‘No, I didn’t. Men like that would keep coming back for more. His silence would never be guaranteed. Instead he felt my boot in his rear. I told him to leave and not to come back.’ He watched the hope in Grace’s face drain away as he withdrew his hand from hers. ‘It would not have mattered to me where you came from or how you began your life.’
Grace lifted her chin. ‘It is easy for you to say that now we are no longer engaged.’
‘And I would have told you the same if we were. It is not easy to enter society after being publicly humiliated at the altar, but my humiliation was not caused by any action of mine and I refused to let it stop me getting on with my life. Your humiliation is no different. It was our present and future that mattered to me, not some dark secret your parents never told you.’
He turned his attention to the pit. The rivulets of water raced in snake like paths down the surface of the crater, gathering the clay deposits towards the next step in the process. ‘My sister has also been ostracised by society through no fault of her own. So you see, Grace, I am the last person to judge you and probably the first to understand.’ He glanced at her. ‘Only you did not give me the chance to.’ He straightened his shoulders. ‘Go home, Grace. I’m a busy man. I have a business to salvage and a vulnerable sister to care for. Besides, this site is too dangerous and I think we have said all there is to say.’ When she did not reply or move, he looked at her. ‘Unless there is something else I should know?’
Grace opened her mouth, but then shut it again. Talek’s heart sank. He had been hoping for something more, something that would explain why she had chosen her own good name over the damage inflicted on him and the risk of his workers employment.
‘Nothing?’ Her full lips thinned to a mutinous line. It was a sign. Their relationship was beyond repair. ‘Then it is time we said goodbye.’ He felt another tremor beneath his feet. From Grace’s expression, she felt it too. He searched for the wagons, but the track was silent. A slither of unease ran up his spine. Something did not seem right, just as Tommy had forewarned. ‘You better go.’
‘What was that tremor? Talek?’
Workers had paused to lift their heads and listen. Just as Tommy and Billy ran around the pit edge, a louder, lower rumble chased at their heels.
‘Captain! Did you feel it?’ shouted Tommy as he was approaching. ‘I think there might be a—’
‘Come away from the pit edge!’ shouted Talek. It was too late. The ground collapsed beneath their feet, taking all that had stood upon it with it. Tommy and Billy disappeared from view. Talek raced to the edge to see their tumbling bodies being carried into the pit on a tide of white soil.
A cry from a worker voiced Talek’s thoughts. ‘It’s a runner!’
The warning shout was passed from man to man as the workers in the pit scattered from its destructive path. Many men were able to scramble to safety, but the miners in its direct path were less fortunate as the treacherous, saturated ground underfoot hampered a speedy retreat. The landslide rolled over them, lifting some briefly, swallowing others completely, until it finally came to a strangely slow halt. And then it began, that brief moment in time that hangs between horror and its aftermath. Time stretched and seemed to last forever as the destruction on view wheedled into one’s thoughts and rendered one dumb. Even the birds and the breeze seemed to fall silent around them as Talek watched the last few stones tumble to a stop. The remaining miners slowly approached the edge of the pit. It was seeing their shocked faces that spurred Talek into life.
‘Someone sound the alarm!’ he shouted as he led Grace away from the edge. ‘Go home where I know you’ll be safe.’ He looked about him at the gathering miners. ‘Wilkins, Bolitho, James, fetch ropes and shovels! How many have been buried? Five? No six. We need to dig them out.’
Rope and shovels were quickly brought. ‘I need volunteers,’ said Talek, handing out the ropes. ‘Take these to the top and tie one end to something sturdy. If you can’t find something, tie it to several men. Now, who will climb down with me?’ Several hands shot into the air amongst the gathering crowd. Talek pointed to the strongest of them. ‘You. Yes you. And you too.’ He shrugged off his coat and began to tie one of the ropes about his waist. ‘We must work in pairs. Who saw the men go under? Where were they?’
One of the miners stepped forward. ‘Two midway on the east side. One a third of the way down towards the middle. Two more on the nearside. Saw the runner take them from the top all the way to near the bottom when they finally disappeared.’
‘Talek you can’t go down there.’ It was Grace.
‘I’ll not send my workers to do a job I’m not prepared to do myself. I told you to go home.’ He addressed the miners who had volunteered to go down with him. ‘You four take the two men on the east side. You two the middle one. I will take the two on the nearside. Those remaining at the top watch out for movement and direct us as to where to dig.’
He signalled for the men to take up the slack as he edged to the side.
‘I am staying to help. The men will be wounded and will need tending to.’
Despite his earlier order, he was grateful for Grace’s offer. He gave a curt nod in acceptance.
‘Just stay out of danger. I may have five deaths on my hands. I don’t want you to be added to them.’ He ordered for the slack to be taken up in the rope before slowly climbing down over the edge. Due to the recent torrential rain, the pit surface was unstable and slid easily beneath his feet. He cursed himself for not inspecting the pit as soon as he had arrived on site. Perhaps if he had, he would have stopped the men working today.
He glanced up one last time as he lowered himself down and saw Grace arranging for a makeshift stretcher to be made available. Talek knew that the wounded would be in good hands, should they live long enough to reach her and he was grateful for that. He gave himself a mental shake. He must concentrate. In order for the survivors to reach Grace he needed to find them and bring them to the surface.
On several occasions, the pit surface began to slide down around him. His clothes, no match for manual labour, were soon dirty, sodden and torn. Miners shouted directions from above, as the digging teams set to work in the areas where the miners were last seen. The first body located was found quickly and dragged to the surface, gasping for air. A cheer went up as he was hauled to a more stable surface, where he was rolled onto a makeshift stretcher and carried away.
The second miner was found shortly after. His twisted leg and painful cries suggested he was badly injured. Talek paused briefly in his digging to order his rescuers to take care.
‘The soil has settled. Take your time. The man’s leg looks broken and he cannot tolerate rough handling.’
Talek returned to his frantic digging, but found nothing. He looked up to the miners above for more guidance. ‘Can you see any movement? Were they carried this far?’
Someone shouted new directions, so Talek and his digging partner lowered themselves further to a new place to dig.
A cry went up. A third miner had been found. His flaccid, silent body was dragged to the surface and hauled across to safety. The sombre silence and bowed heads of the miners gathering around him told Talek that he had probably not survived. He renewed his efforts, digging frantically in tune with his partner.
Talek spied a piece of cloth sprouting from the dirt. He barred the other man from digging with an outstretched hand.
‘I can see a man’s shirt.’ He shouted up to the stretcher-bearers above him. ‘We need a stretcher. Quick! Now!’ He looked down at his feet and cast his shovel aside. ‘We need to use our hands to dig or we will cut him to shreds.’
Both men fell to their knees and began to dig with their hands. A cloth cap was soon exposed, together with the curve of Tommy’s back. ‘We have Tommy!’ shouted Talek to the miners above. ‘Steady now,’ he said more quietly to the miner beside him. ‘He is in a kneeling position. Easy now. Lift him slowly in case his back is broken.’
The old man was stiff and heavy, but despite a few cuts and bruises, his skin still had the warmth of life pulsing through him.
‘He’s alive, Captain,’ said the miner. Tommy stirred as they eased him from his hole. Talek couldn’t help smiling when the other miner added. ‘Damn it, Tommy, the landslide has carried you several hundred yards and you still have your cloth cap on your head.’
‘That’s not all I’ve kept ’old of,’ croaked Tommy, rolling over to blink and gasp in the early morning sun. To their surprise, huddled beneath him like a newborn babe, lay Billy. Tommy coughed and rolled his head to the side to watch as they dragged the boy out. He blinked away the soil from his eyes and smiled a toothless welcome.
‘Didn’t I tell you to stick with me, Billy?’ the old man chuckled as the boy was laid beside him. He winked at Talek. ‘I told the boy I would look after ’im. And I did, didn’t I, Captain?’
Talek looked at the pale body of the boy, his legs and arms unusually straight and still, his body covered from head to foot in mud. The boy looked dead, yet, in that moment, he didn’t have the heart to tell the old miner the truth. Let him have his moment of heroism, best tell him the boy died later.
Tommy was still chuckling. He nudged the boy. ‘It’s alright, Billy. You’re safe now. Open your eyes and say ’ello to the Captain.’ The boy’s body rocked at his touch. Talek turned away, unable to watch.
‘Hello, Captain.’ The two simple words lifted the hairs on his neck. The boy had spoken, his voice strong and clear, with a joyful lilt, as if he was offering him a mug of tea.
Talek spun around to find Billy smiling at him and squinting in the bright sun. The dirty, thin child, with worn boots and mud mattered hair, was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
‘Glad you are still with us,’ he said, his throat thick with emotion. He swallowed it down and began to busy himself tying a rope around Billy’s waist. ‘It’s time to get the both of you to safety. And this time, Billy, someone else will be making you a mug of tea.’
