Underground artists.

 Albert had always been a miner. Well, since he left school at sixteen. School certainly wasn't his thing.

Albert

Like many boys in Paganville, a small town up north, he'd followed in his father's footsteps. Donald, his dad, often said, "You may get dirty, but it's a noble profession. We carve the rock like underground artists."

Donald

In fact, Michael, Albert's younger brother was seen as a bit of a sissy because he had studied at university and had become an engineer.

He liked to pose in his hard hat
but Michael spent most of his time
in a warm, dry office quite a
distance from the mine.

Michael had only returned home from his studies to save money so that he could move overseas. For him the mine was simply a money maker and the miners resented that.

Michael's perceived attitude made all the 'office staff' unpopular with the men who faced every working day underground.

Nick was a local boy who worked in the office.

Nick.

He had gained his job by a mixture of circumstances. These circumstances came about because his father Bob was a deputy manager who didn't want his son down the mine. He was not a qualified engineer but had learnt his skills on the job and was considered to be one. He was quite a creative guy and was in charge of the work roster. The miners entered the mine in teams of four and generally stayed down there for about four hours - the time period depended on what the work involved for that particular shift. New Health and Safety requirements limited work to eleven shifts per fortnight. Some executives in Auckland had worked out the rules. The miners were not impressed by all these new rules, mainly because it effected their pay in a negative way. The engineers in the office took home twice as much without any noticeable hard work. 

Nick had often begged his dad to let him do a few shifts down in the mine. The answer was always the same. "No, we only have four miners down there!"

One day Nick broke the rules.

The fortnight started out as usual - four miners, four miners, etc.

It was the second Friday of the fortnight, around lunchtime, and Bob looked for his son to check that the roster for next week had been done. He was nowhere to be seen. Bob searched through all the papers on Nick's desk. He found the present roster. On the last shift he noticed Nick's name.

"What!" he let out a yelp.

Nick was down the mine, and this wasn't how things were done!

It was four miners. No engineers.

Now they had a miner, a miner, an engineer and a miner.

Bob thought this was very wrong! It hadn't happened in the last ten shifts. Why now? 

Why now in Pagantown, of all places?

Why on the 11th shift?

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