I can't tell you the horrors of those moments as they appeared to me.
No description could paint it all exactly; but one moment I was down in
darkness with the current thundering in my ears, the next I was up at
the surface beating and splashing, listening to the echoing of the
water, which sounded hollow and strange, looking up at the sunshine that
streamed in past the wheel, and then I went under.
It is a strange admission to make, but in those first few moments of
surprise and horror I forgot that I knew how to swim, and all my
movements were instinctive and only wearied and sent me down again after
I had risen.
Then reason came to my help, and I began to strike out slowly and swam
to the side of the great stone chamber, passing one hand along the slimy
wall trying to get some hold, but finding none; and then swimming
straight across to the other side and trying there, for I dared not
approach the wheel, which looked horrible and dangerous, and I felt that
if I touched it the great circle would begin to revolve, and perhaps
take me down under the water, carry me up on the other side, and throw
me over again.
It looked too horrible, all wet, slimy, and dripping as it was, or
possibly I might have climbed up it and reached the edge of the dam, so
I swam right beyond it and felt along the other side, but without avail.
There was nothing but the slimy stonework, try where I would, and the
chill of horror began to have a numbing effect on my arms.
I swam on to and fro beneath the doorway, with the little platform
hanging by one end far above my had, and once as I swam my foot seemed
to touch something, which might have been a piece of the sunken wood or
iron work, but which made me shrink as if some horrible monster had made
a snatch at me.
I shouted, but there was only the hollow echoing of the stone chamber
and the lapping and whispering of the water; and, knowing that I was
alone locked in the works, the terrible idea began to dance before me
that I was going to die, for unless I could save myself I need not
expect help.
The thought unnerved me more and more and made me swim more rapidly in
the useless fashion I was pursuing, and once more I stared in a
shrinking way at the great wheel, which, innocent enough in itself,
seemed a more terrible engine than ever. I knew it would move if I swam
across and clung to it, and I really dared not go near.
There was always something repellent and strange even in a big water
cistern in a house, and as a mere boy I have often started back in
terror at the noise made by the pipes when the water was coming driving
the air before it with a snorting gurgle, and then pouring in, while to
climb up a ladder or set of steps and look down into the black watery
place always gave me a shudder and made me glad to get away.
It is easy to imagine, then, what my feelings were, suddenly cast into
that great stone-walled place, with I did not know what depth of water
beneath me, and inhabited as I knew by large twining eels.
I daresay the eels were as much afraid of me as I was of them; but that
made no difference to my feelings as I swam here and there trying in
vain for something to which to cling; but in the darkest parts as well
as the lightest it was always the same, my hand glided over the stones
and splashed down again into the water.
I was too much confused to think much, and moment by moment I was
growing more helpless. I can remember making a sort of bound to try and
get a hold of the broken platform above my head, but the effect of that
effort was only to send me below the surface. I can recall, too,
thinking that if I let my feet down I might find bottom, but this I
dared not do for fear of what might be below; and so, each moment
growing more feeble, I stared at the opened doorway through which I had
come, at the iron-barred grating through which the water escaped, and
which was the entrance to a tunnel or drain that ran beneath the works.
Then I turned my eyes up at the sunlit opening through which seemed to
come hope surrounding the black tooth-like engine that was hung there
ready to turn and grind me down.
My energy was nearly exhausted, the water was above my lips, and after a
wild glare round at the slimy walls the whispering lapping echoes were
changed for the thunderous roar and confusion felt by one plunged
beneath the surface; and in my blind horror I began beating the water
frantically in my last struggle for life.
Natural instinct seems to have no hesitation in seizing upon the first
help that comes. It was so here. I might have swum to the wheel at
first and clung to it, but I was afraid; but now, after going under once
or twice--I'm sure I don't know which--I came up in close proximity to
the great mass of slimy wood-work, one of my hands touched it, the other
joined it directly, and I clung panting there, blind, confused,
helpless, but able to breathe.
Almost at the same moment, and before I knew what I was holding on by,
there came a sound which sent hope and joy into my heart. It was the
whimpering whine of Piter, who directly after set up a short yapping
kind of bark, and I had a kind of idea that he must be somewhere on the
wood-work inside the wheel.
I did not know that he had fallen in at the same time as I; and though
once or twice I had heard him whining, I did not realise that he was
also in danger; in fact the horrible overwhelming selfishness of the
desire for self-preservation had swept away everything but the thought
of how I was to get out of my trouble.
Every moment now gave me a little confidence, though it was nearly
driven away when, able to see clearly again, I found myself holding on
by one of the wooden pocket-like places formed with boards on the outer
circumference of the engine--the places in fact into which, when the
sluice was opened, the water rushed, and by its weight bore the wheel
round.
After a few minutes' clinging there, beginning to feel numbed and
chilled by the cold, I realised that the sun was setting, that the
patches of light were higher, and that in a very few minutes the horrors
of this place would be increased tenfold by my being plunged in profound
darkness.
I dreaded moving, but I knew that the water could not come down upon me
unless the sluice was opened, and that was turned off when the men left
work, so that the water was saved for the next day, and the wheel ceased
to turn. I determined then to try and climb up from pocket to pocket of
the wheel and so reach the stone-race at the opening, along which the
water poured.
My courage revived at this, and drawing my legs under me I got them upon
one of the edges of the pocket beneath the water, raised myself up and
caught hold of one higher than I had hold of before, and was about to
take a step higher when, to my horror, the huge wheel began to feel the
effect of my weight, and gradually the part I held descended.
At the same moment there was a loud splash, a beating of the water, a
whining barking noise, and I knew I had shaken Piter off the bar or
spoke to which he had been clinging inside.
"Here, Piter; here dog," I shouted; and he swam round to me, whining
piteously and seeming to ask me for help.
This I was able to give him, for, holding tightly with one hand, I got
my right arm round him and helped him to scramble up into one of the
pockets, though the effort had weighed down the wheel and I sank deeper
in the water.
I made another trial to climb up, but though the resistance of the great
wheel was sufficient to support me partly it soon began to revolve, and
I knew that it would go faster if I tried to struggle up.
I heaved a despairing sigh, and for the first time began to think of
Gentles.
"This must be his doing," I said to myself. He had set some one to take
out the support of the little platform, and I was obliged to own that
after all he had only set a trap for me just as I had set one for him.
Still there was a great difference: he was on his way to do harm when he
was caught--I was engaged in my lawful pursuits and trying to do good.
I had another trial, and another, but found it would, in my exhausted
state, be impossible to climb up, and as I clung there, up to my chest
in the water, and with the dog close to me, he whined piteously and
licked my face.
The next minute he began to bark, stood up with his hind feet on the
edge of one bar, his fore-paws on the one above, and made a bound.
To my surprise he reached his aim, and his weight having no effect on
the wheel, he scrambled up and up till I knew he must have reached the
top.
There was no doubt about it.
The next minute I heard the rattling shaking noise made by a dog when
getting rid of the water in its coat. Then a loud and joyous barking.
Then only the dripping, plashing sound of the water that escaped through
the sluice and came running in and falling about the wheel.
What time was it? About half-past six, and the men would not come to
work till the next morning. Could I hang there till then?
I knew it was impossible--that in perhaps less than half an hour I
should be compelled to loose my hold and fall back into the black water
without strength to stir a paralysed arm.
I shouted again and again, but the walls echoed back my cry, and I knew
it was of no use, for it was impossible for any one to hear me outside
the place. It was only wasting strength, and that was wanted to sustain
me as long as possible.
There was one hope for me, though: my uncles would be returning from
Redham at ten or eleven o'clock, and, not finding me at home, they would
come in search of me.
When it is too late!
I must have said that aloud, for the word _late_ came echoing back from
the wall, and for a time I hung there, feeling numbed, as it were, in my
head, and as slow at thinking or trying to imagine some way of escape as
I was at movement.
But I made one more effort.
It seemed to be so pitiful that a wretched, brainless dog, when placed
in a position like this, should be able to scramble out, while I, with
the power of thinking given to me, with reason and some invention, was
perfectly helpless.
This thought seemed to send a current like electricity through me,
nerving me to make another effort, and loosening one hand I caught at
the bar above me as before, changed the position of my feet, and began
to climb.
I gave up with a groan, for I was only taking the place of the water and
turning the wheel just as a turnspit dog would work, or a squirrel in
its cage, only that I was outside the wheel and they would have been in.
I came down with a splash; and as I clung there I could hear the water
go softly lapping against the wall and whispering in the corners as if
it were talking to itself about how soon I should have to loose my hold,
sink down, and be drowned.
I was weakened by this last effort as well as by the strain upon my
nerves, and as the water ceased to lap and whisper a horrible silence
crept down into the place in company with the darkness. Only a few
minutes before all was bright where the sun rays flashed in; now there
was only a soft glow to be seen, and all about me black gloom.
I grew more and more numbed and helpless, and but for the fact that I
hung there by my hands being crooked over the edge of the board across
the wheel, I believe I must have fallen back, but my fingers stiffened
into position and helped me to retain my hold, till at last they began
to give way.
I had been thinking of home and of my uncles, and wondering how soon
they would find me, and all in a dull nerveless way, for I suppose I was
too much exhausted to feel much mental or bodily pain, when all at once
I began to recall stories I had read about the Saint Bernard dogs and
the travellers in the snow; and then about the shepherds' collies in the
north and the intelligence they displayed.
Several such tales came to my memory, and I was just thinking to myself
that they were all nonsense, for if dogs had so much intelligence, why
had not Piter, who had a head big enough for a double share of dogs'
brains, gone and fetched somebody to help me, instead of making his own
escape, and then going and curling himself up by one of the furnaces to
get dry--a favourite place of his if he had the chance.
Just then, as I seemed to be half asleep, I heard a sharp bark at a
distance, then another nearer, and directly after Piter was on the top
of the wheel, where he had stepped from the sluice trough, barking with
all his might.
"Wheer is he then, boy? Wheer is he then?" said a gruff hoarse voice.
Piter barked more furiously than ever, and the glow seemed to give way
to darkness overhead, as the voice muttered:
"Dear, dear! Hey! Think o' that now. Mester Jacob, are you theer?"
"Help!" I said, so faintly that I was afraid I should not be heard.
"Wheerabouts? In the watter?"
"I'm--on--the wheel," I cried weakly, and then, as I heard the sound of
someone drawing in his breath, I strove to speak once more and called
out:
"Turn the wheel."
It began to move directly, but taking me down into the water, and I
uttered a cry, when the wheel turned in the other direction, drawing me
out and up. My arms straightened out; I was drawn closer to the
wood-work. I felt that I should slip off, when my toes rested upon one
of the bars, while, as I rose higher, the tension on my arms grew less,
and then less, and at last, instead of hanging, I was lying upon my
chest. Then a pair of great hands laid hold of me, and Piter was
licking my face.
Pannell told me afterwards that he had to carry me all along the narrow
stone ledge to the window of his smithy, and thrust me through there
before climbing in after me, for it was impossible to get into the yard
the other way without a boat.
I must have fainted, I suppose, for when I opened my eyes again, though
it was in darkness, the icy water was not round me, but I was lying on
the warm ashes down in one of the stoke-holes; and the faint glow of the
half-extinct fire was shining upon the shiny brown forehead of the big
smith.
"Pannell!" I exclaimed, "where am I?"
"Get out!" he growled. "Just as if yow didn' know."
"Did you save me?"
"'Sh, will yo'!" he whispered. "How do we know who's a-watching an'
listening? Yow want to get me knob-sticked, that's what yow want."
"No, no," I said, shivering.
"Yow know where we are, o' course. Down in the big stokul; but be
quiet. Don't shout."
"How did you know I was in there?"
"What, in yonder?"
"Yes, of course; oh how my arms ache and throb!"
"Let me give 'em a roob, my lad," he said; and strongly, but not
unkindly, he rubbed and seemed to knead my arms, especially the muscles
above my elbows, talking softly in a gruff murmur all the while.
"I did give you a wink, lad," he said, "for I know'd that some'at was on
the way. I didn' know what, nor that it was so bad as that theer. Lor'
how can chaps do it! Yow might hev been drowned."
"Yes," I said with a shiver. "The cowards!"
"Eh! Don't speak aloud, lad. How did you get in? Some un push thee?"
"Push me! No; the platform was broken loose, and a trap set for me,
baited with a wheel-band," I added angrily.
Pannell burst into a laugh, and then checked himself.
"I weer not laughing at yow, lad," he whispered, "but at owd Gentles.
So yow got in trap too?"
"Trapped! Yes; the cowardly wretches!"
"Ay, 'twere cowardly. Lucky I came. Couldn't feel bottom, eh?"
"No."
"Nay, yow wouldn't; there's seven foot o' watter there, wi'out mood."
"How did you know I was there?"
"What! Didn' I tell ye?"
"No."
"I were hanging about like, as nigh as I could for chaps, a waitin' to
see yow go home; but yow didn't coom, and yow didn't coom; and I got
crooked like wi' waiting, and wondering whether yow'd gone another way,
when all at once oop comes the bull-poop fierce like, and lays holt o'
me by the leg, and shakes it hard. I was going to kick un, but he'd
on'y got holt of my trowsis, and he kep on' shacking. Then he lets go
and barks and looks at me, and takes holt o' my trowsis agin, and hangs
away, pulling like, till I seemed to see as he wanted me to coom, and I
followed him."
"Good old Piter!" I said; and there was a whine. I did not know it,
but Piter was curled up on the warm ashes close by me, and as soon as he
heard his name he put up his head, whined, and rapped the ashes with his
stumpy tail.
"He went to the wucks fast as he could, and slipped in under the gate;
but I couldn't do that, you see, Mester, and the gate was locked, so I
was just thinking what I'd best do, and wondering where you might be,
when I see Stivens come along, looking as if he'd like to howd my nose
down again his grindstone, and that made me feel as if I'd like to get
one of his ears in my tongs, and his head on my stithy. He looked at
me, and I looked at him, and then I come away and waited till he'd
gone."
"It seemed as if help would never come," I said.
"Ay, it weer long time," said Pannell; "but I found no one about at
last, and I slipped over the wall."
"Yes, and I know where," I said.
"And there was Piter waiting and wanting me to follow him. But there
was no getting in--the doors were locked. I seemed to know, though,
that the dog wanted to get me to the wheel-pit, and when I tried to
think how to get to you I found there was no way 'cept through my forge.
So I got out o' my window, and put the dorg down, and--well, I came.
Arn't much of a fire here, but if I blow it up Stivens or some on 'em
will hear it, or see it, or something; and I s'pose I shall have it for
to-night's work."
I did feel warmer and better able to move, and at last I rose to make
the best of my way back.
"Nobody will notice my wet things," I said, "now it's dark. I don't
know what to say to thank you, Pannell."
"Say I was a big boompkin for meddling ower what didn't consarn me. If
I don't come to wuck to-morrow you'll know why."
"No; I shall not," I cried wonderingly.
"Ah, then, you'll have time to find out," he muttered. "Good-night,
lad!"
"Stop a moment and I'll open the gate," I cried.
"Nay, I shall go out as I come in. Mayn't be seen then. Mebbe the
lads'll be watching by the gate."
He stalked out, and as I followed him I saw his tall gaunt figure going
to the corner of the yard where the trap was set, and then there was a
scuffling noise, and he had gone.
I left the place soon after, and as I fastened the gate I fancied I saw
Stevens and a man who limped in his walk; but I could not be sure, for
the gas lamp cast but a very feeble light, and I was too eager to get
home and change my things to stop and watch.
The run did me good, and by the time I had on a dry suit I was very
little the worse for my immersion, being able to smile as I told my
uncles at their return.
They looked serious enough, though, and Uncle Jack said it was all owing
to the trap.
The question of putting the matter in the hands of the police was again
well debated, but not carried out--my uncles concluding that it would do
no good even if the right man were caught, for in punishing him we
should only have the rest who were banded together more bitter against
us.
"Better carry on the war alone," said Uncle Dick; "we must win in the
end."
"If we are not first worn-out," said the others.
"Which we shall not be," cried Uncle Dick, laughing. "There are three
of us to wear out, and as one gets tired it will enrage the others;
while when all three of us are worn-out we can depute Cob to carry on
the war, and he is as obstinate as all three of us put together."
They looked at me and laughed, but I felt too much stirred to follow
their example.
"It is too serious," I said, "to treat like that; for I am obstinate now
much more than I was, and I should like to show these cowards that we
are not going to be frightened out of the town."
"Cob don't know what fear is," said Uncle Jack with a bit of a sneer.
"Indeed but I do," I replied. "I was horribly frightened when I fell
into that place; but the more they frighten me, the more I want for us
to make them feel that we are not to be beaten by fear."
"Bravo!" cried Uncle Bob, clapping his hands.
"There! Let's go on with our work," said Uncle Dick; "we must win in
the end."
To have seen the works during the next few days, anyone would have
supposed that there had never been the slightest trouble there. After
due consideration the little platform had been replaced and the bands
taken from the grindstone gear duly put in position, the men taking not
the slightest notice, but working away most industriously.
Pannell, however, did not come back, and his forge was cold, very much
to my uncles' annoyance. On inquiry being made we were told that his
mother was dying, and that he had been summoned to see her.
I felt a little suspicious, but could hardly believe that anything was
wrong, till one evening Uncle Jack proposed that we two should have a
walk out in the country for a change.
I was only too glad, for the thought of getting away from the smoke and
dirt and noise was delightful.
So as to get out sooner we took a short cut and were going down one of
the long desolate-looking streets of rows of houses all alike, and built
so as to be as ugly as possible, when we saw on the opposite side a man
seated upon a door-step in his shirt-sleeves, and with his head a good
deal strapped and bandaged.
"That's one of the evils of a manufacturing trade where machinery is
employed," said Uncle Jack. "I'm afraid that, generally speaking, the
accidents are occasioned by the men's carelessness or bravado; but even
then it is a painful thing to know that it is your machinery that has
mutilated a poor fellow. That poor fellow has been terribly knocked
about, seemingly."
"Yes," I said, looking curiously across the road.
"So far we have been wonderfully fortunate, but--here, this way! Where
are you going?"
"Over here," I said, already half across the road; for the brawny arms
and long doubled-up legs of the man seemed familiar.
"Why?" cried Uncle Jack; but he followed me directly.
"Pannell!" I exclaimed.
"What, Mester Jacob!" he cried, lifting up his head with his face in my
direction, but a broad bandage was over his eyes.
"Why, what's all this?" I cried; "have you had some accident?"
"Yes, met wi' acciden' done o' purpose."
"But they said your mother was dying," I cried as I held the great hard
hand, which was now quite clean.
"Ay, so I heard say," replied the great fellow.
"Is she better?"
"Better! Well, she ain't been badly."
"Not dying?" said Uncle Jack.
"What's that yow, Mester?" said Pannell. "Sarvice to you, sir. My
mother!--dying! Well, I suppose she be, slowly, like the rest of us."
"But what have you been doing?" I cried. "What a state you are in!"
"State I'm in! Yow should have seen me a fortnit ago, my lad. I'm
splendid now--coming round fast."
"But how was it?" cried Uncle Jack, while I turned white as I seemed to
see it all.
"How was it, Mester!" said Pannell laughing. "Well, you see, I weer
heving bit of a walluck, wi' my pipe in my mooth, and it being bit dusk
like that night I didn't see which way I were going, and run my head
again some bits o' wood."
"Sticks!" I said excitedly.
He turned his head towards me smiling.
"Couldn't see rightly as to that, Mester Jacob," he said; "I dessay they
weer."
"And a set of cowards had hold of them!" I cried.
"Nay, I can't say," replied the great fellow. "Yow see, Mester, when
owt hits you on the head it wuzzles you like, and you feel maazed."
Uncle Jack stood frowning.
"You know very well, Pannell," I cried angrily, "that you have been set
upon by some of these treacherous cowards for helping me that evening.
Oh, Uncle Jack!" I cried, passionately turning to him, "why don't you
go to the police?"
"Howd thee tongue, lad!" cried Pannell fiercely. "Yow don't know nowt
about it. Don't yow do nowt o' t' sort, Mester. Let well alone, I
say."
"But I cannot stand still and see these outrages committed," said Uncle
Jack in a low angry voice.
"Hey, but thou'lt hev to, 'less you give up maakin' 'ventions. Trade
don't like 'em, and trade will hev its say."
"But that you should have been so brutally used for doing a manly action
for this boy," began Uncle Jack.
"Theer, theer, theer," said Pannell; "I don't kick agen it. I s'pected
they'd do some'at. I know'd it must coom. Chap as breaks the laws has
to tek his bit o' punishment. Chaps don't bear no malice. I'm comin'
back to work next week."
"Look here," said Uncle Jack, who was a good deal moved by the man's
calm patience, "what are we to do to come to terms with the workmen, and
have an end to these outrages?"
"Oh, that's soon done," replied Pannell, rubbing one great muscular arm
with his hand, "yow've just got to give up all contrapshions, and use
reg'lar old-fashioned steel, and it'll be all right."
"And would you do this, my man?" said Uncle Jack, looking down at the
great muscular fellow before him.
"Ay, I'd do it for sake o' peace and quiet. I should nivver go agen
trade."
"And you would advise me to give up at the command of a set of ignorant
roughs, and make myself their slave instead of master."
"Mester Jacob," said Pannell, "I can't see a bit wi' this towel round my
head; look uppards and downards; any o' the chaps coming?"
"No," I said.
"Then look here, Mester, I will speak if I nivver do again. No, I
wouldn't give up if I was you, not if they did a hundred worse things
than they've done yet. Theer!"
Uncle Jack looked down on the man, and then said quickly:
"And you, what will you do?"
"Get to wuck again, Mester, as soon as I can."
"And the men who beat you like that?"
"Eh, what about 'em?"
"Shall you try and punish them?"
"Punish 'em, Mester! Why, how can I? They punished me."
"But you will turn upon them for this, Pannell, will you not?"
"Nay, Mester; I went again 'em, and they knob-sticked me for it, and
it's all done and over. I shall soon be back at my stithy, if you'll
hev me again."
"Have you! Yes, my man, of course," said Uncle Jack. "I wish we could
have more like you."
"Cob," said Uncle Jack as we strode on and got well out into the
country, "we've got a very strong confederation to fight, and I do not
feel at all hopeful of succeeding; but, there: we've put our hands to
the plough, and we can't look back. Now never mind business, let's
listen to the birds and enjoy the fresh country air for a time."
We were going up the valley, passing every now and then "a wheel" as it
was called, that is a water-wheel, turning a number of grindstones, the
places being remarkably like ours, only that as we got farther out the
people who ground and forged did their work under the shade of trees,
while the birds piped their songs, and air and water were wonderfully
different from what they were about our place on the edge of the great
town.
"Let's get back, Cob," said Uncle Jack despondently. "It makes me
miserable to hear the birds, and see the beauty of the hills and vales,
and the sparkling water, and know that men toiling together in towns can
be such ruffians and so full of cruelty to their fellow creatures."
"And so strong and true and brave and ready to help one another."
"As who are, Cob?" said my uncle.
"Well, for want of thinking of anyone else just now," I said, "there's
poor Pannell; he saved me, and he has just shown us that he is too
faithful to his fellow-workmen to betray them."
Uncle Jack laid his hand upon my shoulder and gave it a hearty grip.
"You're right, my lad," he said. "You're the better philosopher after
all. There's good and bad, and like so many more I think of the bad and
overlook the good. But all the same, Cob, I'm very uneasy. These men
have a spiteful feeling against you, and we shall not be doing right if
we trust you out of our sight again."