"I don't know, sir. If the masters could be warned of the attack they might get a few viewers and firemen and make a sort of defence; but if the men's blood's up it might go hard with them; and it would go hard with you if you were known to have taken the news of it."
"I will take the risk of that," Mr. Merton said. "Directly it is dark I will set out. What are you going to do, Jack?"
"I've got my work marked out," Jack said. "I'd rather not tell you till it's all over. Good-bye, sir; Harry2 is waiting for the letter."
Mr. Merton did not carry out his plans. As soon as it was dark he left the village, but a hundred yards out he came upon a party of men, evidently posted as [Pg 106]sentries. These roughly told him that if he didn't want to be chucked into the canal he'd best go home to bed; and this, after trying another road with the same result, he did.
Jack walked with Harry as far as the railway-station, mentioning to several friends he met that he was off again. The lads crossed the line, went out of the opposite booking-office, and set off—for it was now past five, and already dark—at the top of their speed in different directions. Jack did not stop till he reached the engine-house of the Vaughan mine. The pumps were still clanking inside, and the water streaming down the shoot. Peeping carefully in, to see that his friend, John Ratcliffe, was alone, Jack entered.
"Well, John," he said, "the engine's still going."
"Ay, Jack; but if what's more nor one has told me to-day be true, it be for the last time."
"Ay, lad, if I can; I've held on here, though they've threatened to chuck me down the shaft4; but I'm a married man, and can't throw away my life."
"I don't ask you to, John. I want you to work hard here with me till six o'clock strikes, and then go home as usual."
"What dost want done, lad?"
"Only about fifteen pounds. I'm just knocking off, and have banked the fire up."
[Pg 107]
"All right, John. I want you to help me fix the fire hose, the short length, to that blow-off cock at the bottom of the boiler. We can unscrew the pipe down to the drain, and can fasten the hose to it with a union, I expect. You've got some unions, haven't you?"
"Yes, lad; and what then?"
"That's my business, John. I'm going to hold this place till the soldiers come; and I think that with twenty pounds of steam in the boiler, and the hose, I can keep all the miners of Stokebridge out. At any rate, I'll try. Now, John, set to work. I want thee to go straight home, and then no one will suspect thee of having a hand in the matter. I'll go out when thou dost, and thou canst swear, if thou art asked, that there was not a soul in the house when thou camest away."
"That be my business," Jack said. "I think not. Now set to work, John; give me a spanner, and let's get the pipe off the cock at once."
John Ratcliffe set to work with a will, and in twenty minutes the unions were screwed on and the hose attached, a length of thirty feet, which was quite sufficient to reach to the window, some eight feet above the ground. Along by this window ran a platform. There was another, and a smaller window, on the other side.
[Pg 108]
"It's no use, John. I mean to save the engines, and so the pit. They'll never get in; and no one knows I am here, and no one will suspect me. None of 'em will know my voice, for they won't bring boys with them, and dad won't be here. There, it's striking six. Let me just drop a rope out of the window to climb in again with. Now we'll go out together; do thou lock the door, take the key, and go off home. Like enough they'll ask thee for the key, or they may bring their sledges8 to break it in. Anyhow it will make no difference, for there are a couple of bolts inside, and I shall make it fast with bars. There, that's right. Good-night, John. Remember, whatever comes of it, thou knowest nought9 of it. Thou camest away and left the place empty, as usual, and no one there."
"Good-bye, lad, I'd stop with 'ee and share thy risk, but they'd know I was here, and my life wouldn't be worth the price of a pot o' beer. Don't forget, lad, if thou lowerst the water, to damp down the fire, and open the valves."
Jack, left to himself, clambered up to the window and entered the engine-house again, threw some fresh coal on the fire, heaped a quantity of coal against the door, and jammed several long iron bars against it. Then he lighted his pipe and sat listening, occasionally getting up to hold a lantern to the steam-gauge, as it crept gradually up.
"Twenty-five pounds," he said; "that will be enough to throw the water fifty or sixty yards on a level, and [Pg 109]the door of the winding-engine's not more than thirty, so I can hold them both if they try to break in there."
He again banked up the fires, and sat thinking. Harry would be at the magistrate's by a quarter to six. By six o'clock Sir John could be on his way to Birmingham for troops; fifteen miles to drive—say an hour and a half. Another hour for the soldiers to start, and three hours to do the nineteen miles to the Vaughan, half-past eleven—perhaps half an hour earlier, perhaps half an hour later. There was no fear but there was plenty of water. The boiler was a large one, and was built partly into, partly out of the engine-house. That is to say, while the furnace-door, the gauges10, and the safety-valve were inside, the main portion of the boiler was outside the walls. The blow-off cock was two inches in diameter, and the nozzle of the hose an inch and a half. It would take some minutes then, even with the steam at a pressure of twenty-five pounds to the inch, to blow the water out, and a minute would, he was certain, do all that was needed.
Not even when, upon the first day of his life in the pit, Jack sat hour after hour alone in the darkness, did the time seem to go so slowly as it did that evening. Once or twice he thought he heard footsteps, and crept cautiously up to the window to listen; but each time, convinced of his error, he returned to his place on a bench near the furnace. He heard the hours strike, one after another, on the Stokebridge [Pg 110]church clock—eight, nine, ten—and then he took his post by the window and listened. A quarter of an hour passed, and then there was a faint, confused sound. Nearer it came, and nearer, until it swelled11 into the trampling12 of a crowd of many hundreds of men. They came along with laughter and rough jests, for they had no thought of opposition—no thought that anyone was near them. The crowd moved forward until they were within a few yards of the engine-house, and then one, who seemed to be in command, said, "Smash the door in with your sledges, lads."
Jack had, as they approached, gone down to the boiler, and had turned the blow-off cock, and the boiling water swelled the strong leathern hose almost to bursting. Then he went back to the window, threw it open, and stood with the nozzle in his hand.
"Hold!" he shouted out in loud, clear tones. "Let no man move a step nearer for his life."
The mob stood silent, paralyzed with surprise. Jack had spoken without a tinge13 of the local accent, and as none of the boys were there, his voice was quite unrecognized. "Who be he?" "It's a stranger!" and other sentences, were muttered through the throng14.
"Who be you?" the leader asked, recovering from his surprise.
"Never mind who I am," Jack said, standing15 well back from the window, lest the light from the lanterns which some of the men carried might fall on his face. [Pg 111]"I am here in the name of the law. I warn you to desist from your evil design. Go to your homes; the soldiers are on their way, and may be here any minute. Moreover, I have means here of destroying any man who attempts to enter."
There was a movement in the crowd. "The soldiers be coming" ran from mouth to mouth, and the more timid began to move towards the outside of the crowd.
"Stand firm, lads, it be a lie," shouted the leader. "Thee baint to be frighted by one man, be'est 'ee? What! five hundred Staffordshire miners afeard o' one? Why, ye'll be the laughing-stock of the country! Now, lads, break in the door; we'll soon see who be yon chap that talks so big."
There was a rush to the door, and a thundering clatter16 as the heavy blows of the sledge-hammers fell on the wood; while another party began an assault upon the door of the winding-engine house.
Then Jack, with closely pressed lips and set face, turned the cock of the nozzle.
With a hiss17 the scalding water leaped out in a stream. Jack stood well forward now and with the hose swept the crowd, as a fireman might sweep a burning building. Driven by the tremendous force of the internal steam, the boiling water knocked the men in front headlong over; then, as he raised the nozzle and scattered18 the water broadcast over the crowd, wild yells, screams, and curses broke on the night air. [Pg 112]Another move, and the column of boiling fluid fell on those engaged on the other engine-house door, and smote19 them down.
Then Jack turned the cock again, and the stream of water ceased.
It was but a minute since he had turned it on, but it had done its terrible work. A score of men lay on the ground, rolling in agony; others danced, screamed, and yelled in pain; others, less severely20 scalded, filled the air with curses; while all able to move made a wild rush back from the terrible building.
"Now, lads, you can come back safely. I have plenty more hot water, and I could have scalded the whole of you as badly as those in front had I wanted to. Now I promise, on my oath, not to turn it on again if you will come and carry off your mates who are here. Take them off home as quick as you can, before the soldiers come. I don't want to do you harm. You'd all best be in bed as soon as you can."
The men hesitated, but it was clear to them all that it had been in the power of their unknown foe22 to have inflicted23 a far heavier punishment upon them than he had done, and there was a ring of truth and honesty in his voice which they could not doubt. So after a little hesitation24 a number of them came forward, and lifting the men who had fallen near the engine-house, [Pg 113]carried them off; and in a few minutes there was a deep silence where, just before, a very pandemonium25 had seemed let loose.
Then Jack, the strain over, sat down, and cried like a child.
Half an hour later, listening intently, he heard a deep sound in the distance. "Here come the soldiers," he muttered, "it is time for me to be off." He glanced at the steam-gauge, and saw that the steam was falling, while the water-gauge showed that there was still sufficient water for safety, and he then opened the window at the back of the building, and dropped to the ground. In an instant he was seized in a powerful grasp.
"I thought ye'd be coming out here, and now I've got ye," growled26 a deep voice, which Jack recognized as that of Roger Hawking27, the terror of Stokebridge.
For an instant his heart seemed to stand still at the extent of his peril28; then, with a sudden wrench29, he swung round and faced his captor, twisted his hands in his handkerchief, and drove his knuckles30 into his throat. Then came a crashing blow in his face—another, and another. With head bent31 down, Jack held on his grip with the gameness and tenacity32 of a bull-dog, while the blows rained on his head, and his assailant, in his desperate effort to free himself, swung his body hither and thither33 in the air, as a bull might swing a dog which had pinned him. Jack felt his [Pg 114]senses going—a dull dazed feeling came over him. Then he felt a crash, as his adversary34 reeled and fell—and then all was dark.
A LIFE OR DEATH STRUGGLE. A LIFE OR DEATH STRUGGLE.
It could have been but a few minutes that he lay thus, for he awoke with the sound of a thunder of horses' hoofs35, and a clatter of swords in the yard on the other side of the engine-house. Rousing himself, he found that he still grasped the throat of the man beneath him. With a vague sense of wonder whether his foe was dead, he rose to his feet and staggered off, the desire to avoid the troops dispersing36 all other ideas in his brain. For a few hundred yards he staggered along, swaying like a drunken man, and knowing nothing of where he was going; then he stumbled, and fell again, and lay for hours insensible.
It was just the faint break of day when he came to, the cold air of the morning having brought him to himself. It took him a few minutes to recall what had happened and his whereabouts. Then he made his way to the canal, which was close by, washed the blood from his face, and set out to walk to Birmingham. He was too shaken and bruised37 to make much progress, and after walking for a while crept into the shelter of a haystack, and went off to sleep for many hours. After it was dusk in the evening he started again, and made his way to his lodgings38 at ten o'clock that night. It was a fortnight before he could leave his room, so bruised and cut was his face, and a month before the last sign of the struggle was oblit[Pg 115]erated, and he felt that he could return to Stokebridge without his appearance being noticed.
There, great changes had taken place. The military had found the splintered door, the hose, and the still steaming water in the yard, and the particulars of the occurrence which had taken place had been pretty accurately39 judged. They were indeed soon made public by the stories of the scalded men, a great number of whom were forced to place themselves in the hands of the doctor, many of them having had very narrow escapes of their lives, but none of them had actually succumbed40. In searching round the engine-house the soldiers had found a man, apparently41 dead, his tongue projecting from his mouth. A surgeon had accompanied them, and a vein42 having been opened and water dashed in his face, he gave signs of recovery. He had been taken off to jail as being concerned in the attack on the engine-house; but no evidence could be obtained against him, and he would have been released had he not been recognized as a man who had, five years before, effected a daring escape from Portland, where he was undergoing a life sentence for a brutal43 manslaughter.
The defeat of the attempt to destroy the Vaughan engines was the death-blow of the strike. Among the foremost in the attack, and therefore so terribly scalded that they were disabled for weeks, were most of the leaders of the strike in the pits of the district, and their voices silenced, and their counsel discredited44, [Pg 116]the men two days after the attack had a great meeting, at which it was resolved almost unanimously to go to work on the masters' terms.
Great excitement was caused throughout the district by the publication of the details of the defence of the engine-house, and the most strenuous45 efforts were made by Mr. Brook to discover the person to whom he was so indebted. The miners were unanimous in describing him as a stranger, and as speaking like a gentleman; and there was great wonder why any one who had done so great a service to the mine-owners should conceal46 his identity. Jack's secret was, however, well kept by the three or four who alone knew it, and who knew too that his life would not be safe for a day did the colliers, groaning47 and smarting over their terrible injuries, discover to whom they were indebted for them.
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1
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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2
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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3
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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4
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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5
boiler
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| n.锅炉；煮器(壶，锅等) | |
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6
wilt
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| v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱 | |
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7
dissuade
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| v.劝阻，阻止 | |
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8
sledges
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| n.雪橇，雪车( sledge的名词复数 )v.乘雪橇( sledge的第三人称单数 )；用雪橇运载 | |
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9
nought
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| n.／adj.无，零 | |
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10
gauges
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| n.规格( gauge的名词复数 )；厚度；宽度；标准尺寸v.（用仪器）测量( gauge的第三人称单数 )；估计；计量；划分 | |
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11
swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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12
trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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13
tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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14
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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15
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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16
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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hiss
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| v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满 | |
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18
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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19
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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20
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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21
subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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22
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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23
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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25
pandemonium
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| n.喧嚣，大混乱 | |
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26
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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27
hawking
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| 利用鹰行猎 | |
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28
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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29
wrench
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| v.猛拧；挣脱；使扭伤；n.扳手；痛苦，难受 | |
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30
knuckles
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| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
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31
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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32
tenacity
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| n.坚韧 | |
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33
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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34
adversary
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| adj.敌手，对手 | |
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35
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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36
dispersing
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| adj. 分散的 动词disperse的现在分词形式 | |
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37
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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38
lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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39
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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40
succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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41
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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42
vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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43
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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44
discredited
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| 不足信的，不名誉的 | |
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45
strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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46
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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47
groaning
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| adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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