thought it was a cry at the bottom of the
pit. But the wind blew idly over it, and no
sound arose to the surface, and they sat upon
the grass, waiting and waiting. After they
had waited some time, straggling people who
had heard of the accident began to come up;
then the real help of implements began to
arrive. In the midst of this, Rachael returned;
and with her party there was a surgeon, who
brought some wine and medicines. But the
expectation among the people that the man
would be found alive, was very slight
indeed.

There being now people enough present, to
impede the work, the sobered man put
himself at the head of the rest, or was put there
by the general consent, and made a large ring
round the Old Hell Shaft, and appointed men
to keep it. Besides such volunteers as were
accepted to work, only Sissy and Rachael were
at first permitted within this ring; but, later in
the day, when the message brought an express
from Coketown, Mr. Gradgrind and Louisa,
and Mr. Bounderby, and the whelp, were
also there.

The sun was four hours lower than when
Sissy and Rachael had first sat down upon
the grass, before a means of enabling two
men to descend securely was rigged with
poles and ropes. Difficulties had arisen in
the construction of this machine, simple as it
was; requisites had been found wanting, and
messages had had to go and return. It was five
o'clock in the afternoon of the bright autumnal
Sunday, before a candle was sent down to try
the air, while three or four rough faces stood
crowded close together, attentively watching
it: the men at the windlass lowering as they
were told. The candle was brought up again,
feebly burning, and then some water was cast
in. Then the bucket was hooked on; and
the sobered man and another got in with
lights, giving the word " Lower away!"

As the rope went out, tight and strained,
and the windlass creaked, there was not a
breath among the one or two hundred men
and women looking on, that came as it was
wont to come. The signal was given and the
windlass stopped, with abundant rope to
spare. Apparently so long an interval ensued
with the men at the windlass standing idle,
that some women shrieked that another
accident had happened! But the surgeon who held
the watch, declared five minutes not to have
elapsed yet, and sternly admonished them to
keep silence. He had not well done speaking,
when the windlass was reversed and worked
again. Practised eyes knew that it did not go as
heavily as it would if both workmen had been
coming up, and that only one was returning.

The rope came in tight and strained; and
ring after ring was coiled upon the barrel of
the windlass, and all eyes were fastened on the
pit. The sobered man was brought up, and
leaped out briskly on the grass. There was
an universal cry of " Alive or dead? " and
then a deep, profound hush.

When he said " Alive! " a great shout arose,
and many eyes had tears in them.

"But he's hurt very bad," he added, as
soon as he could make himself heard again,
" Where's doctor? He's hurt so very bad
sir, that we donno how to get him up."

They all consulted together, and looked
anxiously at the surgeon, as he asked some
questions, and shook his head on receiving the
replies. The sun was setting now; and the
red light in the evening sky touched every
face there, and caused it to be distinctly seen
in all its rapt suspense.

The consultation ended in the men returning
to the windlass, and the pitman going
down again, carrying the wine and some other
small matters with him. Then the other
man came up. In the meantime, under the
surgeon's directions, some men brought a
hurdle, on which others made a thick bed of
spare clothes covered with loose straw, while
he himself contrived some bandages and slings
from shawls and handkerchiefs. As these
were made, they were hung upon an arm of
the pitman who had last come up, with
instructions how to use them; and as he stood,
shown by the light he carried, leaning his
powerful loose hand upon one of the poles,
and sometimes glancing down the pit and
sometimes glancing round upon the people,
he was not the least conspicuous figure in the
scene. It was dark now, and torches were
kindled.

It appeared from the little this man said
to those about him, which was quickly
repeated all over the circle, that the lost man
had fallen upon a mass of crumbled rubbish
with which the pit was half choked up, and
that his fall had been further broken by some
jagged earth at the side. He lay upon his
back with one arm doubled under him, and
according to his own belief had hardly stirred
since he fell, except that he had moved his
free hand to a side pocket, in which he
remembered to have some bread and meat (of
which he had swallowed crumbs), and had
likewise scooped up a little water in it now
and then. He had come straight away from
his work, on being written to, and had walked
the whole journey; and was on his way to
Mr. Bounderby's country-house after dark,
when he fell. He was crossing that dangerous
country at such a dangerous time, because he
was innocent of what was laid to his
charge, and couldn't rest from coming the
nearest way to deliver himself up. The Old
Hell Shaft, the pitman said, with a curse
upon it, was worthy of its bad name to the
last; for though Stephen could speak now, he
believed it would soon be found to have
mangled the life out of him.

When all was ready, this man, still taking
his last hurried charges from his comrades
and the surgeon after the windlass had begun
to lower him, disappeared into the pit. The
rope went out as before, the signal was made
as before, and the windlass stopped. No