Breaker-boy Phantom

When Charlie was a young man, he was a breaker-boy in the gypsum mine near Rochester. Charlie called it a plaster mine.

One afternoon he was working alone in the mine shaft, making his way to the loaded gypsum car, when he felt his coat sleeve being tugged. He turned quickly to see who was pulling at it. No one was there.

It was without a doubt the ghost of old miner Joe, who was a breaker-boy many years ago. No one ever seemed alarmed at his appearances; his spirit was not especially harmful, yet Charlie could feel his whole body quivering with fright. He had heard many tales about dead miners who rise and walk about the tunnels as they lived indistinguishable from the living, except he and the others knew the gang and Joe had long since departed this world in the last mine disaster.

A ghostly voice from a distance suddenly yelled out, "Lie down, lie down. Flat on the ground!"

Charlie flung himself frantically onto the sandy white floor and hid his head underneath his arms. He could not estimate the time he lay there - motionless - alone. Although he was frightened and achingly cold, he finally pulled himself to his knees. Blinking, he gazed around and his stomach turned with horror. A dozen lighted candles shone on the track ahead of him. He could see the fallen boulder crushing his mine car and he could see "ghostly Joe" standing beside it.

Quickly he scrambled toward the mine exit, gasping and praying hysterically. Just before he left the mine, he heard the entire tunnel collapsing behind him. Then Joe's voice came again for the last time, through the dusty mine, "Goodbye breaker-boy."

The mine was shut down and the workers were sent home.

As the mine wagon proceeded up the hill toward Sir Laurence's boarding house, Charlie and the gang cried aloud, "We're alive ... thanks to ghostly Joe."