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Bluemud and Elizabeth arrived back in Granite Gorge on the last day of April and the
Stars and Stripes went up once more on the flagpole. That same afternoon a trembling
O'Grady received his summons via the telephone. As O'Grady entered Bluemud's study, Bluemud felt that his worst fears had been confirmed. The Chief Foreman was thin and drawn and his hands shook as he clutched his cap meekly above his groin. 'Come in, Mike. Have a cigar.' Bluemud had known O'Grady for ten years. He had been one of the original nucleus of men Bluemud had recruited by laboriously combing the forests and town perimeters. O'Grady had been in a bunch of five; he was no real leader, he had not been the leader of that bunch, but he had always been capable of taking, transmitting and enforcing orders as well as any man. 'Lost a little weight then, Mike?' Bluemud sat down but O'Grady remained standing. 'I have, Mr. Bluemud, I have. A lot. I was quite ill.' 'It's been bad, hasn't it, Mike?' 'It has, sir. The winter. Cold. Not much food.' 'Did you loose many, Mike?' 'Many, sir?' 'Have many died?' asked Bluemud impatiently. 'That's what I'm asking. It should be plain enough.' 'Five, sir.' 'Five! Is that all?' O'Grady shrugged. 'There were some got weak like me. But most pulled through. Three of them that died were old 'uns.' 'You wouldn't be kidding me, Mike?' Bluemud stood up abruptly. O'Grady looked shocked. 'This I've got to see!' Bluemud went to the door. 'Elizabeth, I'm going down to the mine.' This was the moment O'Grady had been dreading. As he and Bluemud rode to the barracks in Bluemud's buggy he attempted to explain. 'We'd a lot of trouble getting to all the passages you wanted cleared what with the men being so weak, but we're nearly caught up now.' Bluemud wasn't listening. The old horse, Cracker, pulling the buggy had obviously been starved. When Elizabeth called Muriel for the horses to be brought up she had been told that not many of them were left and of those only Cracker was fit to ride as they had been keeping him fed to do the work they needed. The first and third shifts were waiting at the barracks with their foremen standing over them to ensure they followed the old rules in case Bluemud decided to come in. Bluemud decided reluctantly that indeed he must and braced himself for entering. The last time he had done this the odor in the front stairwell had nearly bowled him over, though it had not been nearly as bad as it had been in the dormitories. But now there was no smell at all. 'The men have been doing a bit of cleaning up,' said O'Grady. 'Do you want to see?' As a precaution Bluemud lit another cigar. They walked through the third floor dormitory where the shift were sitting on their bunks wondering when they were going to be allowed to be let out. They were thinner and pale but healthy and a smell was hardly detectable. At the far end steam issued from the communal bath. Inside men were actually bathing! Bluemud was astonished. 'Mike O'Grady,' he roared when they were outside again, 'it's fantastic! You can see they've been through a rough winter but they're in such good shape. And the baths. How did you do it, Mike? No... don't tell me, it's your affair. That's what I like to see, Mike. People who get things done.' 'We had to let them out for a couple of hours,' mumbled O'Grady, 'We... ' 'No explanations, Mike! Whatever you're doing is fine by me. Just so long as the men get the coal out when it's needed.' 'Oh, they will, sir, they will.' O'Grady was hardly able to believe his ears. At the mine all appeared normal. There were fewer men, perhaps but their absence was not really noticeable. Coal was piled at the entrance. Bluemud continued to enthuse. 'It's an incredible job you've done, Mike, just incredible! Tell you what, let me drop you off at your office and we'll have a talk.' This was a rare honor since Bluemud had never visited O'Grady's office before. His booming voice rang through the building, audible to all, clearly stating his attitude towards O'Grady's innovations. 'This is your office, Mike. A pleasant little place. Nice view.' Bluemud sat back in O'Grady's chair. 'I'll tell you frankly, Mike, what I expected when I came back here: a mess. In January when I saw the way things were I though, my God we've had it, there's no way out. I came back expecting to find no coal produced and man dying all over the place. Instead, what do I find? Things seem better than before! I tell you Mike, things look good. Very good!' Bluemud had his feet on O'Grady's desk. He lowered his voice. 'Shut the door, Mike. I tell you it's good to know you can be relied on to manage things in difficult circumstances. I'm glad because I'd planned not to be here over the next few months and now I know you can manage on your own. The most important thing I have to do is to find a market for our coal. We've got to ship some of this stuff out of here, Mike. We've got to trade. By next year I want to see those coal trains moving out, eh Mike? And coming back with things we can use. Then we'll really get things moving. So, you keep it up. Concentrate on clearing out new passages and opening up seams so that we're all ready to go whenever I give the word. Keep production at the level of demand and don't worry if you don't see too much of me.' Still dazed, O'Grady accompanied Bluemud to his buggy. 'Okay, Mike, good job keep it up!' and Bluemud departed at the fastest pace the emaciated horse could manage. |
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