Durgal's Chalk Count

Foreman Durgal Quarn's own chalk tally scratched on the timber at the adit mouth — two counts kept side by side: how far the water has risen each week, and how many of the dead have been seen below.

Scratched in miner's chalk on the last dry prop, two columns, kept in a careful Stoneborn hand.

WATER (from the old floor-mark): knee — waist — chest — and this week over the second prop. It comes up a hand's breadth a week and does not go down.

SEEN BELOW: first there were six. Then a dozen. I stopped past thirty. They do not rot and they do not scatter. They stand where the pit was and they face the mouth, which is us.

Under both columns, pressed hard enough to snap the chalk: "They followed the shift bell out to here and no further. There is a chalk line on the floor of the drowned gallery. They will not cross it. I do not know why. I know I got my crew out by ringing them a way to follow, and I know the House wants a number and not the truth. The truth is a work stoppage that stands up. — D.Q."