“That’s right, sir.”
“Then what’s the good of them if they only give you a ride up and down twelve feet?”
“To take you to the bottom.”
“But they can’t,” cried Joe.
“I dunno about can’t!” said the man, gruffly; “all I know is that they do take ’em up or down whenever you like, and saves a lot of time, besides being (I will say that for ’em) a regular rest.”
“What, through just stepping on a shelf of the beam and stopping there?”
“Who said anything about stopping there?” cried the man, roughly. “You steps on to the shelf and down goes the beam twelve foot, and you steps off on to a bit o’ platform. Up goes the beam and brings the next shelf level with you, and on you gets to that. Down you go another twelve foot, or another twenty-four. Steps off, up comes the next shelf, and you steps on. Down she goes again, and you steps on and off, and on and off, going down twelve foot at a time, till you’re at the bottom, or where you want to be part of the way down at one of the galleries.”
“Of course,” cried Gwyn, triumphantly. “I knew it was German, all right, only I got a bit foggy over it when you said it wasn’t.”
“But—”
“I knew there was something. We forgot about stepping off and letting the beam rise.”