MRS. AUSTIN. Oh, horrible!
JIM. It's the sort of thing you couldn't believe unless you saw it. But I saw it. I didn't care, though. I was a fool. And then my time came.
MRS. AUSTIN. How do you mean?
JIM. A blast furnace blew out, and a piece of slag hit me here, where you see that patch. If it wasn't for the patch you'd see something that would make you sick. It was a pain you couldn't tell about... it was a couple of days before I knew where I was. And the first thing when I came to my senses... in the hospital, it was... there was a lawyer chap with a paper waiting for me.
MRS. AUSTIN. [In agitation.] A lawyer?
JIM. Yes, ma'am. Company representative, you know. And I was to sign the paper... it was a receipt for the hospital expenses... the operation and all that... you see they had to take out what was left of my eye. And of course I couldn't see... I had to sign where he told me to. And when I got well, I found they had trapped me into signing a release.
MRS. AUSTIN. A release?
JIM. I had accepted the hospital expenses as a release for all the company owed me. And I couldn't get any damages... and my eye was gone, and all the weeks without any wages.
MRS. AUSTIN. My God!
JIM. And they turned me out so weak I could hardly walk; and...