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"Coming down's easy, sir; we're waiting to see you go up that rope." "Then I'll endeavor not to keep you long away from your tasks," smiled the young engineer athlete. Grasping the rope just above a knot over his head, Tom gave a slight heave, then went rapidly up, hand over hand. He was soon lost from the little circle of light thrown by the lanterns at the shaft's bottom.
Again like golf, one day one thing will be working well, and another day another; but it is only when they are all working well that the ball screams down the fairway or the arrow consistently finds its mark. Thus the beginner, practise as thoughtfully as he may, will for a time, perhaps a month or so, find little or no encouragement in the accuracy of his shaft's flight.
Foilet was wondering whether his chief was personally fond of spice, but he knew better than to say more. He left the room with a vague uneasy feeling at his heart. "A nice concern it will be if anything happens before the New Shaft's ready," he muttered; "if it wasn't for his wonderful luck, I'd have refused." So he thought: but in reality he would have done no such thing.
"That is true enough," I rejoined; and other than this there was little said, or little chance for saying it, since the distance over the spur was short and she would not let me show myself under the Lawrenceburg masthead electrics. I did not know, at the time, of any reason why I should have returned to resume my lonesome watch at the shaft's mouth like a man walking upon air, but so it was.
Her saddle-bags were gone. She came out then and having repossessed herself of her rifle took up a position well to one side of the shaft's opening where anyone who entered must pass her muzzle, but she did not venture into the passage itself because she was sure that that way lay an ambuscade.
And one day at the shaft's mouth, reaching after the kibble-chain maybe he was in liquor, maybe not the Lord knows; but 'I didn't know him again, sir, when we picked him up, any more than- and the strong man shuddered from head to foot, and beat impatiently on the ground with his heavy heel, as if to crush down the rising horror. 'Where is he, sir? A long pause.
There was also the continuous squeak and groan of windlasses; the bump of the mullock emptied from the bucket; the trundle of wheelbarrows, pushed along a plank from the shaft's mouth to the nearest pool; the dump of the dart on the heap for washing.
"Telephone in for a tug. We're in nice shape, restin' easy, but our rudder's gone an' the after web o' the crank shaft's busted. Telephone in, my man, an' I'll make it up to you when we get to a safe anchorage. Who are you?" "Lindstrom, of the Golden Gate Life Saving Station." "I'll not forget you, Lindstrom. My owners are Yankees, but they're sports." "All right. I'll telephone. On my way!"
He was a stout man, about thirty-five years of age, and of temperate habits took a little beer occasionally, but never exceeded; had a good appetite, but had caught cold frequently in consequence of having to go a considerable distance from the shaft's mouth to the changing-house while exhausted with hard work underground and covered with profuse perspiration.
An iron ladder, clamped to the wall, led to the shaft's upper end. I asked the captain what this ladder was for. "It goes to the skiff," he replied. "What! You have a skiff?" I replied in some astonishment. "Surely. An excellent longboat, light and unsinkable, which is used for excursions and fishing trips." "But when you want to set out, don't you have to return to the surface of the sea?"