Derrick Sterling Derrick Sterling

Excerpt: ...sarcastically if Monk Tooley knew who stole his three checks from the check-board two days before. Yes, I do, answered the miner, promptly. Then you know it was this same sneaking boss's pet, Derrick Sterling. No, I don't. I tell you I saw him do it! cried Job, in a rage. Him and the hunchback went up to the board together, and when the boss stepped away, so they thought nobody wasn't looking, the pet slipped 'em into his pocket. I saw it with my own eyes. An' I tell yer yer lie! shouted Monk Tooley. Here's de checks, an' dey come outen yer own pocket, yer black-hearted old scoundrel! At these astounding words Job Taskar sprang towards Monk Tooley with clinched fists, as though to strike him, and all present watched for the encounter in breathless suspense. Just then the door behind them was pushed open, and standing on its threshold they saw the mine boss and Derrick Sterling. CHAPTER XI A FATAL EXPLOSION OF FIRE-DAMP At this startling apparition of the last two persons in the world whom they would have expected to see in that place, the assembled miners remained for some moments motionless with astonishment. Having stationed a trusty sentinel at the end of the gangway nearest the new workings, who was to give them instant warning of the approach of any outsider, they imagined themselves perfectly safe from interruption. They had not considered the possibility of an approach from the rear through the abandoned workings, for they were generally believed to be impassable owing to deadly gases and the quantity of material that had fallen in them. Thus the unannounced appearance of the very persons whose fate they had just been discussing seemed almost supernatural, and a feeling of dread pervaded the assembly. On the other hand, Mr. Jones and his companion were equally, if not more greatly, dismayed. Having approached the door during a momentary silence among the miners, they had not been warned by any sound of what they should find...