The Pointing finger

If you have ever been in the coal mines, you know how troublesome sulfur balls are to the miners. Sulfur balls range from the size of a basketball to one weighing several tons, and whether large or small, they are almost impossible to drill. Jim Tokash, a "Joy" operator* in Section North Butt, thought he was the best coalcutter in the Grant Town coal mine. Whenever he ran into a vein of sulfur, instead of reporting it to the section boss, he would try to drill through it. He was warned many times by the section boss that if he didn't stop breaking the drill bits he would be fired.

One afternoon Jim ran into the biggest sulfur ball he had ever seen, and as before, he tried to drill through it.

Jim drilled for about five minutes before the drill stopped. He got a crowbar and tried to pry the bit loose from the sulfur ball. All at once the drill broke loose in Jim's hand. The next thing he remembered, he was in a hospital. He looked down and discovered that his left hand was missing.

A few months later Jim returned to the mines—not as a Joy operator, but as an assistant. The new Joy operator also thought that he was the best coalcutter in the mines, and when he tried the same thing that Jim had, he caused a cave-in.

Jim Tokash was getting a drink of water at the time of the cave-in, and he was the only man alive in the section. He tried to get the men out from beneath the slate and coal, but it was no use. Seeing all the dead bodies lying around him, his mind seemed to snap. He wandered endlessly through the dark tunnels of the coal mine.

When he came to his senses, he realized that he was lost. He began running through the dark tunnels, looking for someone. Getting short of breath, he stopped to rest.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a white glow about twenty yards in front of him and, thinking it was the light from a miner's cap, ran toward it. When he reached the object, he stopped suddenly, as if he had seen a ghost. Lying against the ribbing was a human hand. From the gold braided ring on the third finger, he knew that the hand belonged to him. The index finger was pointing toward the south. It was strange, but Jim knew that he must follow the pointing finger.

When Jim found the crew working in Section Six Butt, he told them about the cave-in and about the hand, his hand, that had led him to safety. When they all laughed at him, he went back to the place where he had seen the hand glowing against the ribbing. He searched the whole section, but he couldn't find the hand. He knew now that nobody would believe his story, but he also knew that the pointing finger had saved his life.

* The Joy Manufacturing Company is one of the largest manufacturers of coal mining equipment. Here the machine is a coalcutter.