The Blind Brother: A Story of the Pennsylvania Coal Mines

. He lifted his head. By degrees the noise grew louder; then it sounded almost like footsteps. Suppose it w

han before, and about the boy's heart the fear and loneliness came

ls, echoing through the chambers, striking faintly, but, oh

nie-e

in a faint success

g to his fee

! Tom, he

unning feet, and down the winding galleries came Tom, as fast as his lamp and his

ay home, an' Mommie said you hadn't been there, an' I came back to find you, an' I went up to your door an' you wasn't there, an' I called an'

er lack of breath, a

t an' scared, an'-an'

Bennie again, and, still holding Tom's hand, he

as touching to see the motherly way in which this boy of fourteen consoled and comforted his weaker brother, and helped him again to his feet.

lthough he had, as he feared, wandered off by the cross heading into th

th him at the doorway. Tom could give no explanation of the matter, except that the man must have been

imes on the upward way the boys stopped to rest. Always when he heard Bennie's breathing grow hard and laborious, Tom wo

athed a long sigh of relief when he felt the yieldi

moon slipping up into the heavens from its hiding-place beyond the heights of Campbell's Ledge, he would, indeed, have known

they soon left the distance behind them, and reached the low-roofed cottage, w

ght watching. Out into the road she ran then, and gathered her two boys into her arms, kissed their grimy, coal-bla

d at the door

he'd wait up for me, an' go an' help me hunt him up if I came back without him. It's only

or more words, the bo

hing in consideration of the fact that Sandy had been good to him, and would have helped h

ng the mine car-track to the breaker. Before him the great building loomed up, like some huge castle of old, cutting i

rough the grimy window; out again into the moonlight, up, by a foot-path, to the summit of another hill, alo

hed it, and a man in shirt-sle

Tom? An' did y

south chambers; he tried to come out alone, an' got lost. So I'll not ne

fe wi' the mither. Tom," as the boy turned away

laug

? Give yourself no fear fo

he brow of the hill. The loose gravel rolled under his feet as

man steal carefully along in the shadow of the breake

n the track by the loading-place to listen. He thought he heard a no

ion of the breaker, with his head turned back over

ilder, nor ither body to cry their eyes oot, an' I get i' the prison for it. But I've had the hert o' me touched the day, Mike, an' I canna do the

at beard floating on his breast, and laid his brawny hand

tle flickering light, and the light grew into a flame, and the flame curled around the coal-black timbers, and sent up little red tongues to lick the cornice of the long, low roof. Tom was so ast

s not worth the dust i' the road. Whusper a single word o' it, an' the Molly Maguires 'll tak' terrible revenge o' ye'! Noo

sent Tom from him at fu

was just in time to see and hear the sleepy watchman open the door of the engine-room, run out, give one startled look

rounding hills were alive with people who

cle was a

lack surface of the breaker here and there up its seventy feet of height, began to redden and to glow with the mounting flames behind them; a column of white smoke broke from the topmost cornice, little red tongues went cre

r midnight there was but a mass of charred ruins

hold effects from a small dwelling-house near by; that was all. But among the many men who helped to save this little, none labored

at the breaker on the night of the fire. He knew that he ought to disclose his secret; indeed, he felt a pressing duty upon him to do so in order that the crime might be duly punished. But the secret order of Molly Maguires was a terror

to the Valley Breaker; and soon afterward a messenger came to the house of the Widow Taylo

ompelled to tell what he knew about the fire, with the least responsibility resting on him f

Tom went with the messenger to the railroad station, and the fast train soon

, they stopped before a dingy-looking door on which was fas

after a few moments, the door into an inner apartment was opened and he was called in there. This room was more completely furnished than the outer one; there was a carpet on the floor, and

d as having been in the mine with the visiting strikers the day Bennie was lost; and by a round centre table sat Lawye

regarded him closely, and waving his

ad. Your name is

ylor, sir," an

aw the fire at th

"I guess I was the f

id the lawyer, slowly

ou saw, or whom you saw at the momen

Tom, wondering how the law

desire, to disclo

ld before; I meant to a' told, but

at he had kept the secret long e

lly for a few moments, then placed them delibe

lly Maguires, in pursuance of whose decree the deed is supposed to have been done. We have known, for some time, that a boy was present when the breaker was fired. Last night we learned th

tion with those who desired to punish the perpetrators of the crime, he found himself in the h

to burn the breaker, an' the man 'a

f his vest, and poised his glasses carefully in his f

oy, when you humbly asked them for enough to keep body and soul together. Suppose you knew that the laws were made for the rich and against the poor, as they are, and that your only redress, and a speedy one, would be to spoil the property of your persecutors till t

s on his nose, and leaned fo

ieve that corporations were tyrannical monsters. But the boy's inhere

s right to burn a breaker. Why," he continued, "yo

s on the wrong track wit

sion will not avail, I trust you are prepared, in case of disclo

, an' that's what's kept me from tellin'; but I won't be a

om. Here was a lad who held Jack Rennie's fate in his hands, and

the room together; while Tom sat, with tumultuously be

oments, and came back with sa

voice laden with apparent sympathy, "that you have a y

is," replied Tom

possibility of cure, if the eyes are su

what a doct

ored to him! what a delight! What rejoicing there w

n' of al'ays; it's what I pray for every night, sir. We've been a-tryin' t

, and twirled his eye-glasses though

lars, sir; that's w

then, with grea

hundred dollars, to be used in your brother's behalf; could you return the favor by keepi

, his heart pounded like a hammer again

r Bennie! Would it be very wrong? But, oh, to think of Bennie in the joy of seeing! The tem