Chapter 13 #2
“We know,” Michael said, sounding very annoyed. “There just isn’t a good way to do this. How about cleaning the debris? Would the removal of the weight mean we could then build an A-frame with a pulley or something like that?”
Troy considered it. “We might be able to. Depends on a lot of things. How long do you think it will take to clear enough of that rubble to get a look inside?”
Andrew and Michael exchanged a look. “A couple of hours if we get Kyle to bring the horses. We could get things tied off and then pulled away.”
“I think we should also send some miners into the tunnels near the smelter and see if maybe the explosions opened something up,” Andrew said. “That way, we go at this problem from two sides, and we’ll hopefully get good results.”
“That sounds like a marvelous idea,” Diane said.
All three men froze at the sound of her voice, only noticing her for the first time.
“Well, we’re glad you like the idea,” Michael said a little coldly.
Diane hadn’t seen or spoken to him since he shot Curtis in the head and saved her life. She bit her lip and walked up, holding out her hand. “I’m sorry I haven’t come to see you since … since you saved my life. I’d like to thank you and apologize for the way I behaved.”
Michael stared at her and then at her hand. He wiped his on the back of his trousers and, with a genuinely warm smile, took her hand in his. “I’m sorry too. I can’t say that was my finest day. I’m sorry it came to that. We are not equipped to deal with sabotage and subterfuge.”
They shook hands.
Diane smiled. “Well, I guess this is like a mining accident, so we are equipped to take care of it?” Hope bloomed in her chest for a moment. Perhaps Ethan would be saved in no time.
Andrew raised his brows. “We certainly hope so. I take it you want to see the injured men? They’re in the next room. We thought it best not to move them too much, considering everything.”
Yes, Diane wanted something to do to help her cope with the news that Ethan was trapped in the rubble. She had to push the fear, the panic, and the need to rush over to the site and dig Ethan out with her bare hands way down inside her.
“Thank you. I’ll just …” she gestured to the door and turned to go. “Listen, if there’s something I can do to help rescue those trapped men, just let me know.”
“Thanks,” Michael said. “We’ll keep you informed.”
Diane couldn’t hope for more. She was glad she had apologized to Michael. She had been so shocked by the events that she hadn’t been thinking clearly. She should never have untied Curtis’s bonds without one of the men in the room.
Anyway, that was the past, and she had work to do now.
In the next room, she found six men lying on cots that had been dragged into the room. The tables that usually took up the floor space had been stacked against the wall to make room.
She set to work examining the men.
One had a broken arm. It was a clean break that hadn’t punctured the skin. She set it with the splint she had in her bag. She would love the time to do a plaster of paris cast on it, but that would have to wait until she had seen to the others.
The next two had head injuries. One had a nasty-looking bump and was concussed. He stared off into the distance with a dazed expression on his face. She applied a salve to the bruise and put a few drops of a brain tonic tincture into a glass of water for him to sip.
The other head wound was a laceration that needed cleaning and stitching. Willow bark would take care of the headache, but there was no concussion there, thankfully, and she set the man to caring for his dazed friend.
The other three had lacerations and bruises and one twisted ankle. Nothing too serious, and she patched them up in no time. She ordered them all to rest, and they seemed happy to do so.
While she was busy, Anders, Mildred, Sarah, Julie, and Antoinette arrived on the buckboard, which was packed with supplies. Julie set up a first aid station in another room, while Sarah helped Diane, covering patients with blankets and filling their water glasses from a jug.
Diane took a moment to ask one of the men a few questions.
“What happened?” she asked. He said his name was Scott.
“We were inspecting the damage when Ethan, Thomas, and Darren found something in the far corner. I think it was a dead man. We started walking toward them, but then the floor rumbled and Ethan yelled for us to get out. So, we ran for the exit. That’s when the floor caved in, and the roof and the walls came down. ” He was shaking as he spoke.
He’s in shock. They all are.
Diane prescribed them all a calming tincture to be sipped in glasses of water.
There was movement outside of the room. Something was happening.
Diane left Sarah to tend to the men and followed Andrew, Michael, and Troy outside.
Kyle was walking up to the smelter with five horses being led by a long rein. He was smiling. “Here we go. Horses as requested.”
Diane watched, her nerves tight as ropes were tied to large beams and pieces of debris and then to the horses. Slowly, painfully, they began to move the rubble blocking the way to Ethan.
It was like the game that Diane had played with her siblings at home on rainy days.
They had taken dried-out grass stalks, cut them to an equal length, and then held them in a bunch before letting them fall any old way.
The idea was to remove the stalks one at a time, without disrupting any of the others.
It was a game of patience and skill, and this careful clearing of the rubble reminded her strongly of it.
Taking the wrong piece of rubble away could cause another collapse. Everything had to be done with great precision.
Michael, Andrew, and Troy walked around and around the building, planning, arguing with each other, and finally agreeing so that they could direct the work. All able men were given shovels, and they started to clear the loose debris near the edge of the building, piling it out of the way.
Diane didn’t have much to do. She checked on her patients in the office, but they seemed stable enough. Soon, men were heading to her with small injuries. A chunk of wall had fallen on two men, causing them to be rushed to the offices for medical treatment.
The group that had been sent into the mine hours earlier came up coughing and spluttering with bandannas tied over their noses and mouths.
“It’s no good in there,” one said. “There’s too much smoke and debris in the tunnels. We couldn’t get past the elbow bend by the creek. It’s all blocked.”
Diane and Julie treated them with smelling salts to help clear their airways, but there was nothing else they could do.
There was also nothing that could help the dwindling hope in Diane’s heart. She had been holding onto the idea that something would work. But now she was going to have to face the possibility that there might not be a way to get Ethan out. What would happen then?
She thought of his laugh and his smile, the way he held her and made her feel so vital and alive. Could she carry on without that, now that she knew how it felt? She didn’t think so.
Please, Lord. Let him and his friends be okay.
As the day wore on, Anita and Kevin arrived in a buckboard with sandwiches and coffee for everyone.
“On the house,” Kevin said brightly, as he and Anita dished everything out.
“It’s our way to help,” Anita said with a nod and a smile.
This greatly improved spirits, but the work was so slow.
“They’re not going to get through before dark,” Diane said, feeling hollow as she said the words.
Her grasp on hope was failing. It was only the thought that she had to have Ethan home and alive, and that she would do anything and everything she could to make that happen, that kept her going.
“Ethan and the others could be hurt or dying and in desperate need of our help, and we’re stuck up here while they’re stuck down there. ”
Julie put an arm around her shoulders. “I know. It’s hard to have faith at a time like this, but you have to believe that Ethan and the others will do all they can to hold on until we can get to them. They know we’re coming, and we won’t give up.”
The words were supposed to soothe her, but Diane found them empty. What did it help to know that people were coming? If they needed help right then, at that moment, and it wasn’t there, what good was it if it came too late?
“I think I’m going to take a walk around,” Diane said. She had a sudden idea.