King Coal Book 1 - The Domain of King Coal; Sections 12-14

In which Hal Smith visits Mary Burke, a bright yet burdened young woman whose home life is shadowed by hardship and the pervasive troubles of drink and poverty in the mining camp, leading to reflective conversations beneath the summer moon. Meanwhile, the harsh realities of the miners’ lives are laid bare at the “tipple,” where grievances simmer quietly but with a fierce undercurrent of despair and injustice over withheld wages and dehumanising labour.