Chapter 8
It was finally starting to cool down. Troy had never been one for hot weather, and yet here he was in Texas, of all places.
He missed the East Coast and its gentler, if more humid, summers and brightly colored falls.
He didn’t miss the snow in winter though.
It hardly ever snowed in Texas. And when it did, it was just a light dusting that would be gone by the morning.
But the heat really sapped his will to live.
He wiped his brow and stopped for a drink of water.
“If you keep stopping, we’re never going to get this school tent up,” Lizzy said, her hands on her hips.
He eyed her with a smile. “Who’s this we? I’m the one doing all the work.”
“Not so,” Emily said. “We’ve sewn the cover, and that took us a week of working on it every evening. Our fingers are raw. All you have to do is dig a few holes to get the posts into.”
Troy didn’t comment but raised the water skin to take another swig. When he lowered it, Lizzy was waiting, holding the pickaxe’s handle. She wore a mischievous smile.
Michael came around Emily’s tent and spotted them. “Are you all still working on this tent?” he asked. “I thought it would have been up hours ago. It should have been.”
“I know, but the ground is hard, and I can’t get the poles in,” Troy said.
Lizzy’s plan included poles set in the ground to stop the bigger tent from flying off in the next strong wind that swept through the camp. It was sound thinking if you weren’t the one who had to try and break the ground enough to get four poles in.
“It’s like I’m trying to break through granite,” he muttered.
“Well, this section is granite,” Michael said with a shrug. “If you move the tent about sixty paces that way, it’s all compacted earth. It should be a lot easier to get through.”
Troy glared at his brother. “And you couldn’t say that an hour ago?”
Lizzy was laughing at him behind her hand, and Emily’s eyes twinkled with mirth. When had those two become friends?
Michael also grinned. “Sorry,” he said. “I’ll help you.”
He fetched a pickaxe of his own and walked the sixty paces.
Then he and Troy measured out where the poles had to go according to the roof size, and they started to dig.
This was much easier. Troy generally hated when his brother was right.
Michael enjoyed rubbing his little brother’s nose in it when he felt he had the upper hand.
But this time he didn’t. He spent most of his time showing off for Emily.
He even took his shirt off and worked in his vest.
Troy gave Lizzy a look, and he knew she had noticed. She was grinning from ear to ear, watching Emily and Michael.
“I’m not imagining it, am I?” she asked after a while. “They’re …” She made a complicated, interwoven gesture with her hands.
Troy nodded. “I almost feel like we should leave them alone.”
“Think of the children, Troy,” Lizzy said in her best mocking tone. “What if they walk in on this? They’ll be scarred for life.”
Emily went beet red, apparently overhearing, and Michael glared at them.
Troy didn’t care, and Lizzy burst out laughing.
“Oh, very funny!” Michael said, annoyed. “You two might want to pick out spots in here for your desks since you’re so immature.”
“Are you still busy with this?” Andrew demanded, appearing around Emily’s tent and looking distracted and annoyed. The smiles and laughter stopped as though they were controlled by a switch.
“We need Troy and Lizzy up at the mine as soon as possible,” he said. “We have to get production back on track, and you haven’t made the new grinder for the smelter. You’re falling behind, Troy.”
Troy felt his spirits drop instantly. Where he had been happy and relatively carefree for a while, now Andrew had dropped the weight of their endeavor firmly back on his shoulders.
“Mr. McGregor is looking for an update, and so far, I have nothing good to tell him at all,” Andrew pointed out rather grimly.
Lifting his pickaxe, Troy began to dig another hole.
It took an hour for Troy and Michael to dig the holes and secure the poles in them. Then they helped Lizzy and Emily to secure the crossbeams to them and drape the tent material over the frame. It was done in no time, and Emily and Lizzy beamed with happiness.
“Thank you so much,” Lizzy said. “I’ll stay a little while longer and then come up to the mine. I want to make sure that Emily is set up. The sooner we can get her up and running, the sooner Tim can stop wandering off to heaven knows where.”
Troy nodded. “Don’t worry. I can take care of the mine. It’s more of the same old clearing the front and working out of the back nonsense,” he said, placing a hand on her arm. “Nothing to worry about. Come when you can.”
She nodded, and he had the most intense urge to kiss her.
Instead, he contented himself with a smile as he ran his hand down her arm to her hand, which he squeezed tightly for a moment.
She squeezed back, and he knew she was thinking the same thing.
He would have to kiss her soon or explode.
He’d been working up the courage for ages now and hadn’t found the right moment.
As he and Michael walked to the mine, his older brother seemed to have something on his mind.
“Out with it,” Troy said. “What’s wrong now? What haven’t I done to your satisfaction?”
His brother sighed and stopped him with a touch of his hand. “It’s about Emily.”
Troy rolled his eyes. What more could he do for the woman? He had tried. He was being friendly, but there weren’t sparks between him and her. There would never be. “Mike …” he began and stopped when Michael spoke over him.
“I think I could really grow to like her,” Michael said.
Troy stared at him in disbelief. Grow to like her? He was practically falling over her. What was there to grow into?
Michael took it the wrong way and scowled. “It’s not like you love her.”
“You’re right,” Troy said. “I don’t. But you do.”
“What?” Michael asked.
“You love Emily, or you’re starting to,” Troy said and smiled. “I’m glad for you. She’s just the woman for you.”
“You’re not mad?” Michael asked in surprise. “I really tried not to fall for her, but she’s … she’s wonderful.”
Troy clapped his brother on the shoulder. “No, I’m not mad. God works in mysterious ways. I’m happy for you.”
Michael patted his back, looking stunned. “Thanks.”
“So, now you’ll leave me alone and stop pestering me about Lizzy?” Troy asked. “Because through all of this, all I’ve managed to do is fall deeper in love with her than ever.”
Michael nodded. “I won’t stand in your way.”
“Thank you,” Troy said.
They were both smiling rather foolishly by the time they reached the mine. Andrew took one look at them and groaned.
“Oh no, what now?” he asked. “What have you two been up to now?”
“No, nothing,” Troy said. “We just came to an understanding.”
“Yeah,” Michael said, looking around at the work going on. “Do you want us down in the mine or clearing the debris?”
“Neither,” Andrew said. “I want to try something out. In the new cavern, I want to light something, throw it in, and then see if there is any firedamp.”
“Right, so you want us to do that?” Troy asked.
“No, I want you to come up with a better way to test for it,” Andrew said. “Even with the Davy lamps, we aren’t safe down there, and I don’t want anything to blow up again. Come up with something.”
Michael nodded. “We’ll figure something out.”
Troy had set up a bit of a workshop close to the mine. He and Michael went there now and sat on the stumps that served as stools. Troy took a stick and, on the sandy ground in front of his feet, began to doodle.
“The problem is that we have no canaries,” Michael said. “They would be the easiest answer.”
“But keeping them in cages in the dark is cruel,” Troy said. He had always hated the idea of caging any animals. And the idea that any bird would have to die to let them know there was a problem didn’t sit well with him at all. He hated the idea.
“No, that won’t do,” he said, shaking his head. “We need something better. And I think I have an idea.”
“Already?” Michael asked.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while,” Troy said.
“Mulling it over with Lizzy. She and I decided we have two choices. See, I think that since we’ve pulled coal and copper from the mine, there might be pockets of methane that build up.
I don’t think they’re big or plentiful enough to be a large problem if we can either vent them or ignite them. ”
“What do you mean ignite them?” Michael asked. “That’s how we got the entrance blocked in the first place.”
“It is, but if we were to go into the mine first thing and do controlled ignitions …”
“We could disperse any gas that escaped during the night and hopefully make things safer,” Michael finished. “You’re a genius.”
“Not yet,” Troy said. “We have to figure out how to make it safe, even for the poor soul who has to go in there and ignite the gas.”
Michael nodded. “Yes, maybe we should see about finding some material that is fire retardant.”
For a long time, he and Michael tried to puzzle it out, but every suggestion included some poor fool who would have to go into the mine, risk his life and well-being, and possibly be blown up.
It was frustrating, and Troy was growing more and more annoyed as he tried to puzzle it out. In the end, he went to look for Lizzy.
It didn’t take long to find her. When her forge was lit, there was a thin line of smoke that rose thick and coiling above the tents and trees.
A week of not being at her anvil, and people were lining up for her services.
Kyle was in the line of folks waiting for kettles, pots, hoes, and pickaxes to be fixed.
“Indigo threw a shoe,” he said, indicating the horse who stood to one side, happily cropping grass. “I swear it’s like she hates wearing them.”
“You named a chestnut mare Indigo?” Troy asked.
Kyle chuckled. “She likes her name, just not her shoes.”
While they waited, Troy posed his problem to Kyle.
“I just don’t know how to do it so that we don’t bring down the whole mine or blow ourselves up, one poor soul at a time,” he said.
Kyle chewed his lips. “Well, as I see it, the best plan would be to get that stale, flammable air out of the mine. Can we sink more air shafts?”
“That won’t help the lower we go,” Troy said. “It will take too long for the gas to surface. It will have to make its way up the passages and through the natural caverns to where the air shafts are.”
“What do they do in other mines?” Kyle asked.
“They have canaries, but I think that’s barbaric,” Troy said, watching birds flit from tree to tree and swoop gracefully through the air.
Kyle watched them too and nodded. “I agree. A bird isn’t a bird if it’s not free to fly away from you.
The trick, or so I’ve heard, is to get them to come back on their own.
You know, I knew this man who raised a newly hatched duckling who lost its mother.
He fed it, taught it to walk, to swim, and to fly.
And that duck came home to him every single year.
It would fly south with the others in the fall and come back in the spring. It was something to see.”
“Did you just make that up?” Troy asked. “Where did you meet someone like that?”
“On my uncle’s farm,” Kyle said. “You’re a genius with mechanics, but I know animals.”
There was no arguing with that.
It was Kyle’s turn in line next. Lizzy wiped the sweat from her brow and smiled at them, eyes lingering on Troy. “Let me guess. The horse has thrown a shoe again.”
“Indigo doesn’t like them,” Kyle said with a shrug.
“Fine,” Lizzy said. “Then Indigo will have to hobble along without shod hooves for a few days. I will need to take some more measurements and see what I can do to make her feel more comfortable.”
Troy raised his brows. “You’re going to play into this nonsense?”
“Horses shouldn’t feel their shoes. If Indigo is noticing them, something is wrong,” Lizzy said. “I’ll see what it is.”
She went and inspected the horse’s hooves but couldn’t find anything.
There was no infection, no chipping or cracking.
The hoof looked in excellent condition. She spoke as she worked, listing the things she was looking for and not finding.
Then she looked Indigo in the face. “You’re just not a shoe-wearing kind of gal, are you? ”
Indigo shook her head and snorted.
“Well, I suppose out here where the hardest surface you’ll find is stone here and there, she can go shoeless a while,” she said. “But if she shows signs of pain, then you bring her back and we’ll try to shoe her in a way that she’s more comfortable.”
Kyle nodded and left.
“Okay,” Lizzy said, turning to Troy. “What’s wrong?”
“Wrong? Why do you think something is wrong?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest.
“Because I know that expression, and it’s your stuck on a problem look,” she said.
Troy sighed. “You know me too well.” He explained his dilemma to her. After the first few words, Lizzy sent the rest of her customers away, telling them to come back later. This one was going to take a long time.
Alone at last, they sat down on the stumps under a tree, away from the forge, and began to draw with sticks in the dirt.
“You need a way to ignite the gas from a distance,” Lizzy said and thought for a moment. And then she slapped her knee. “You need a fuse.”
“But the sparks from the fuse might set it off too early and cause an explosion?—”
“Wait,” she said, speaking over him. “Hear me out. What if we made little lanterns that could be fixed to the walls high up near the ceiling? We could cover the fuse in the same mesh as the Davy lantern to protect against the sparks setting anything off. Then you can light the fuse and, one by one, the lanterns will go on in the mine. They will not only provide light but also burn up the firedamp before it can cause harm.”
“And the person lighting it will be far enough back to not be hurt should some of the gas ignite,” Troy said.
His heart filled with joy and relief. He’d known that speaking to Lizzy would be the way forward.
He drew her into his arms and laughed. What a mind she had!
She was brilliant! He could never ask for a better partner.
A wave of relief and love washed over him. Holding Lizzy in his arms, Troy was happier than he had ever been. He wanted to sing. He wanted to kiss her. Yes, he wanted to kiss her very much.
From the look in her eyes, she was waiting for him to lean in. His heart started beating faster and faster as they slowly brought their lips toward each other. Troy closed his eyes, all the better to savor the moment, and felt the slightest brush of Lizzy’s lips against his.
A shout cut between them.
“Bandits! Bandits!”
Troy’s eyes popped open and he stared at Lizzy, who looked as bewildered as he felt.