In obedience to the word two pike-poles were withdrawn at the same moment, leaving only a single pike with Big Angus and two others to sustain the full weight of the heavy timbers. Immediately the bent swayed backward as if to fall upon the throng below. Some of the men sprang back from under the huge bent. It was a moment of supreme peril.
“Howld there, fer yer lives, ye divils!” howled Tom, “or the hull of ye'll be in hell in two howly minutes.”
At the cry Barney and Rory sprang to Angus's side and threw themselves upon the pike. Immediately they were followed by others, and the calamity was averted.
“Up wid her now thin, me lads, God bliss ye!” cried Tom. But there was a new note in Tom's voice, the note that is heard when men stand in the presence of serious danger. There was no more pause. The bent was walked up to its place, pinned and made secure. Tom sprang down from the building, his face white, his voice shaking. “Give me yer hand, Barney Boyle, an' yours, Rory Ross, for be all the saints an' the Blessid Virgin, ye saved min's lives this day!”
Around the two crowded the men, shaking their hands and clapping them on the back with varied exclamations. “You're the lads!” “Good boys!” “You're the stuff!” “Put it there!”
“What are ye doin' to us?” cried Rory at last; “I didn't see anything happen. Did you, Barney?”
“We did, though,” answered the crowd.
For once Tom Magee was silent. He walked about among the crowd chewing hard upon his quid of tobacco, fighting to recover his nerve. He had seen as no other of the men the terrible catastrophe from which the men had been saved. It was Charley Boyle that again relieved the strain.
“Did any of you hear the cowbell?” he said. “It strikes me it's not quitting time yet. Better get your captains, hadn't you?”
“Rory and Tom for captains!” cried a voice.