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Refugio Mine, Northern Mexico
DRUNK and senseless in his place, | |
| Prone and sprawling on his face, | |
| More like brute than any man | |
| Alive or dead,— | |
| By his great pump out of gear, | 5 |
| Lay the peon engineer, | |
| Waking only just to hear, | |
| Overhead, | |
| Angry tones that called his name, | |
| Oaths and cries of bitter blame,— | 10 |
| Woke to hear all this, and waking, turned and fled! | |
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| “To the man who ’ll bring to me,” | |
| Cried Intendant Harry Lee,— | |
| Harry Lee, the English foreman of the mine,— | |
| “Bring the sot alive or dead, | 15 |
| I will give to him,” he said, | |
| “Fifteen hundred pesos down, | |
| Just to set the rascal’s crown | |
| Underneath this heel of mine: | |
| Since but death | 20 |
| Deserves the man whose deed, | |
| Be it vice or want of heed, | |
| Stops the pumps that give us breath,— | |
| Stops the pumps that suck the death | |
| From the poisoned lower level of the mine!” | 25 |
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| No one answered, for a cry | |
| From the shaft rose up on high; | |
| And shuffling, scrambling, tumbling from below, | |
| Came the miners each, the bolder | |
| Mounting on the weaker’s shoulder, | 30 |
| Grappling, clinging to their hold or | |
| Letting go, | |
| As the weaker gasped and fell | |
| From the ladder to the well,— | |
| To the poisoned pit of hell | 35 |
| Down below! | |
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| “To the man who sets them free,” | |
| Cried the foreman, Harry Lee,— | |
| Harry Lee, the English foreman of the mine,— | |
| “Brings them out and sets them free, | 40 |
| I will give that man,” said he, | |
| “Twice that sum, who with a rope | |
| Face to face with death shall cope: | |
| Let him come who dares to hope!” | |
| “Hold your peace!” some one replied, | 45 |
| Standing by the foreman’s side; | |
| “There has one already gone, whoe’er he be!” | |
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| Then they held their breath with awe, | |
| Pulling on the rope, and saw | |
| Fainting figures reappear, | 50 |
| On the black ropes swinging clear, | |
| Fastened by some skilful hand from below; | |
| Till a score the level gained, | |
| And but one alone remained,— | |
| He the hero and the last, | 55 |
| He whose skilful hand made fast | |
| The long line that brought them back to hope and cheer! | |
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| Haggard, gasping, down dropped he | |
| At the feet of Harry Lee,— | |
| Harry Lee, the English foreman of the mine; | 60 |
| “I have come,” he gasped, “to claim | |
| Both rewards, Señor,—my name | |
| Is Ramon! | |
| I ’m the drunken engineer,— | |
| I ’m the coward, Señor—” Here | 65 |
| He fell over, by that sign | |
| Dead as stone! | |
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