"What happened?"
"Small ladle tipped over, spattering some hot metal on them," replied the man, jerking a thumb toward the suffering men.
"Tell me exactly how it happened."
The foreman did so with evident reluctance. In the first place, an accident in his department reflected on him and his management. Besides this he was so used to seeing men injured, during his long service in the steel mills, that the sight of human suffering did not make the same impression upon him that might otherwise have been the case.
"Who else saw the accident?"
"All the men on the pit and ladles."
Steve quickly had the names of the witnesses and made brief notes of their stories, after which he returned to the foreman to get the names of the injured men. By the time he had completed this, only a few minutes elapsed before the photographer arrived.
Steve pointed to the injured men, as indicating that they were to be photographed first. Next he turned his attention to the ladle that had been capsized. He made a quick examination of this, motioning to the foreman to join him.
"The chain broke, did it not?"