The miner tapped the rock cautiously with his hammer, listened carefully and placed his last stick of gelignite carefully in between the crevice.

The being which up to then had been obliviously slumbering in said rock suddenly started awake.

It reached out it`s hand and ran its fingers over the stick of gelignite, a tiny spark caused by static electricity leapt from the beings fingers into the business end of the fuse.

A couple of seconds later the being was standing there bemusedly nothing but a three dimensional shadow blinking in the dim light of the mine surrounded by debris and the mortal remains of the unfortunate miner adorning the walls.

The dim light seemed to be coming from somewhere in the distance.

Slowly it grew nearer and nearer until the being could make out a man in overalls and a tin hat holding a Davy lamp.

As he reached the site of the explosion he stopped and surveyed the scene unabashed.

"What are you doing down here?" he asked.

"Nothing" was the reply.

"Why not?"

"Been buried until now"

"Well in case you didn`t know down here you need to work"

"Doing what?"

"Digging"

"I don`t have a spade"

"You need a shovel or a pick"

"I don`t have one of them either"

"So I see..."

About a minute passed both of them quite still the miner looking amusedly at the apparitions confusement.

The being took a step backwards about to submerge itself back into the cool, solid and predictable confines of the seam, when the miner said severely;

"Then you better come with me, can`t have you loitering round the mine without lending a hand"

"Can`t I stay in the rock?"

"We need to dig the rock and we need you out the way"

This seemed reasonable enough so the being followed the miner along the shaft so as not to be an inconvenience.

Soon they reached some other miners talking loudly.

"Where`s Fred?" asked one of them to the returning miner.

"Here" was the reply as he kicked a bit of charred flesh from his boots narrowly missing the enquirers face.

"Who`s this?" asked another pointing to the being.

"Said he was buried"

"What shall we do with him?" asked another.

"Here, you, push this cart" said a tall grey haired man.

The being obligingly pushed a the cart with all it`s strength but it did not move at all.

"Use your muscles!" someone shouted.

"I don`t have any" said the being.

"That`s a problem" said the old miner who found him, "we don`t have no work for those with no muscles".

The miners started muttering amongst themselves.

"Here" asked one "how did you come to be buried down here in the first place?"

"I was floating around underground and I heard a noise and came to investigate?"

"You can float through the ground?"

"Very slowly"

"Can you float to the surface and tell my wife I`m working late tonight and won`t be home for tea?"

"No, I can only float forwards sideways and down the ground is too heavy"

"So you`re stuck underground eh?" said the old man rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"Could you take me above ground?" asked the being.

"No, there`s no way up, except for the metal we dig".

"So where do you live?"

"Down here".

"How did you get down here?"

"Born here".

"Tell you what" piped up another old miner "you could always get a job working on one of those new underground railways down London, don`t need muscles for that, locomotive does it all.

You could just float through the rock and get there"

"Isn`t it a bit far?" asked a young miner.

"Nonsense" was the hurried reply from a colleague, who then kicked him in the shins and whispered "shut up idiot we need rid of it " .

"Do they go up to the ground?" asked the being oblivious.

The miners all heartily answered in the affirmative.

"Where is it?"

"Ohhh, let me see... If that way`s North... That way must be East... So ... just head this direction " said the old miner pointing to the wall.

The being bid it`s farewells and disappeared into the wall.

There was silence for a while and then after the mess was cleared from the bottom of the eastern shaft work began again.

"Why did they act like that with ghost earlier on?" asked the young miner to another miner who was also present.

"All you need to know is that you should never speak or think of it ever again if you want to go on living".

"Ghouls and demons common down here then?" he said ignoring the sage advice.

His question was answered by the old man "You`d be surprised, what terrors we find down here, but that wasn`t one.."

"That was just a ponce".