noon
Me and Johnny Hooper were pecking away at the old Virginia mine then . We 'd got down about sixty feet , all timbered , and was thinking of cross-cutting . One day Johnny went to town , and that same day I got in a hurry and left my gun at camp . I worked all the morning down at the bottom of the shaft , and when I see by the sun it was getting along towards noon , I put in three good shots , tamped 'em down , lit the fusees , and started to climb out . It ai n't noways pleasant to light a fuse in a shaft , and then have to climb out a fifty-foot ladder , with it burning behind you . I never did get used to it . You keep thinking , `` Now suppose there 's a flaw in that fuse , or something , and she goes off in six seconds instead of two minutes ?