sentences:  In the novel, as in the historical disaster, the supervisors and their managers and company doctors discount the health risks associated with breathing the silica dust created by digging and dynamiting the tunnel shaft, and most of the characters steadily weaken and die as their lungs are systematically ruined.As in Skidmore's other novels, particularly "Heaven Came So Near" and "I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes", simple good people are crushed by economic and social forces far beyond their control.Skidmore's novels are also highly ecological.