up, the unfortunate Othello struggled in the prisoning
space until every one of the bottle foot-lights had been displaced,
and an even dozen of the audience seated themselves on the floor,
holding the candles in their hands obligingly. Ben had taken Dickey
from his leaning-place against the wall, and brought him to the side
from which he was to make his entrance when Richard and Othello had
first begun to fight, so that when Johnny fell he rushed on in a
sidelong way, in order to present his sword-arm to the conqueror.

King Richard was so entirely exhausted from his long struggle that he
had apparently forgotten the course he had marked out for the rest of
his company, and was leaning on his sword, gazing at the
supposed-to-be-dead Othello, wondering whether he ought to help him to
rise or not, when Ben launched Dickey full at him. He had no time to
parry the shock, nor Macbeth to check the force with which Ben had
sent him, and the consequence was that Richard and Macbeth fell almost
directly on top of the struggling Othello with a thud that threatened
to rend asunder each particular board of the frail stage.

Mrs. Green uttered a cry of horror as she realized that the cover of
her new wash-boiler must have been injured; but that noise, as well as
the terrified squeak from Othello, was drowned in the burst of
applause that came from the spectators. Mopsey sprang to his feet as
quickly as possible, bowing his acknowledgments to the audience as if
he had planned the scene, while poor Dickey lay prone upon the almost
suffocated Johnny, unable to rise, or even to move so that Othello
might extricate himself.

As the audience continued to applaud, Mopsey felt that he was forced
to remain before them, bowing, and almost expecting to be deluged with
bouquets, and, of course, he was not aware that two members of his
company needed his immediate assistance.

"Help Dickey! Why don't you help Dickey?" whispered Ben from the
wings, thinking that it would not be seemly in the ghost of Hamlet's
father to rush on to the stage before his time. But King Richard paid
no attention to this call, if indeed he heard it, and, after waiting
some moments, Ben, with his ghostly covering still flung over his arm,
was obliged to go to the assistance of the two warriors, thereby
causing a fresh burst of applause. He rolled Dickey over and over
until Paul could drag him off by the shoulders, and then pulling
Johnny out by the feet, he aided h