s workman, black as a cinder from head to foot,
bleeding at the face from broken glass, hanging up there by one hand,
moaning with terror, and looking down with dilating eye, while thick
white smoke rushed curling out, as if his body was burning. Death by
suffocation was at his back, and broken bones awaited him below.

CHAPTER VI.

At sight of this human cinder, hanging by one hand between two deaths,
every sentiment but humanity vanished from the ruggedest bosom, and
the skilled workmen set themselves to save their unpopular comrade with
admirable quickness and judgment: two new wheel-bands, that had just
come into the works, were caught up in a moment, and four workmen ran
with them and got below the suspended figure: they then turned back to
back, and, getting the bands over their shoulders, pulled hard against
each other. This was necessary to straighten the bands: they weighed
half a hundred weight each. Others stood at the center of the bands, and
directed Little where to drop, and stood ready to catch him should he
bound off them.

But now matters took an unexpected turn. Little, to all appearance, was
blind and deaf. He hung there, moaning, and glaring, and his one sinewy
arm supported his muscular but light frame almost incredibly. He was out
of his senses, or nearly.

"Let thyself come, lad," cried a workman, "we are all right to catch
thee."

He made no answer, but hung there glaring and moaning.

"The man will drop noane, till he swouns," said another, watching him
keenly.

"Then get you closer to the wall, men," cried Cheetham, in great
anxiety. "He'll come like a stone, when he does come." This injunction
was given none too soon; the men had hardly shifted their positions,
when Little's hand opened, and he came down like lead, with his hands
all abroad, and his body straight; but his knees were slightly bent, and
he caught the bands just below the knee, and bounded off them into the
air, like a cricket-ball. But many hands grabbed at him, and the grinder
Reynolds caught him by the shoulder, and they rolled on the ground
together, very little the worse for that tumble. "Well done! well done!"
cried Cheetham. "Let him lie, lads, he is best there for a while; and
run for a doctor, one of you."

"Ay, run for Jack Doubleface," cried several voices at once.

"Now, make a circle, and give him air, men." Then they all stood in
a circle, and eyed the blackened and quivering figure with pity and