And then Edwin, hardly knowing what he did, and certainly not knowing
why he did it, walked quickly out on to the floor, seized the huge hook
attached to the lower pulley of the tackle that hung from the roof-beam,
pulled up the slack of the rope-bandage on the hind part of the machine,
and stuck the hook into it, then walked quickly back. The hauling-rope
of the tackle had been carried to the iron ring of a trap-door in the
corner near Big James; this trap-door, once the outlet of the interior
staircase from the ground floor, had been nailed down many years
previously. Big James dropped to his knees and tightened and knotted
the rope. Another and much louder noise of cracking followed, the floor
visibly yielded, and the hindpart of the machine visibly sank about a
quarter of an inch. But no more. The tackle held. The strain was
distributed between the beam above and the beam below, and equilibrium
established.
"Out! Lad! Out!" cried Darius feebly, in the wreck, not of his
workshop, but of his religion. And Edwin fled down the steps, pushing
the mystified apprentices before him, and followed by the men. In the
yard the journeyman, entirely self-centred, was hopping about on one leg
and cursing.
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