Chapter 6 Chapter 6 The Albrecht Mine

Marcel Brickmann's landlord, a kind woman, Mrs. Bauer, is Swiss. Her husband died four years ago in a mine accident that threatens the lives of miners every now and then.The factory gave her a subsidy of thirty dollars a year, and she rented out a furnished room to subsidize it, plus her son Karl brought his salary every Sunday. Although Carl was only thirteen years old, he was already working in the mines, opening and closing the doors of coal trucks.Such doors are essential to allow air to circulate in a certain direction within the tunnel.The house where his mother lived and rented was too far from the Albrecht Mine, so he couldn't go home every night. For this reason, the mine also found him a night job in the mine. After going up, he was responsible for taking care of and washing the six horses.

Karl therefore lives almost entirely underground, five hundred meters above the ground.During the day, he guards the vents like a sentinel.At night, he sleeps on the haystack next to the horse.Only on Sunday can he see the light of day again and enjoy a few hours of the common wealth of human beings: sunshine, blue sky and mother's smile. It is not difficult to imagine that after such a week, when he walked out of the mine, De Xing was not a handsome boy at all.He was more like a fairy-tale goblin, a chimney sweep, or a Papuan nigger.So Mrs. Ball always spent a full hour scrubbing and washing him with hot water and soap.Then she dressed him in clean green dungaree.They were his father's old clothes, which she had changed for him, from the bottom of the big fir cabinet.After changing clothes, the mother admired her son until the evening, thinking that he was the most handsome boy in the world.

After washing off the coal dust, Carl is really no uglier than others.His silky blond hair and soft blue eyes complemented his fair skin.But, for his age, he was too thin.That life without sunlight left him as pale as lettuce. If Dr. Sarrazan's blood test method were used to test the blood of this little miner, he must be absolutely anemic. In character, this is a taciturn, quiet and peaceful child, with such a little pride.Every miner, without exception, has this pride in his vigilance against danger, his habit of regular work, and his satisfaction in overcoming difficulties. His greatest happiness is sitting next to his mother, sitting at the square table in the middle of the low room, nailing all kinds of strange bugs he brought back from the depths of the earth to a piece of cardboard.In the temperate and even tempera- ture below the mine there grows its peculiar creatures, which are seldom known even to naturalists, for example, on the damp walls of the coal seams grow strange plants: green moss, which no one has ever seen Fungi and amorphous fluff.Engineer Molesmoor, who was fascinated by entomology, noticed this, so he asked Karl to get him new insect specimens, and promised him one crown each. . 】.It was a good job, and at first Karl scoured the corners of the mine, but gradually he became a collector himself.So now he is collecting insects for his own sake.

Plus, his hobbies aren't just limited to spiders and beetles.Under the lonely ground, he also raised two bats and a big field mouse.It can even be said that these three little animals are the smartest and cutest animals in the world, and he gets along very well with them.His silky-haired horses with their shiny rumps were smart enough, Karl used to talk about them, but the three little animals were smarter than those horses. The old groom in charge of the stall was named Blair Athol, a man of world experience. Since he was six years old, he went down to a depth of 500 meters below sea level and never saw the sun again.Now, he is almost blind.However, he really knows his underground labyrinth like the back of his hand!He dragged his coal cart, he knew when to turn left and when to go right, and he never missed a step!When he came to the vent, he always left room for the door to open, exactly!Every morning and evening, when it's time for dinner, he always greets you with a friendly hello every second!He was so kind, so kind, so gentle!

I'm telling you the truth, Mom, when I put my head next to him and he put his cheek against mine seriously and kissed me, Carl said, you know, there's something on Blair Athol's head Just a clock, really convenient!If it weren't for him, we wouldn't be able to tell day from night, morning from night for a whole week! The little guy was chattering like this, and Mrs. Power listened with interest.She liked Blair Athol, too, as much as her son, and gave him candy every chance she could.How she could have wished to see this old workman her man knew, to see that perilous place where poor Ball had been found charred after the mine exploded!However, women are not allowed to go into the mine, so she can only listen to her son telling him about the situation in the mine.

ah!She knew the mine well, and the great black hole her husband had gone to and never returned to.How many times has she waited for her relatives to return by the large hole with a diameter of eighteen feet, her eyes followed the mine wall made of huge stones, and looked at the double-layered oak cages suspended by steel cables and hanging on steel pulleys , look at the tall outer frame, the steam engine room, the clerk's room, and everything else!How many times had she faced the fire in front of the big iron stove that was always burning with hot coals, the miners coming up from the shaft were drying their clothes before it, and the impatient smokers were lighting it up. pipe!How well she knew the sounds and movements at the gates of hell!The coal unloaders were unloading loads of coal there, as well as the loaders, coal preparation workers, coal washers, mechanics, drivers, she saw them busy again and again!

What she couldn't see, but she saw through the eyes of her heart, saw what happened when the cages brought groups of workers to the mine. Among them, there used to be her husband, and now, there was her. The only son! She heard their voices and their chatting and laughing farther and farther down, getting weaker and weaker, and then lost their hearing.Her heart was sinking with the cage in the narrow and straight shaft, down to a ground five or six hundred meters that was four times higher than the Great Pyramid!At last she saw it reach the end, and the workers hurried out of the cage!

They spread out in this underground city, some to the left, some to the right, the mine cart pushers rushed to the coal carts, the coal diggers with iron picks walked towards the coal seam they were going to dig, filled The earthworkers are busy filling the empty coal seams that have been mined with solid materials, the scaffolders are using pillars to support the tunnels without wall columns, the road builders are repairing the tunnels, laying rails, and the stonemasons are connecting the vaults. A central tunnel is like a wide road, leading from one mine to another three or four kilometers apart.On both sides of the central tunnel, there are many auxiliary tunnels at right angles to it.Some branch tunnels are separated from these parallel auxiliary tunnels.Between these tunnels stood walls or pillars of coal or rock.Everything is neat, square, solid, and pitch black!

In this labyrinth of streets of equal length and breadth, an army of shirtless miners bustled, talked, and labored by the light of their own safety lights! Such was the picture which passed through Mrs. Ball's mind when she was alone, brooding by the fire. Among these criss-cross tunnels, one in particular came to her mind, and she was more familiar with this tunnel than the others, because her little Karl was responsible for opening and closing the doors in this tunnel. As night fell, the day shift miners came up and were replaced by night shift workers.However, her son was not in the cage.He went to the barn, to his dear Blair Athol, and waited on the old man through his oatmeal supper and got the horses ready.Then he himself began to eat his meager supper, which had been cold from the mine.After dinner he played for a while with the big field-mouse who stayed motionless in front of him, and had some fun with the two bats which flew low around him.Finally, he collapsed on the haystack and went to sleep.

Mrs. Ball understood all this perfectly, and she understood what Carl told her in detail! You know, mother, what the Molesham engineer told me yesterday?He said that in the past two days, he will give me some arithmetic problems, and if I answer well, I will help him measure together when he uses the compass to measure the plan in the mine.It seems that another tunnel is going to be opened to connect with the Weber Mine. It will take a lot of work to align the tunnel! real!exclaimed Mrs. Power cheerfully, Mr. Molesham Engineer really said so? So, she seemed to have seen her son holding a tape measure and measuring along the tunnel, while the engineer was holding a notebook in his hand and was recording numbers. His eyes were fixed on the compass to determine the direction of excavation.

What's annoying, Carl added, is that no one can explain to me what I don't understand in arithmetic, and I'm so afraid I won't be able to! Meanwhile, Marcel was quietly smoking a cigarette by the fire, as he was a lodger and entitled to be.At this moment he intervened and said to the child: If you'd like to tell me what you don't understand, I might be able to help you. you?Mrs. Ball said with some disbelief. Yes, replied Marcel, I go to evening school on time after supper, do you think I can learn nothing there?The teacher is very satisfied with me, and said that I can be a teacher! After Marcel finished speaking, he went to his room to get a white paper notebook, sat in front of Karl, asked him what he didn't understand, and then explained it to him clearly, which made Karl very happy. Yes, he understood everything. From that day on, Mrs. Bauer's respect for her lodger increased, and Marcel took a liking to his little companion. In addition, he himself showed himself to be a model worker in his work, and he was promoted one after another quickly, first to the second-class worker, and then to the first-class worker.Every morning at seven o'clock, he arrived at the O-gate on time.Every evening, after dinner, he goes to a class given by the engineer from Trubanay.Geometry, algebra, mechanical drawing, he was learning with the same enthusiasm, so that his progress was so fast that even the teacher was surprised.Two months after entering Schultz's factory, the young worker was regarded not only in the O-Zone, but in the entire Steel City as one of the most outstanding and intelligent people.At the end of the third month, his immediate superior immediately issued a report, which officially read: John Schwartz, twenty-six, Caster First Class.I should strongly recommend this person to the headquarters. He is outstanding in three aspects: theoretical knowledge, practical ability and outstanding creativity. However, there had to be a special opportunity to finally get the attention of Marcel's superiors.Such an opportunity will come sooner or later, and it will come sooner rather than later, but unfortunately it will come under the most tragic circumstances. One Sunday morning, Marcel heard the clock strike ten o'clock, but he didn't see his little friend Carl come home. He couldn't help feeling strange, so he went downstairs to ask Mrs. Bauer if she knew the reason.He found Mrs. Ball very anxious.Carl should have been home at least two hours ago.Seeing her anxiety, Marcel took the initiative to inquire about the situation and walked in the direction of the Albrecht mine. Along the way, he met a lot of miners, and immediately asked them if they saw Karl, but they all said no, so he said Gluckauf to them! (Come out safely!) Afterwards, continue to move forward. In this way he came to Oak Rector Mine about eleven o'clock.I didn't see the usual noisy and busy work.Occasionally a young milliner, as the miners humorously call the women who prepare coal, was chatting with the clerk.Due to their duties, the clerks had to stay by the mine even on holidays. Did you see 41902 Carl Ball Jr. come up?Marcel asked the clerk. The man checked the list and shook his head. Is there another exit from this mine? No, only this one, replied the clerk, the opening on the north side is not yet finished. So the kid is still down there? Definitely is.However, this is indeed a bit strange, because every Sunday, only five dedicated guards stay below. Can I go down and have a look? Not allowed without permission. Perhaps something has happened, put in the milliner. There are no accidents on Sundays! But, anyway, said Marcel again, I must know what happened to the boy! You go to the foreman in charge of the machine, he's in this office but I don't know if he's there The foreman was dressed in festive attire, and his shirt collar was as stiff as tin. Fortunately, he had not left because he had something to deal with.He was a wise and kind man, and immediately shared Marcel's concern. Let's go and see what's going on, he said. He immediately asked the mechanic on duty to prepare the cages and prepare to go down into the mine with the young worker Marcel. Do you have a Garribe air tank?Marcel asks, it might be useful You are right.Down the well I don't know what's going to happen. From a cupboard the foreman brought out two tin gas containers, like the cocoa crates carried on the backs of Parisian cocoa sellers.This is a box that stores compressed air. There are two rubber tubes connected to the mouth, and the mouth of the rubber tube is bitten with teeth.Oxygen is poured into the box with a special bellows that can press the air out of the box.With this air-supply device, and with the nose clamped in a wooden clamp, one can descend without danger to the thinnest of airs. When the preparations were complete, the foreman and Marcel climbed into the cage, and the steel cable slid down on the pulleys and began to descend.Under the illumination of two small electric lights, the two talked while descending to the depths of the formation. You're brave enough for a man who doesn't belong in the mines, said the foreman. I saw some people get into the cages and they're scared like children, and don't know whether to stay or get out of the cages! Yeah?Marcel said, I don't think it's a big deal.I did go down the mines two or three times. The two had reached the bottom of the mine without realizing it.The guard on duty at the intersection said that he had never seen Carl Jr. at all. So they went to the stall.Only the horse was there, and it seemed terribly restless.At least that's what they seem to be, judging by their neighing.They neighed instead of Blair Athol to welcome the three visitors.On a nail hung Carl's bag, and in a small corner beside a horse brush lay his arithmetic book. Marcel immediately showed everyone that Karl's lamp was gone, which proved that the child should still be in the mine. He might have fallen into a sinkhole, the foreman said, but that was unlikely!What was he doing in the coal tunnel on Sunday? oh!Maybe he wanted to find some insects or something before going out!The guard replied that he was really obsessed with this! A child in charge of the stall came over at this time and confirmed this statement.He saw Karl leaving with a miner's lamp just before seven o'clock. Now I have to look for it seriously. They blew the whistle, called the other guards, divided the work according to a large mine plan, each with a miner's lamp, and began to search from the divided second and third branch tunnels. In two hours every part of the mine had been scoured, and the seven searchers returned to the crossing.There was no sign of a cave-in anywhere, but no sign of Karl anywhere either.The foreman was probably getting more and more hungry, so he was inclined to this opinion: the child probably went out without being noticed, and had already gone home by now.But Marcel didn't think so, and insisted on continuing to search. What does it mean?Marcel asked, pointing to a dotted area on the plan.The dotted line is in the middle of the surrounding precisely delineated and specified regions, much as geographers use to mark the unexplored lands at the edge of the Arctic landmass. This is a temporarily abandoned area because the mineable coal seam is too thin, the foreman replied. Got an abandoned area?Well, a must look there!Marcel said in an authoritative tone, and everyone had to obey. They soon came to the entrance of the tunnel. Indeed, judging from the slippery and moldy surface, it must have been abandoned for several years. They searched for a while, but found nothing suspicious.At this moment, Marcel stopped everyone and said to them: Don't you feel chest tightness and dizziness? Um!That's right!the companions replied. I've been feeling tight in my chest for a while, and Marcel said, there must be carbon dioxide here, can I strike a match?he asked the foreman. Row, boy, do what you want. Marcel took a small box of matches from his pocket, struck one, stooped, and brought the lighted match close to the ground, whereupon it went out. I've thought about it for a long time. He said that this gas is heavier than air, so it must not stay here when it is close to the ground. I mean people without a Garribe tank.If you like, foreman, let us continue the search. After the matter was settled in this way, Marcel and the foreman each bit the mouth of the air box rubber hose with their teeth, clamped their noses with clips, and got into the old tunnels one after another.After a quarter of an hour, they got out again, put fresh air in the air tank, and then continued their search. After changing the air three times, their efforts finally paid off.There is a small blue light in the darkness in the distance, which is the dim light of a miner's lamp.They rushed there Under the damp wall, poor little Karl lay motionless, his body was cold.The purple of his lips, his congested face, his still pulse, and his lying posture told what was the matter. It turned out that he wanted to pick up something on the ground, so he bent down and was completely surrounded by carbon dioxide gas. No matter how to rescue it, it was useless.He had been dead for four or five hours.The next night there was another small mound on the newly built cemetery in Stahlstad. Mrs. Bauer, a poor woman, had lost her husband and now her child.