he
machinery was beginning to slow down, and a mad stampede was being
made by the hands towards the door.

Raising his arm, he cried:

'Go back, lasses; there's no gate daan theer. Them of us as 'as to
be brunt will be brunt, and them of us as is to escape will ged
off wi' our lives. Keep cool, lasses; we'll do our best; and
remember 'at th' Almeety rules.'

One thing turned out in the favour of Amos and of his rovers. The
mad rush from below poured into the room under him, and not, as he
expected, into his own, the lower room being one where there was a
better chance of escape. Seeing this, he barred up his own doorway
to prevent the girls and women swarming below, where they would
have made confusion worse confounded. Then he beat out one of the
windows, and proceeded to fix and lower a rope by way of escape.

'Now then, lasses,' said he, having rapidly completed his task,
'th' little uns fust,' and in a moment a girl of twelve was
swinging seventy feet in the air, while a crowd of roaring
humanity below held its breath, and gazed with dilating eyes on
the child who hung between life and death. In a minute more the
spell of silence broke, and a roar, louder than before, told that
the little one had touched earth without injury, save hands all
raw from friction with the rope along which she had slidden.

Child after child followed; then the women were taken in their
turn, and lowered safely into the factory yard.

By the time it came to the turn of Amos, the roar of the fire
sounded like the distant beating of many seas along a rock-bound
coast. The hot breath was ascending, and thin tongues of flame
began to shoot through the floor of the room where he stood. The
pungent smell of burnt cotton stung his nostrils and blinded his
eyes with pain, and the atmosphere was fevered to such a degree
that with difficulty he drew his breath.

His turn had come, but was he the last in the room? Something told
him that he was not, that he must look round and satisfy himself,
otherwise his duty was unfulfilled.

The tongues of flame became fiercer; he saw them running along the
joints of the boarding, and feeding on the oil and waste which had
accumulated there for years. He felt his hour was come. But he was
calm. God ruled. No mistake could be made by the Almighty--nor
could any mistake be made by himself, for was he not under Divine
guidance?

Calmly he walked along the length of the room, stepping aside to
escape t