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CHAPTER V

AHEU without looking at his watch which he had left in his jacket, stopped and said:

“One o’clock directly. Zacharie, is it done?”

The young man had just been at the planking. In the midst of his labour he had been lying on his back, with dreamy eyes, thinking over a game of la crosse of the night before. He woke up and replied:

“Yes, it will do; we shall see to-morrow.”

And he came back to take his place at the cutting. Levaque and Chaval had also dropped their picks. They were all resting. They wiped their faces on their naked arms and looked at the roof, in which slatey masses were cracking. They only spoke about their work.

“Another chance,” murmured Chaval, “of getting into earth that slips. They didn’t take account of that in the bargain.”

“Rascals!” growled Levaque. “They only want to bury us in 1t.”

Zacharie began to laugh. He cared little for the work and he rest, but it amused him to hear the Company abused. In his placid way Maheu explained that the nature of the soil changed every twenty métres. We could not foresee this, and we must be just. Then, when the two others went on talking against the masters, he became restless, and looked around him.

“Hush! that’s enough.”

“You’re right,” said Levaque, also lowering his voice; “it isn't wholesome.”

A morbid dread of spies haunted them, even at this depth, as if the shareholders’ coal, while still in the seam, might have ears.

“That won’t prevent me,” added Chaval loudly, in a defiant manner, “from lodging a brick in the belly of that [44]