the coal sl ays.” “ Mr Murgatroyd,” cried Lawley, excitedly, “ will you order a corve and windlass to be taken to the mouth of the Brattle, and let us pick up Bob o’ Ben’s and drive there at once ?” “ What’s the use 1 j Who’lb go down when we get there 1” “I’ll go” “ It’s all nonsense,” began the manage’’, piqued at the management being taken out of his hands in this way. Lawley was a very decided person when he chose, and now life and death seemed to hang upon bis decision. C“ Cook,” he said imperiously, take that rope and bucket to the dogcart. We havu’t a moment to lose, Mr Murgatroyd,” The manager, seeing that the responsibi ity he dreaded would be crushing if he was the means of shutting off this lust chance, such as it was followed Lawley sulkily to the dogcart While they were waiting for Oook to join them with the rope and bucket, Lawley again suggested that a corve and windlass be sent on at once to Brattle, and the manager rather sullenly gave the necessaryj order. Then Cook joined them with the rope and bucket, and got up behind as they drove off first to pick up Bob o’ Ben’s On the way, Lawlev took out his pocket-book, wrote in it for a few minutes, and then asked the manager and Cook to attest their signature, “ It’s my will,” he said, “in case anything happens to me.” Whereupon the manager becameamiable,reflecting that, after all, he who paid the piper might well call the tune, and the parson was certainly paying the piper in this case. ‘SfFrom Bob o’ Ben’s they gleaned (out of an immense mass of valuable but irrevalent iiitormatLn about bis experiences, man and boy, in the coalpits) that the watercourse c trae out close to the bottom of the Brattle’s shaft in a direction which he had made plain enough to I.awley,who had been down a pit many times before. Bob o’ Ben’s was of opinion that the air at tire Brattle’s shaft might he pure enough for anyone else to go down, but he didn’t care himself to have to do with the adventure. “ He warn’t paid for it” he said. But when he did get down, Bob o’ Ben’s believed the next thing you would have to do would be to come up again, fur the drain was sure to be narrow, and pretty sure to Vie too foul, for anyone to crawl along it. With which view both Cook and the manager were disposed to agree, “ But is there any other chance for the me ■ 1” asked Lawley. “ Welt, no ; I can’t say there is” “ And it is a chance ?” “ Yes, it’s a chance Do you think Conk, any of the men themselves are likely to know of the passage 1” asked tire manager of the steward. Cook shook his head, while Bob o’ Ben’s was even more positive as to their ignorance, indeed, he seemed to think no one knew anything but himself. By this time they had reached the bye-path leading to the Brattle, and leaving the horse in charge of Bob o’ Ben’s, they hurried to the pit-mouth, which was covered wiih planks There was already a large crowd about it, but the corve and windlars had not yet come. “ I'h re’s not a moment to lose," cried Lawley. “ Come, my lads.” said the manager, “which of you will go downl” He hoped some unmarried gollier would volunteer, since his life was worthless and his experience more than Lawley’a N T o on* 1 spoke. “It’s all right,” said Lawley, who had already taken oft’ his coat and waistcoat and put them and his pocket book (in which his will was) into the manager’s hands. “It’s all light. If it’s a fool’s errand I ought to go on it mvself. In a few minutes the planks were torn up, and Cook and two other men brought the rope and bucket and safety lamp from the dogcart. Lawley stepped into the bucket, took the safety lamp, and was just about to be lowered into the bucket, when a gigantic miner stepped forward, took bis hand, gripped it till the left it and the tears c * me, and said--probably to encourage him—“ Cood-hye, sir.” It wasn’t encouraging, but it was affecting, and affected marry of the men. Certainly Lawley was not a cheerful picture, with the soaking bandage, like a coronet of blood, round his forehead and his pale face all paler for its crimson stains. “ Not ‘ Good-bye,’ I hope, Mathew, but ‘ God he with yen.’ God bless yon all; I hose who could trust themselves to answer said, “God bless you sir!” huskily, some of them ; others were silant, but looked the blessing through tears. It was not this single act of selt devolion that so moved and unmanned them, but the life lived for others, of which this act was the crown.” “ Lower away, my men.” In another moment lie had disappeared, and there was the silence of death while the rope was being paid out, when it at last bumped the bot-

Tom, and for the first five minutes after, while they waited for the signal to draw up, which most of them expected, It did not come. Whether ho would not or could not give i’, no ■one could say. He might be lying ■dead, suffocated at the pit bo I tom, or he might be making his painful way ■alongthe dlain. In the hurry of the moment they had forgotten to pre-ar-range a signal to assure them of his ■safety up to the mouth of the drain. 'iTlie sijqpensq was great, grew It be<came intense and all but intolerable as The.crowd abon 1 the pit increased enormously, anti was leavened and'lnfeotrd by the agony of the wives and mothers •of the imprisoned miners It was nearly 9 o’clock when Lawley was lowered down the shaft. An hour later two men volunteered to go down and search for him, as Tar, at least, as the month of the drain. They had ■first, however, satisfied themselves as to the purity of the air by lowering a naked lamp and leaving it for some minutes at the bottom. It came up still alight. Then the two volunteers ■ were lowered, remained some minutes at the bottom, and were drawn up . again. Tin y reported that the bottom of flie shaft was purerenough, but that the air of the drain was very foul. ' They had no doubt at all that Lawley lay dead ih it, and that it would have ’ been death to them to have searched ‘for his body. The sensation this news created was indescribable. It was as ■ though the vast crowd had beard of the accident for the first time. Some- • tiling between a sob and groan burst •simultaneously from the men, while ■tie woman uttered shriek upon; ; shriek. “ Silence!” cried a streutorian voice. In a moment there was the silence that might be felt. The "speaker—the gigantic miner Mathew—lay on the ground, stooping over the pit. ■ Suddenly he sprang up like a madman and shouted, “ Hurrah ! I hear them! ■Stop ! Listen !” Everyone held his ! breath; and “ Answer it boys !” shouted Mathew standing on the bottom of the upturnen bucket, and acting as fujtleiman. “Pip, hip, hurrah, hurrah, l-hurrah !” The shout might have teen 'heard at Weflnn. Meanwhile the > corve was being lowered, quick as fire 'windlass could be unwound. It reached the bottom. The rope was chucked. It was hauled up. There were eight in it, looking although they had come back’from the grave—as, indeed, they had. White and exhausted, they could tell their story only by gasps, they had given up all hope of life, as the air was fouling fust, and had all gathered together in the blackbed, or upper, pit, where the air -was -purest, and had just knelt down to pray at the ■ suggestion of a mere lad, one of Lawley’s teachers, when the boy shrieked, ■ and fell back almost fainting. All 1 looked round and cried out in terror, ‘ for if ever a man looked like a sceptre Lawley did, in The dim light of their failing lamps, as he came towards them all white in his shirt and drawers, his face like marble where it was not blood-stained. He soon re-assured them, and hurrying them to the mouth •of the drain, sent them all before him —the boys first and then the men. The drain was not-so narrow as had been supposed, but was very long and very foul—fouler than the foulest part ■of the pit they had loft—and seemed to strangle their strength so that they made slow way through it. They had get through, however, thank God, and' here they were. By the time the first, batch (who were all boys) had told itheir story piecemeal and incoherently the last hatch were being expected with breathless eagerness, for Lawley would be with them. The very women with their sons and husbands just restored to them, and standing by them laid their eyes turned still towards the pit mouth. There was some delay, or there seemed some in the deep silence a d suspense. At last the signal came, and the crowd drew a long breath of relief at sight of the first wind of the windlass. There were only four to come—three miners and Lawley, amt the windlass went round quickly with its light load. It was lighter even than they looked for, as there were but three in it when it came to bank —the three minors only, l.awley had not followed tnem out of the drain. They had shouted, but ha had not answered, and could answer to no shout henceforth but the voice of the A rcli■angel at the Resurrection. He lay dead midway in the watercourse. Ho had been very weak for want of food and sleep to begin with, and had been ■still further weakened by loss of blood, and so fell an easy prev to the breath ■of death in the foulest part of the drain, There was a rush of volunteers •to the corve, which, filled in a moment with seven miners and ft doctor, was ■lowered away swiftly. Then, for half ■an hour, there was a kind of a religious liush, in which those who sp"ke spoke Hinder their breath. It was now as though they stood in a sick-room whore the life and death of one near to them trembled in the balance. When li tie more than half an hour had passed, the windlass was again seen to turn, very slowly this time, as doubtful what its l-urden would be. When it reached the top there was a wild shout of joy from those who saw Lawley, as it aeeraod, standing upright (for he had to be held upright to be drawn up), but in '(mother instant the 'ody was seen to be'borne at they bare the dead. Mathew,' mountipg.his modest pulpit, amid a hush iu-v Inch every breath <« mi ■ ' -

■was held, tiled to speak, but his voice hi oke into a sob which told his st> r/ better thna woids. There was au overpowering revulsion of feeling. Strong'men broke down and cried like children. For hours there had been a terrible strain on the nerves of suspense, exci emeut, and the alternations of joy, agony, hope, and dispair, and tliis in a vast crowd where every beat of the heart is, so to say, reverberated ane magnified a hundredfold through sympathy. The effect, therefore, of this crushing blow on nerves already strained to their utmost tension was a'most hystericas. The men in the inner ring,’looking down on the peaceful face, which seemed asleep with its eyes open, wept without disguise or sense -of shame, or self-consciousness, or consciousness of anything oranyone but the dead. They were quite unnerved and helpless, and could do noth ing and think of nothing ; aimd it was a woman, strangely enough, who, with a coolness that seemed cruel, ordered the arrangements for the removal of the body. She had it laid on fal door brought from a cottage near, she shrouded it with her shawl, and ordered the least exhausted -of the .rescued miners to bear it home, and marshalled the rest wives and mothers as chief mourners. The vast crowd followed silent and bareheaded. As they were ■passing through the little village which was the home of most of rescued miners, the bearers stood still—broke l down indeed. The same thought at the same moment was in all their minds - that he had taken .their place; that, but for the dead, there would not have been a house here without its dead. So the eight bearers,' weak to begin, broke down altogether, and' had to be replaced, and then the procession -moved on, iuci-easing as it. went, till it reached his home—that’ home where, too, his only mourners weie strangers he had been kind to—the children of his hospital. , No one should judge West Riding poor on the surface, or at sight, or by a conventional standard The woman who showed this hard presence of mind preserved the shawl like a relic, and 24 years later, on her death-bed, desired that it should be her shroud.