'Oh, Heaven! Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord! I didn't mean that—I swear to Heaven, I on'y meant to stun him!'
'I know yer didn't. Pull yerself together, you quiverin' idiot. D'ye think I meant to do murder?'
'No, no, no; o' course not. P'raps he ain't hurt ez bad ez you think.'
'Tain't the hurt, it's this. I on'y thought of it comin' up the ladders.
Did yer notice where he fell? He went back down the incline, fallin' with
his head a few feet up from the pumps. Know what that means? Harry
Hardy'll be found drowned!'
Dick heard Shine gasping for breath, and Rogers went on coolly:
'He was in the Sunday afternoon shift at the pumps. The water in the incline'll rise up over him before the first workin' shift goes down.'
'Let's go back, an' drag him out. Let's go back!
'Sit still, damn you! Go back an' be trapped, or be recognised if his senses return? His candle was burnin'.'
'But it's murder—it's murder!
'Is it? Listen here. I noticed a lump o' rock had fallen out o' the roof. It'll be thought he was stunned by it, an' drowned in the water as it rose.'