"Bailey-GiantsInTheEarth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bailey Dale)

to prop the axe against the sloping roof of the undercut and that was when he
saw it.

Or, rather, didn't see what he expected to see -- what he had seen maybe a
thousand times or more in the year since he and Rona had married, the baby had
been born, and he had taken to working as a loader in Blankenship Coal's number
six hole. What he didn't see was the splash of his cap light against the wall,
pitted by the charge he had rigged to loosen the seam. Instead, the beam probed
out in a widening cone that dissipated into dust and swirling emptiness.

A black current of stale air swept out at him, and Burns quickly crab-walked
backwards. He jarred the prop loose, and the heavy tongue of rock above him
groaned deep within itself. Pebbles sifted down, rattling against his hardhat,
and then the mountain lapsed into silence. When the callused hands closed about
his upper arms, Burns nearly screamed.

"Goddammit," he snapped, "what the hell do you think you're doing?"

He spun around to face Moore, and the other man backed away, flattened palms
extended before him. Moore looked like a vaudeville comic in blackface. Coal
dust streaked his gaunt features, was tattooed into the very fabric of his
flesh, and it would never wash away, not even with years of scrubbing. You could
tell the old-timers by the dusky tone of their complexions. Burns knew that if
Moore would strip away his shirt, the exposed flesh of his face and hands would
meet the pale skin beyond in hard geometric planes.

He knew, too, that someday he also would look as if he wore perpetually a dusky
mask and gloves, and he hated it. But there was Rona and the baby. Swirling in
the veil of dust that hung between the two men, Burns could almost see them,
their features etched with a beauty too real and fragile for life in these
mountains. A year ago, he had not known that a man could feel this way, and
sometimes still it crept up on him unawares, this love that had led him to this
deep place far beneath the earth.

He glanced away before Moore saw his eyes throw back the dazzle of the cap
light. "Get that light out of my eyes, you've about half-blinded me," he said,
and he turned away to collect himself. The massive tongue of rock that projected
over the hole seemed almost to mock him. So close, Burns thought, and then where
would Rona and the baby have been?

"You okay?" Moore asked.

Burns looked up. "Hell," he said. "Sorry. I thought the rock was coming down on
me."

Moore gave him a curt nod, bent to re-set the fallen prop, and then wedged his
own axe into the gap. "That ought to hold it," he said, extending a hand to
Burns.

Burns took the hand, and lifted himself to his feet. He dusted off his clothes