“Here! here!” said the boy. “This is the wheel of death. Kill it, break it, smash it, before it kills another father.”
Henry spoke to the grinder, and asked him if there was anything amiss with the stone.
The man seemed singularly uneasy at being spoken to: however he made answer sullenly that he had seen better ones, and worse ones, and all.
Henry was, however, aware, that the breaking of a large grindstone, while revolving by steam power, was a serious, and often a fatal thing; he therefore made a private mark upon the wall opposite the grindstone, and took his excited companion to Bayne. “This poor lad says he has found a defective grindstone. It is impossible for me to test it while it is running. Will you let us into the works when the saw-grinders have left?”
Bayne hem'd and haw'd a little, but consented. He would remain behind half an-hour to oblige Little.
Henry gave the Anomaly his dinner, and then inspected the file-cutters in two great works. Here he found suicide reduced to a system. Whereof anon.
Returning, to keep his appointment with Bayne he met a well-dressed man, who stopped Billy, and accosted him kindly.
Henry strolled on.
He heard their voices behind him all the way, and the man stopped at Cheetham's gate, which rather surprised him. “Has Billy told you what we are at?” said he.
“Yes. But the very look of him was enough. I know Billy and his ways, better than you do.”