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 threatened 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 Karl 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.The entomology-obsessed Engineer Molesmoor noticed this and asked Karl to get him new specimens of insects, promising him one of 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 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 stables was 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, Mom, when I put my head next to him, he put his cheek against mine and kissed me seriously," Carl said. "You know, Blair Athol How convenient it is to have a clock in our heads! Without him we would not 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 would send him candy whenever 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 down the mine, so she can only listen to her son telling him about the situation in the mine.

what!She knew the mine well, and the great black hole her husband had gone to and never returned to.How many times had 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 boulders, and looked at the double-layered oak that was suspended by steel cables and hung on steel pulleys. Cages, look at the tall outer frame, the steam engine room, the clerk's room, and everything else!How many times has she faced the fire in front of the big iron stove that is always burning with hot coals, the miners coming up from the shaft are drying their clothes in front of it, and the impatient smokers are lighting their pipes in front of it !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, but now, With her 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 five or six hundred meters—four times higher than the Great Pyramid—to the ground! ...she finally "saw" it come to an end, and the workers hurried out of the cage!

They spread out in this underground city, some on the left, some on 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 earth workers 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 masons 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. Power's mind when she was alone by the fire, brooding. 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 stables, to his dear Blair Athol, and waited on the old man through his supper of oatmeal, 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, which lay motionless in front of him, and had fun with the two bats, which flew low around him.When it was over, he fell down 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 did the Molesham engineer say to me yesterday? He said he was going to give me some arithmetic problems for the next two days, and if I answered them well, he would be in the mines with his compass. When drawing the floor plan, let me help him measure it together. It seems that another tunnel is to be opened to connect with the Weber Mine, and it will take a lot of trouble to align the tunnel!" "Really!" exclaimed Mrs. Power cheerfully. "Mr. Engineer Molesham 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," continued Carl, "is that no one can explain to me what I don't know about arithmetic, and I'm so afraid I can't answer it!" 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?" said Mrs. Power with some disbelief. "Yes," Marcel replied, "I go to evening school on time after dinner every day. Do you think I can learn nothing there? The teacher is very satisfied with me and says 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 years old, first-class caster. 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 that they hadn't, so he said "Gluck auf!" rush forward. In this way he arrived at Oak Rector Mine about eleven o'clock.I didn't see the usual noisy and busy work.Occasionally a young "millininette"--as the miners humorously term them for 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 Karl Ball Jr. 41902 come up?" Marcel asked the clerk. The man checked the list and shook his head. "Is there any other exit from this mine?" "No, only this one," replied the clerk, "the 'opening' on the north side has not yet been completed." "So the kid is still down there?" "It must be. However, this is indeed a bit strange, because every Sunday, there are only five special guards staying 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," continued Marcel, "I must know what happened to the boy!" "You can go to the foreman who is in charge of the machinery. He is in this office... but I don't know if he is 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 Garibe air tank?" asked Marcel, "it might be useful..." "You're right. You don't know what's going to happen down there." 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 containing compressed air, with two rubber tubes connected to the mouth, and the horny nozzle is held by the 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 very brave for a man who doesn't belong in the mine," the foreman was saying. "I've seen some people get into the cages and get scared like children. They don't know whether to stay or escape. Cage!" "Really?" said Marcel, "I don't think it's a big deal. I've actually been 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 stables.Only the horse was there, and it seemed terribly restless.At least that's what they seem to be, judging by their neighing.Instead of Blair Athol they greeted the three visitors with neighs.On a nail hung Karl's bag, and in a tiny 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 may have fallen into a sinkhole," said the foreman, "but that's unlikely! What was he doing in the coal tunnel on Sunday?" "Oh! Maybe he's looking for insects or something before he goes out!" replied the guard. "He's really fascinated by this!" A boy in charge of the stable came over at this moment 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 tended to agree with this opinion: the child probably went out without being noticed, and has already gone home by now.But Marcel didn't think so, and insisted on continuing to search. "What does this mean?" Marcel asked, pointing to a dotted area on the plan.The dashed portion is in the middle of the surrounding precisely delineated and specified region, as geographers use to mark the edge of the Arctic landmass. "This is a temporarily abandoned area because the mineable coal seam is too thin," replied the foreman. "There's an abandoned area? ... Well, we must look there!" Marcel said authoritatively, and everyone obeyed. 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?" "Well! That's right!" replied the companions. "I've been feeling tight in my chest for a while," Marcel continued. "There must be carbon dioxide here... May I strike a match?" he asked the foreman. "Row, boy, and do as you please." 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 so..." he said. "This gas clings to the ground because it's heavier than air. . . It must never stay here—I'm talking about people who don't have a Garibe tank. If you Yes, foreman, let's continue searching." 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 over 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 lift 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.

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