Sometimes he ventured to hope that he had made a mistake in estimating the direction which the vein should naturally take after crossing the valley and entering the hill. Upon such occasions he would go into the nearest mine on the vein he was hunting for, and once more get the bearings of the deposit and mark out its probable course; but the result was the same every time; his tunnel had manifestly pierced beyond the natural point of junction6; and then his spirits fell a little lower. His men had already lost faith, and he often overheard them saying it was perfectly7 plain that there was no coal in the hill.
Foremen and laborers8 from neighboring mines, and no end of experienced loafers from the village, visited the tunnel from time to time, and their verdicts were always the same and always disheartening—“No coal in that hill.” Now and then Philip would sit down and think it all over and wonder what the mystery meant; then he would go into the tunnel and ask the men if there were no signs yet? None—always “none.”
He would bring out a piece of rock and examine it, and say to himself, “It is limestone9—it has crinoids and corals in it—the rock is right” Then he would throw it down with a sigh, and say, “But that is nothing; where coal is, limestone with these fossils in it is pretty certain to lie against its foot casing; but it does not necessarily follow that where this peculiar10 rock is coal must lie above it or beyond it; this sign is not sufficient.”
The thought usually followed:—“There is one infallible sign—if I could only strike that!”
Three or four times in as many weeks he said to himself, “Am I a visionary? I must be a visionary; everybody is in these days; everybody chases butterflies: everybody seeks sudden fortune and will not lay one up by slow toil11. This is not right, I will discharge the men and go at some honest work. There is no coal here. What a fool I have been; I will give it up.”
But he never could do it. A half hour of profound thinking always followed; and at the end of it he was sure to get up and straighten himself and say: “There is coal there; I will not give it up; and coal or no coal I will drive the tunnel clear through the hill; I will not surrender while I am alive.”
He never thought of asking Mr. Montague for more money. He said there was now but one chance of finding coal against nine hundred and ninety nine that he would not find it, and so it would be wrong in him to make the request and foolish in Mr. Montague to grant it.
He had been working three shifts of men. Finally, the settling of a weekly account exhausted12 his means. He could not afford to run in debt, and therefore he gave the men their discharge. They came into his cabin presently, where he sat with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands—the picture of discouragement and their spokesman said:
“Mr. Sterling, when Tim was down a week with his fall you kept him on half-wages and it was a mighty13 help to his family; whenever any of us was in trouble you’ve done what you could to help us out; you’ve acted fair and square with us every time, and I reckon we are men and know a man when we see him. We haven’t got any faith in that hill, but we have a respect for a man that’s got the pluck that you’ve showed; you’ve fought a good fight, with everybody agin you and if we had grub to go on, I’m d——d if we wouldn’t stand by you till the cows come home! That is what the boys say. Now we want to put in one parting blast for luck. We want to work three days more; if we don’t find anything, we won’t bring in no bill against you. That is what we’ve come to say.”
Philip was touched. If he had had money enough to buy three days’ “grub” he would have accepted the generous offer, but as it was, he could not consent to be less magnanimous than the men, and so he declined in a manly14 speech; shook hands all around and resumed his solitary15 communings. The men went back to the tunnel and “put in a parting blast for luck” anyhow. They did a full day’s work and then took their leave. They called at his cabin and gave him good-bye, but were not able to tell him their day’s effort had given things a mere16 promising17 look.
The next day Philip sold all the tools but two or three sets; he also sold one of the now deserted18 cabins as old, lumber19, together with its domestic wares20; and made up his mind that he would buy provisions with the trifle of money thus gained and continue his work alone. About the middle of the afternoon he put on his roughest clothes and went to the tunnel. He lit a candle and groped his way in. Presently he heard the sound of a pick or a drill, and wondered, what it meant. A spark of light now appeared in the far end of the tunnel, and when he arrived there he found the man Tim at work. Tim said:
“I’m to have a job in the Golden Brier mine by and by—in a week or ten days—and I’m going to work here till then. A man might as well be at some thing, and besides I consider that I owe you what you paid me when I was laid up.”
Philip said, Oh, no, he didn’t owe anything; but Tim persisted, and then Philip said he had a little provision now, and would share. So for several days Philip held the drill and Tim did the striking. At first Philip was impatient to see the result of every blast, and was always back and peering among the smoke the moment after the explosion. But there was never any encouraging result; and therefore he finally lost almost all interest, and hardly troubled himself to inspect results at all. He simply labored21 on, stubbornly and with little hope.
Tim staid with him till the last moment, and then took up his job at the Golden Brier, apparently22 as depressed23 by the continued barrenness of their mutual24 labors25 as Philip was himself. After that, Philip fought his battle alone, day after day, and slow work it was; he could scarcely see that he made any progress.
Late one afternoon he finished drilling a hole which he had been at work at for more than two hours; he swabbed it out, and poured in the powder and inserted the fuse; then filled up the rest of the hole with dirt and small fragments of stone; tamped26 it down firmly, touched his candle to the fuse, and ran.
By and by the dull report came, and he was about to walk back mechanically and see what was accomplished27; but he halted; presently turned on his heel and thought, rather than said:
“No, this is useless, this is absurd. If I found anything it would only be one of those little aggravating28 seams of coal which doesn’t mean anything, and—”
By this time he was walking out of the tunnel. His thought ran on:
“I am conquered . . . . . . I am out of provisions, out of money. . . . I have got to give it up . . . . . . All this hard work lost! But I am not conquered! I will go and work for money, and come back and have another fight with fate. Ah me, it may be years, it may, be years.”
Arrived at the mouth of the tunnel, he threw his coat upon the ground, sat down on a stone, and his eye sought the westering sun and dwelt upon the charming landscape which stretched its woody ridges29, wave upon wave, to the golden horizon.
Something was taking place at his feet which did not attract his attention.
His reverie continued, and its burden grew more and more gloomy. Presently he rose up and, cast a look far away toward the valley, and his thoughts took a new direction:
“There it is! How good it looks! But down there is not up here. Well, I will go home and pack up—there is nothing else to do.”
He moved off moodily30 toward his cabin. He had gone some distance before he thought of his coat; then he was about to turn back, but he smiled at the thought, and continued his journey—such a coat as that could be of little use in a civilized31 land; a little further on, he remembered that there were some papers of value in one of the pockets of the relic32, and then with a penitent33 ejaculation he turned back picked up the coat and put it on.
He made a dozen steps, and then stopped very suddenly. He stood still a moment, as one who is trying to believe something and cannot. He put a hand up over his shoulder and felt his back, and a great thrill shot through him. He grasped the skirt of the coat impulsively34 and another thrill followed. He snatched the coat from his back, glanced at it, threw it from him and flew back to the tunnel. He sought the spot where the coat had lain—he had to look close, for the light was waning—then to make sure, he put his hand to the ground and a little stream of water swept against his fingers:
“Thank God, I’ve struck it at last!”
He lit a candle and ran into the tunnel; he picked up a piece of rubbish cast out by the last blast, and said:
“This clayey stuff is what I’ve longed for—I know what is behind it.”
He swung his pick with hearty35 good will till long after the darkness had gathered upon the earth, and when he trudged36 home at length he knew he had a coal vein and that it was seven feet thick from wall to wall.
He found a yellow envelope lying on his rickety table, and recognized that it was of a family sacred to the transmission of telegrams.
He opened it, read it, crushed it in his hand and threw it down. It simply said:
“Ruth is very ill.”
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1
sterling
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| adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑) | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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3
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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6
junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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7
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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9
limestone
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| n.石灰石 | |
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10
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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11
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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12
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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13
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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14
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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15
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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16
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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17
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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18
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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19
lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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20
wares
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| n. 货物, 商品 | |
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21
labored
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| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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22
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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23
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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26
tamped
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| v.捣固( tamp的过去式和过去分词 )；填充；（用炮泥）封炮眼口；夯实 | |
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27
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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aggravating
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| adj.恼人的，讨厌的 | |
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29
ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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30
moodily
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| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
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31
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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32
relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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33
penitent
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| adj.后悔的；n.后悔者；忏悔者 | |
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34
impulsively
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| adv.冲动地 | |
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35
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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36
trudged
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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