From side to side he swayed on the uneven footing, and had it not been for the far-reaching foresight that had built his legs wide apart, he must have inevitably fallen.
But he was well balanced, and, after a moment’s rocking, he settled down on the steps.
The shock had one totally unlooked-for effect.
There must have been some very slight cause of interference in the machinery connected with the headlight; most likely a piece of dirt lodged in a delicate part of the intricate coils, and this obstruction had been jolted out by the shock.
As the coils came into action again they were fired by a steam of electricity that ran from the wagon, and the man’s eyes again blazed with powerful light.
Charley Gorse had been hurled with great force from his seat.
His head came in contact with some very hard substance, and then Charley forgot where he was for some time, for his five senses were knocked out of proper working order, and he lay on the hard ground, totally bewildered, and too much dazed to think.
Harry Hale was like a cat.
If you had tossed him into the air for a dozen feet, it is more than probable that he would come down upon his feet, merely from habit.
He came upon his feet this time, but nearly six yards from the Steam Man, and for all that he had accomplished a neat involuntary back-somersault, and he did not feel very glorious over it for every bone in his body seemed started from head to foot.