There came a certain Friday evening when the two men sat late in their office, compiling the weekly report. Trevannion was in high good-humour; for had not their joint efforts, as he liked to call Garstin"s useful suggestions, proved successful in ousting the river finally from Section D? and was not that troublesome part of the wharf ready for good concrete as soon as it could be made? He had to record this gratifying intelligence for the Committee"s benefit, and he did it with a relish.
"Nothing to fear now for the old section," he remarked cheerfully.
"Nothing but the unexpected collapse of a pile," said Garstin.
"Oh, that"s impossible."
"It"s improbable."
The report was finished and placed in its long envelope, and they prepared to go home. Trevannion began to busy himself with a heavy oil lantern. "I am going to have a look at the section on the way," he said; "just to see that the river has not come over the top," he added jestingly. "It"s a whim of mine. But don"t come if you"d rather not. I can join you at the steps."
"Oh, I"ll come," said Garstin--without enthusiasm.
The pair stepped out into the night, Trevannion locking the door behind him. It was pitch-dark on the wharf. They could feel the presence of, rather than see, the river that flowed silently in front of them, and they could roughly locate the far bank by the myriads of starry lights that showed Berthwer town beyond. A single red lamp glowed dully far to the west; it belonged to a steamer that they had seen come to her moorings in the afternoon. There were no other vessels showing lights.
The rest was black with a blackness sentient of vague forms--an impenetrable wall of darkness that seemed to stand between them and the outer world.
Picking their way carefully between debris and other impedimenta, they made their way towards the section, and had covered half the distance when Garstin stopped. "Don"t you hear something?" he asked. "I am almost sure I was not mistaken. It was like the sound of blows. There cannot be anybody there now, can there?"
Trevannion halted and listened.
"I don"t hear anything," he said presently. "Besides, who could be on the wharf now? You know the regulations, and the watchman is there to enforce them."
"I think--the noise has stopped."
Trevannion flashed the lantern on him suspiciously. "Nerves again" had come into his mind. However, he said nothing, but resumed his march, swinging his lantern this way and that, so as to gain a larger circ.u.mference of light. But suddenly he again stopped, as an unexpected sound fell on his ears.
"By jove--water!" he exclaimed, and broke into a run.
Garstin followed as fast as he could, but, deprived of the light, he quickly came to grief over some old metal. When he picked himself up, the other was yards ahead, and after that he had to content himself with keeping the lantern in view.
The engineer reached Section D and stopped breathless on the brink. He had forgotten Garstin--had forgotten everything save that water was again forcing its way into the unhappy section. But how and where?
Anxiously examining the opposite side with his lantern, he soon discovered what the matter was, and the discovery caused him a thrill of amazed horror. The "improbable thing" had happened. One of the piles was buckling--bending inwards--and the earth dam was surely, if slowly, giving way at this point. He turned to shout to Garstin.
Then something hit him on the shoulder and he fell backwards into Section D, wildly and vainly clutching at a beam to save himself.
"Trevannion! Trevannion!"
The voice of Garstin, office-desk theoretician, a.s.sistant-engineer--Trevannion was clear about that. What he did not realise so clearly was what had happened to himself. He was lying face downwards on something, with his arm under his breast--his left arm, that is--his right seemed to have disappeared. Likewise, though he was conscious of a weight hanging downwards from his middle, he wondered vaguely what had become of his legs. He felt a curious disinclination to stir.
Yet the voice went on calling, and presently he was impelled to answer "h.e.l.lo, Garstin." Then, while he was still listening to the unfamiliar echo of his own voice, he heard just behind him a _splash, splash, splash_, and his left arm jerked itself spasmodically from beneath his breast, the hand simultaneously touching a substance that was hard, cold, and slimy.
Then he realised.
He was somewhere near the bottom of Section D. His body lay across one of the lowest beams; his legs dangled in the water. Garstin was somewhere above him, and the river was pouring steadily into the section, splashing now with monotonous regularity. And the water was rising--creeping up towards the level of the beam where he lay.
Trevannion tried to raise himself by his right arm, but the limb gave way with an agonising shoot of pain; it was broken. He remained still and considered. Was the broken arm the extent of his injuries? The cold water had numbed his legs beyond all feeling. They were so much dead weight attached to his body. Both might be fractured for all he knew.
The main fact was that he was incapable of moving, of helping himself, at any rate until a.s.sistance came. And the water was rising, of course.
Would rescue or the water arrive first?
He looked up painfully through the clammy gloom. Nothing save patches of sky, seen between the black beams, greeted his eyes. There was no sound save that of the water--_splash, splash, drip, drip_. For an instant the fear of death conquered him, and he almost shrieked.
However, as physical exhaustion renewed its hold upon him, he grew calmer. He began to recall what had happened. He had fallen into the section--no--he had been pushed in. There flashed upon him the vision of a sullen, black-haired labourer, whom he had refused to reinstate; this act was O"Donnell"s revenge.
What had happened after that? The man would scarcely have had time to make his escape before Garstin came up. Well, it did not matter--he had heard Garstin"s voice since in proof that he had survived any possible encounter. And the absence of Garstin, the oppressive silence now?
Garstin had gone for help, of course. A boy like that could do nothing by himself even if he had the nerve; and Garstin had none. However, he would not be long in finding the watchman, and bringing him to the rescue. They ought to be here now. They certainly ought to be here now.
Nervously anxious, he listened for any sound of footfall or voice. Did Garstin realise the danger of the black water that was rising, ever rising? Had he by any evil chance failed to find the watchman at his post?
A smooth wave flowed slowly over the beam, and he shuddered.
Suddenly--after hours, as it seemed--something flickered on the surface of the water in front of him. A shadowy white gleam it was. It danced before his eyes like a mocking spirit--and was gone. But shortly it reappeared, and with it a lantern and a rope, with somebody clinging to the end of the rope. Trevannion had just time to recognise the figure of Garstin, swaying slowly above him, before he lost consciousness.
Garstin got him out, of course. But it was many days before Trevannion learned the details of the rescue.
It appeared that Garstin had arrived just in time to witness O"Donnell"s treacherous attack, and to confront the infuriated man as he turned to retreat. In a blind frenzy the boy sprang at his enemy, and the latter, taken by surprise, went down with a crash, striking his head on a heap of stones, and lay senseless.
Thereupon Garstin, with the one idea of rescuing Trevannion in his mind, hurried off to the watchman"s hut--only to find that the fellow had left his post. However, he discovered there a lantern and a coil of rope, and, taking these, he returned to Section D, resolved to attempt the rescue by himself. Having shouted and received a reply, he hitched one end of the rope to a beam, and was about to lower himself down, when he discovered that the rope was so badly frayed in its centre that it could not be trusted to bear even his slight weight.
There was nothing to be done save to postpone the attempt till he had found a more substantial cable. He remembered that there was a length or two in the office, and thither he set out at once. The door being locked and Trevannion having the key is his pocket, he had to force the lock as best he could with the first implement he could lay hands on.
This occupied several minutes, and when he returned to the section, he was tormented by the fear that he might find Trevannion drowned. He hastily affixed the new rope, and let himself down into the abyss, where he discovered Trevannion insensible, with his forehead almost touching the water.
It did not take long to make a noose and slip it over the latter"s shoulders, but he had hardly done so when a gush of water swept over the beam, carrying away the lantern and plunging them into total darkness.
For some subsequent seconds the boy clutched the rope and Trevannion"s lifeless body in an agony of terror and doubt.
Then he started to climb up. The process proved exceedingly laborious, for the hemp was thin and damp, and it was difficult to obtain a grip.
However, he managed to reach the summit and clambered over the brink, then paused awhile for some little breath and strength before essaying the hardest task of all--the hauling of Trevannion into safety.
How his puny strength enabled him to do this, he never could say. His foothold was none too secure, and the only available leverage was a narrow piece of masonry that jutted from the side. Yet, working inch by inch, he accomplished it, and when Trevannion had been brought sufficiently near the top, he made the rope fast to a convenient block of granite, and, kneeling down, regardless of his own peril, lifted him over the side. It was quite ten minutes before he could stagger with his burden to the office.
Safely inside, he made up the fire and telephoned for the doctor. Then he remembered O"Donnell, and spoke a message to the police-station, whence were presently despatched a couple of constables who found the man, stunned and considerably bruised. Neither did he forget Section D--with the result that there was a breakdown gang on the spot before midnight.
The buckled pile was found to have been nearly chopped through a few feet from the top, and there was no doubt that if O"Donnell had been undisturbed, he would have done the most serious mischief to the work.
As it was, the completion of the section was delayed for two months.
Trevannion heard this story during his convalescence--a lengthy period, since two ribs were broken as well as the arm, and he had suffered severely from shock and exposure. In answer to a question Garstin said that at the time he had scarcely noticed the physical strain. The thing that was uppermost in his mind was the fear that Trevannion might drown before he could get to him. No, he had experienced no personal sensation of nervousness, when preparing to descend into the section. Whereupon Trevannion thought deeply.
"I owe my life to your pluck, and I was a fool to faint at the critical moment," was all he said.
But, as has been remarked, his thoughts were many and profound. Nor was he ever again heard to reflect on Garstin"s "want of nerve."