He called out in a squeaky voice for another rope, and lashed it to something, which we two and some men who came to help hoisted up.
It was another of the stokers, but such a sight as I shall never forget. He was quite dead, and half the flesh was torn from one shoulder and from one side of the face.
As we hauled him on deck his skin seemed to come away with his clothes wherever we touched him.
Oh, it was a most fearful sight!
Tommy and I were roughly pushed away by an old petty officer, and the body was covered with a tarpaulin.
We could not keep our eyes off that heap, and should have fainted in another second had not Harrington himself appeared out of the manhole with his face just like beef and bleeding, and his hands like turkeys' claws.
He fell down on the deck, and as I knelt down he said in a hoarse whisper; "My feet, my feet! For God's sake undo my boots!"
We unlaced them, and oh, the terrible pain it was to him to take them off! and though we cut his socks with a knife, the skin all came off with them. He had fainted by that time.
Then I heard Mr. Pattison's voice, and Tommy rushed aft and brought some brandy and a pillow, and we propped his head up and poured a little brandy down his throat, though it was difficult to do it, because his tongue was so swollen.
They covered him with a blanket, but he was a huge man, and his two raw feet stuck out at the end. I shall never forget them.