Authors: Martin Cruz Smith
The black tooth, Blair remembered.
C
ORONER
: At least we can trust that the death of these men was mercifully swift. The watch later identified as that of John Swift was found with its crystal shattered and its hands stopped at 2:45, the very moment of the blast.
Progressing with a dead canary was an accurate description of Blair’s own life. He shuffled stiffly across the carpet to feed the fire grate. Since they were along for the ride, he decided to name the leeches on his leg Famine, Death, Conquest and War after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Blair was self-taught. What had there been to do in a Sierra winter but read through the old man’s library of classics? Sober, old man Blair had no conversation beyond engineering or, drunk, the Revelation of Saint John. The women the boy saw were either Chinese or whores. To win attention he told them stories that he stole. His favorite was a version of
Robinson Crusoe
in which the castaway was a woman instead of a man, and Friday was a boy instead of a native. They lived so happily on the island that they let ships pass rather than wave them down.
H
OPTON
: I appreciate that you and the other members of the rescue party were operating under strain and emotional upset. Did you, however, immediately examine the coal face for evidence that a worker had fired a shot contrary to your caution?
B
ATTIE
: Not immediately.
L
IPTROT
: Why not?
B
ATTIE
: There was more gas.
C
ORONER
: From what?
B
ATTIE
: From old workings, sir. Waste stone and unusable small coal that we’d bricked it to help support the roof. It’s normal practice, but unfortunately all sorts of gases accumulate in waste. The explosion had cracked the bricks. The whole tunnel lit up when our lamps felt the gas. The choice was to abandon the coal face with any bodies in it that we hadn’t found or stop up the leak.
N
UTTAL
: What was the condition of your lamps?
B
ATTIE
: Red, sir. Too hot to hold.
N
UTTAL
: Because of gas?
B
ATTIE
: Yes.
M
EEK
: What access did you have to this leak?
B
ATTIE
: Poor. The gas was blowing from a bricked-up area deep in the coal seam under a low shelf, and the way was partially blocked by debris. While we tried to ventilate as best we could, I sent for bricks and the makings for cement that we store in side tunnels, and when they arrived I sent everyone out but Smallbone and Jaxon. We mixed mortar at the face and they took turns crawling with two bricks at a time in almost total darkness to repair the wall. They succeeded, and as a consequence I was able to bring lamps to that area of the coal face that I most wanted to examine.
H
OPTON
: Why that part?
B
ATTIE
: It was the area where I had detected gas that morning.
H
OPTON
: Did you suspect that, contrary to the caution you issued, one of the victims had set off a shot?
B
ATTIE
: No, sir.
L
IPTROT
: Perhaps you feel it would be uncharitable to speculate?
B
ATTIE
: I couldn’t say, sir. Besides, sir, the only fireman in that district of the coal face was Smallbone.
N
UTTAL
: And he was with you. So it was unlikely that Taffy or the Swift brothers or Greenall or any of the deceased set off a shot of gunpowder in the absence of Smallbone.
B
ATTIE
: Yes, sir.
M
EEK
: But if they did, they would be less expert.
B
ATTIE
: Yes, sir.
H
OPTON
: Isn’t it true that Greenall had been reprimanded in the past for lighting a pipe in the mine?
B
ATTIE
: Ten years back.
L
IPTROT
: It’s true, though?
B
ATTIE
: Yes.
N
UTTAL
: Any heavy drinkers among the men at the coal face?
B
ATTIE
: I wouldn’t say heavy.
N
UTTAL
: Weren’t John and George Swift reprimanded by police only last week for carousing on the street?
B
ATTIE
: John was just married. They were celebrating.
H
OPTON
: Does drink affect a miner’s judgment?
B
ATTIE
: Yes.
H
OPTON
: Miners drink.
B
ATTIE
: Some.
N
UTTAL
: Do you drink?
B
ATTIE
: I’ll have an ale on the way home.
N
UTTAL
: An ale or two?
B
ATTIE
: The temperature down pit is 100 degrees. You sweat off five pounds in a day. When you come up, you need something to drink.
H
OPTON
: Are you suggesting that ale is purer than Wigan water?
B
ATTIE
: You said it, sir, not I.
M
EEK
: You are involved with the miners’ union, are you not?
B
ATTIE
: I am a miner and I am in the union.
M
EEK
: More than that. An active leader. A defender, is that right?
B
ATTIE
: I suppose so.
M
EEK
: With no insinuation intended, would it be fair to say that the last thing a union leader would admit was that one of the unfortunate victims was himself to blame?
B
ATTIE
: I don’t know what happened down pit that day. I do know mining is dry and dangerous work, that’s a fact of life. Nothing is ever going to change that.
* * *
Blair felt dry himself, and the ache from his head was crowding out his ability to focus. He drank a brandy, wished it were ale, set down the report, peeled off the leeches and napped.
He lunched on cold beef, cheese and wine, keeping in mind Battie’s warning about the water. The leeches lunched on him. A different foursome now: Juliet, Ophelia, Portia and Lady MacBeth.
He hated coal mines. Gold was noble and inert. Coal, which had been living material, was still alive, exhaling gas as it changed into rock. Of course all the easy, shallow coal was long gone. As mines went deeper, coal was harder, air fouler, firedamp stronger. For what? No nugget of gold.
C
ORONER
: Mr. Wedge, you are the manager of the Hannay pit. Were you aware of a danger of explosive gas at the coal face on the day of January 18?
W
EDGE
: I was so informed by George Battie, and I agreed with Battie’s caution against firing shots. That’s what an underlooker is for, to take such precautions and protect property.
C
ORONER
: As manager, where were you and what did you do when you became aware of the explosion?
W
EDGE
: I was in the yard and knocked almost off my feet by the explosion. With my very first breath, I sent runners for medical assistance and help from the nearby pits. A bad fire requires the transport of injured and dead for long distances underground at a time when your own miners are incapacitated. Next, I looked after the cage, which was, thank God, operative, although a volume of smoke rose from the shaft. A messenger had come from Battie to say he had started rescue operations below. Although we had to wait for the cage to return to the surface again, we immediately sent volunteers down with lamps. It is a
sad fact that in mine disasters rescuers are often among the victims. That is why we strictly count lamps, so that we know by simple arithmetic when
everyone
is out of the pit. The worst for a family is not knowing if someone is found.
Blair wasn’t certain of his own age and had no idea of his birthday. Old Blair, however, taught him geometry, and when Blair was probably no more than nine he figured with a protractor—using the average time of an Atlantic crossing and taking into consideration trade winds and winter seas—the approximate latitude and longitude where he last saw his mother. Since then he had crossed the same position only once. He had stood at the rail and looked down at dark swells that moved under sheets of foam. The sense of cold and isolation was overwhelming.
C
ORONER
: Your name is?
J
AXON
: William Jaxon.
L
IPTROT
: You are the miner who usually drills holes for the fireman at the coal face where the explosion took place?
J
AXON
: Yes, sir.
N
UTTAL
: Did you drill any holes that day?
J
AXON
: No, sir. When Mr. Battie issued a caution against shots, no one drilled any holes.
H
OPTON
: But you were not at the coal face when the explosion erupted.
J
AXON
: No, sir. I was helping Albert Smallbone to the cage because his pick hit a rock that shot out and hit his leg. We were in the road when it gave a shake like a rope. Smoke blew us along until we rolled into a refuge hole. We couldn’t see, couldn’t hear because of coal dust and because we were concussed, like. We worked our way through side tunnels and that’s when we met Battie and the others.
M
EEK
: And decided to return to the coal face with them rather than seek your own safety.
J
AXON
: You could put it that way.
C
ORONER
: Your name is?
S
MALLBONE
: Albert Smallbone.
L
IPTROT
: And you are the only fireman for that district of the coal face where the explosion took place?
S
MALLBONE
: Yes, sir.
L
IPTROT
: Smallbone, were you given a caution about gas from Battie?
S
MALLBONE
: Yes, sir.
N
UTTAL
: You must feel fortunate to be alive.
S
MALLBONE
: I would feel more fortunate if my friends were alive.
M
EEK
: Was your leg badly injured when the rock hit it? When you chose to return with Jaxon and Battie?
S
MALLBONE
: I disregarded it, sir, in the heat of the moment.
In spite of aspirin, Blair’s head still throbbed. Good stitching only went so far. He felt like Macarthy of the Gold Coast after his head was severed, boiled and stacked with the other honored skulls.
M
OLONY
: My name is Ivan Molony. I am manager of Mab’s Pit, one mile distant from the Hannay pit. On the afternoon of January 18, I saw smoke rise from the Hannay headgear and knew that an underground explosion of some sort had taken place. I gathered a party of volunteers and rushed to the Hannay yard.
N
UTTAL
: It is a tradition among Lancashire mines to lend assistance at the first sign of a fire?
M
OLONY
: Yes, it is a form of mutual aid.
N
UTTAL
: And at the yard you proceeded down the shaft into the pit?
M
OLONY
: With other volunteers.
H
OPTON
: You were the first expert to arrive at the coal face where the explosion is believed to have originated. Describe the scene as you found it.
M
OLONY
: A smooth wall on one end and a tangle of burned bodies and wagons at the other. Terrible carnage, like soldiers mown down by grapeshot. In the midst of it, Battie and two of his men had erected brattices for ventilation and were just setting the last brick in the wall to stop a secondary leak of gas.
L
IPTROT
: You are aware from previous witnesses that there was a caution in effect at the Hannay mine before the explosion. In your expert opinion, what besides a shot of gunpowder might have set off such a disaster?
M
OLONY
: At Mab’s Pit we search miners to prevent them from taking pipes and matches underground. We lock the lamps and keep the keys. It doesn’t matter. They bring pipes anyway, and if a miner doesn’t detect gas and unlocks his lamp to light up—which they do, in spite of every warning—he could certainly kill himself and all his mates.
H
OPTON
: I would like to ask you, as an expert, how miners regard cautions against the discharge of gunpowder underground?
M
OLONY
: They’re not happy about it.
L
IPTROT
: Why not?
M
OLONY
: A shot of gunpowder will loose more coal face than a day’s worth of swinging a pick. It’s a matter of economics. Miners are paid by how much coal they send up, not how much time or labor they put into it.
N
UTTAL
: Are there other ways in which a miner can undo the best efforts of a mineowner?
M
OLONY
: Any number. The first impulse of an improperly trained man, if he finds himself in a gas-saturated tunnel, is to run. If he runs fast enough, the
flame will bend through the safety mesh of his lamp and ignite the very gas he is trying to escape.
N
UTTAL
: Considering the force of the explosion at the Hannay pit, was the tunnel necessarily saturated with gas?
M
OLONY
: No. A small initial explosion would do, considering that miners recklessly stuff every coal face in Lancashire with canisters of gunpowder waiting to be used in charges. Once initiated, the canisters can set themselves off in a series of explosions the length of the tunnel.
H
OPTON
: From your long experience, what do you feel was the more likely cause of the Hannay explosion, inadequate supervision on the part of the owners of the pit or a breach of safety regulations on the part of a miner?
M
OLONY
: As there was no deficiency in the regulations or their supervision, nothing is left but error on the part of a miner, is there?