All his life Dick Ullathorne had expected to follow his father and brother into the mine. Mining seemed the only natural employment for boys in the pit village where he lived, where people could hear dull subterranean sounds below the floors of their houses, and boys explored ancient, deserted shafts as one of their entertainments. Dick had never questioned this way of life until the night Mr. Sleath, the owner of the mine, was taken ill and Dick had to help him home. That set him wondering by what right Mr. Sleath lived so well and held such power over his workers" lives. Other people were wondering that too, but it took the heartbreaking starvation of a bitter strike and a dangerous pit accident to make Dick break loose from the pit for his future.