Alex Grecian: The Black Country

“Put me next to them,” Price said.

“My inspector will come,” Hammersmith said. “He’ll help me. We’ll get you. Get you down. And you’ll pay for your crimes properly.”

“Am paying.”

“This isn’t the way.”

“My way.”

“No. By order of Her Majesty, I’m placing you under arrest. For the murder. For the murder of Mathilda Price. And for the murder of Virginia Price, too. Damn you.”

Sutton Price chuckled. The deep harsh sound of sand shaking through an hourglass.

“I can wait. Policeman. If you can.”

Hammersmith closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He wrapped his arms tighter around Sutton Price’s dangling legs and steeled himself, prepared for a long wait. Price began to talk again, but his voice was gone, nothing but rasping, and Hammersmith didn’t try to listen. He held on and concentrated on breathing, on staying awake, on rooting himself to the ground. He held on and he waited for help.

I’m all right!” Day said.

The others couldn’t see him.

“Stand back,” Henry said. He cupped his massive palms around his mouth and hollered into the chasm made by generations of miners. “I’m coming down!”

“No!” Day said. “Don’t! We’d both be trapped!”

Kingsley put a hand on Henry’s chest and shook his head. “We’ll find rope,” he said.

“Where?” Henry said. He looked back and forth through the snow, pantomiming a search.

“I’m in a tunnel! I can feel air moving! It must lead outside!”

Kingsley knelt at the edge of the hole. “You could wander forever down there!”

“There must be a way out!”

Peter Price squatted down next to Kingsley and peered into the darkness. “I’ve been in the tunnels! I can help you!”

“Yes!” Day’s voice didn’t sound like he was very far down there, even if the others couldn’t see him. “Any advice would be good! I think I should go. . I can’t tell one direction from another!”

“Look up!” Peter Price said. He jumped into the hole before Kingsley, or anyone else, could stop him. A half a second later there was a loud whoof as Peter landed on Day.

“Oh, my God!” Jessica said.

“I’m all right!” Day said. Again.

“So am I!” Peter said. “It’s warmer down here! You should come down!”

“No!” Day said. “Please don’t!”

“I hurt him!”

“He didn’t hurt me! But please, don’t anyone else jump on me!”

“Can you see anything down there?” Kingsley said.

“It’s very dark!” Day said.

“Take one of the lanterns!”

“Don’t throw it!”

“No!” Kingsley said. He stood and looked around. “No, that wouldn’t do, would it?”

“I have an idea,” Anna said. She squatted like Peter had at the lip of the chasm. Kingsley and Jessica both reached out and grabbed her shoulders. “I’m not going to jump in there. I’m the smart one. Peter’s the impulsive one.” She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted down at Day and Peter. “Stand well back! I’m going to try something!”

She stood and walked back from the fissure and squatted again, putting her arms out in front of her, bent at the elbows so that her forearms were straight across her face. She moved forward, pushing the snow ahead of her, using her arms as a plow. By the time she reached the hole in the ground, she was sweeping a high pile of snow. It went over the edge and fell into the dark with a soft plush .

Kingsley grasped what she was up to and grinned. “Come, Henry. Let’s help her.” He blew out the fire in his lantern and set it next to the hole to cool, then he and Henry moved out into the drifts of snow. They mimicked Anna, who was already pushing another heap of snow toward the chasm. Jessica followed them, knelt in the snow, and plowed it ahead of her just as the others were doing. After a few minutes, they stood and brushed themselves off, blew warm air into their cupped palms, and returned to the hole.

Anna peered down at her invisible brother and the inspector. “Did it make a cushion down there?”

“It did!” Peter said. “Good job! It must be a yard high at least, but I don’t think we can climb up it! Too soft!”

“Soft is good!” Anna said. She took the cold lantern and clicked her tongue at it. “I’m afraid we may lose some of the oil.”

“What?”

“I wasn’t talking to you!”

“What are you doing?”

“Stand back and let me just do it!”

She lay on her stomach and crawled out as far as she dared, then dangled the lantern over the edge and let go of it. It landed like a whisper somewhere below. A moment later Peter’s voice drifted up to her. “Got it! Brilliant!”

“Did it leak?”

“I don’t think so! Not very much!”

“We need to get matches for you now!”

“I’ve got matches!” Day said.

She listened to a rustling sound in the dark, and then there was a small flash of light and the sound of metal on metal as the lantern opened and was lit. And all at once she could see her brother and Inspector Day, standing in the snow and looking up at her. Their faces were yellow in the lamplight, and their bodies faded out into nothingness below their chests. They looked almost close enough to touch.

“Henry might be able to reach you,” Kingsley said. There seemed to be no need to shout anymore, now that they could all see one another.

“I don’t think so,” Day said. “It’s farther than it looks.”

Henry reached out anyway, reached his long right arm far down into the ground, his fingertips still far above Day and the boy.

“It’s okay,” Peter said. “I can lead us out. I know the way. I think I do.” He seemed eager to please, and Anna understood why. Both of them had a lot to make up for.

“We’ll be okay,” Day said. “It really is warmer down here than up there. You lot must be freezing. You look wet.”

And, suddenly, they were freezing. The initial rush of adrenaline had faded and they weren’t moving, just kneeling in the snow. Henry reached into his overcoat and found his little wooden box. He opened the lid a crack and squinted inside it, then closed it again and held it over the chasm.

They all heard a piercing peep .

“Henry!”

“Catch,” Henry said.

“Henry, no!” Day said.

“He can help you, little Oliver can.”

“How is that?”

“Like a canary. It’s a coal mine you’re in. They take canaries into coal mines to protect them, don’t they?”

“That they do,” Day said. He doubted whether Henry understood why miners carried canaries, that the birds’ deaths were meant to warn men of gas leaks and pockets of poison in the underground air. “Thank you, but I doubt it’s necessary. You need to keep Oliver safe with you.”

Henry frowned, but tucked the bird back into his coat.

“Right,” Kingsley said. “We’ll head on to the depot and see about warming up. You get out of there and make your way to the depot, too.”

“Or somewhere,” Day said. “If we can find a safe place, we’ll wait for daylight. I’ll find Sergeant Hammersmith. Or Constable Grimes.”

“The train will come once the storm lets up.”

“We hope.”

“We do indeed.”

“I want to send the sergeant home as soon as we can.”

“We will.”

“Peter,” Anna said, “take care.”

He nodded up at her, the lamplight catching highlights in his hair and a glint in his eyes. She knew he understood her. She didn’t want to spell it out. She needed him now. She had a horrible feeling that they had no one else left.

Well,” Day said, “lead the way, young man.”