Below the mine

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

Mr Arlen had dismissed the miners' warning as "a nursery tale" before stepping into the cage. As it descended, he opened his notebook and prepared to record every fault he found.

At the lower passage, he wrote: Timbers sound. Floor dry. Air tolerable. The foreman's lamp made a small yellow island, beyond which the walls seemed to lean together. Mr Arlen walked at the edge of the light, still writing.

A tap came from somewhere ahead. It was not loud, but his pencil stopped.

"What fell?" he asked.

"Nothing," said the foreman.

They continued. The tapping returned: three slow knocks from behind a blocked passage. Mr Arlen wrote another sentence, although the final letters crowded against one another. When the sound came a third time, his pencil point snapped.

"That will do," he said. "The inspection is complete."

During the ascent, he held the notebook shut beneath his hand. Inside it, the last line sloped downwards across the page.

Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to present Mr Arlen's increasing fear. Support your answer with references to the passage.