Drabble: "Race Against Time"

My challenge was "write a story entitled 'Race Against Time.'" Here it is; it's a retelling of a true story I read in a cat anthology. I can't remember the name of the original piece. [I found it. "The Conscientious Cat" by Agnes A. Sandham in Cat Encounters: A Cat-Lover's Anthology, 1979.]

Race Against Time
by Chris Hugh

As the Victorian author arrived at the coal mine she was shocked to see a black cat streak out of the opening followed by a group of miners. "Why are you chasing that cat?" she demanded. The men just laughed.
One of them finally caught his breath and tipped his hat to her. "We use hydraulic equipment to do the mining here ma'am," he explained. "But after a while the wall collapses. This here cat likes to perch on the machine. He can tell when the wall's about to give way and runs off. We follow him!"

The cat preened. Pin It Now!