Success and How He Won It

by E. Werner

"You cannot help," interrupted Arthur bitterly. "There is nothing to be done now by the sheer strength of a man's arms. You could destroy and increase the danger tenfold, leave the repairs to those who understand them. They alone can make it possible for us to come to the rescue, and they must not be hindered or interfered with at their work. Keep the space round the house clear. Director, and you, Herr Wilberg, fetch down the prisoners immediately. They must know where their hands have been busy, perhaps they can put the engineers in the right way. Be quick."

Wilberg obeyed, and the Director prepared to carry out his instructions. He found no difficulty in so doing; the crowd around knew that everything now depended upon the activity of their superiors. All felt something of that truth which Arthur had once expressed in answer to their leader's challenge.

"Try," he had said, "try to do without that powerful element you hate so much, which directs your labour, gives impulse to the machinery, and lends mind to your work."

Here were hundreds of arms, hundreds of strong men ready to help, and not one could raise his hand, not one knew how to employ his strength; the whole power to save, the whole possibility of coming to the rescue, lay now with the few, who here again must set their minds to work to discover means of even yet affording help, while the many, together with their leader, could do nothing but hurry blindly on to certain death. Those detested, much contemned officials! Every look now hung on them; directly one of them appeared, he was surrounded by an eager throng, and they and their work would at this juncture have been protected at any cost, had such protection been needed.

Minute after minute went by in anxious, torturing suspense. Wilberg had long ago come back with the three prisoners who had been confined in one of the rooms on the ground-floor of the great house. The men knew what had happened; like all the rest they came in breathless haste, to stand by, like them helpless and despairing. They were no longer wanted, for the cause of the stoppage in the engines had already been found; the injury proved to be trifling, and might be quickly repaired. The engineers, under their principal's superintendence, worked with might and main, while out of doors a plan for the rescue was being drawn up, and preparations set on foot for carrying it out.

Continued attempts were made to effect an entrance into the mine by the other shaft, but they were always made in vain. The danger had knitted together again the loosened bonds of discipline; every one obeyed orders, and obeyed more quickly, with greater alacrity, than even in former days, before the strike had broken out.

But most active and ardent of all was the master himself. His eye, his voice, were everywhere, assisting and encouraging. Arthur possessed little or nothing of the special knowledge and experience required by the occasion. The young heir to the works had been brought up in total ignorance of all that it would have been most necessary for him to know, but one thing he did possess, which no teaching could have given him, and that was the gift of command. This was exactly what was wanting now, for the only really energetic official, the chief-engineer, was detained near the engines, and the Director and the rest, half stunned by the rapid succession of events, and by the catastrophe itself, seemed, in spite of their knowledge, experience and ability, to have lost all presence of mind.

It was Arthur who gave them back composure, who, at a glance, found the right place for every man, and urged him on to do his utmost in it; Arthur who carried all with him by the fervour of his zeal. The young man's character, so long misunderstood by those about him, and most of all by himself, had never so brilliantly proved its worth as in this hour of danger.

At last the heavy creaking sound was heard of the machinery being set in motion; then followed a snorting and groaning, spasmodically at first and at intervals, then in regular cadence; the pistons rose and sank again obediently as ever. The chief-engineer came out to Berkow, but his face had not cleared.

"The engine is at work, but I am afraid it is either too early or too late to make the descent. The smoke is pouring out here now, the fire-damp must have extended. We shall have to wait."