There was plenty of room just now, I says, for I took notice. The bricks give a little from up above.
Well, he thought so too, and went on with his work, while I went on with mine, picking and shovelling up the loose gravel and putting it in the bucket; but, though I worked pretty hard, I seemed to make no way; and, instead of him being able to go on and lay another course of bricks, he had to take a shovel and help me.
Its rum, aint it? he says, after wed been digging hard for about an hour. Somethings wrong; or else the place is bewitched. Here we havent sunk an inch this last hour, Ill swear, though weve sent up no end of bucketfuls. Theres the last course of bricks just where it was, and Im blest if I dont think its sunk a bit in!
Well, it does look like it, I said, certainly; and I spose the brickworks giving a bit from the tremendous weight up above. Youve been working too hard, Tom, I says, laughing, and your work hasnt had time to set.
Well, Ive only kept up with you, he says, quite serious; but I spose its as you say, and well take it a bit easier, for this is labour in vain.
It really looked so, for after another hour we seemed to be just where we were before, and I began almost to think it very likely something
struck by the coolness with which he used to talk about his work, and incidentally I learned whence came the seaming in his face.
You see, sir, he said, the dangers nothing if a man has what you call presence of mind has his wits about him, you know. For instance, say hes in danger, or what not, and he steps out with his right foot, and he steps out of danger; but say he steps out with his left foot, and he loses his life. Sounds but very little, that does; but it makes two steps difference between the right way and the wrong way, and thats enough to settle it all; sound or cripple, home or hospital, fireside or a hole in the churchyard. Presence of minds everything to a working man, and its a pity they cant teach a little more of it in schools to the boys. I dont want to boast, for Im very thankful; but a little bit of quiet thought has saved my life more than once, when poor fellows, mates of mine, have been in better places and lost theirs.
Im a queer sort of fellow, always having been fond of moling and working underground from a boy. Why, when I went to school, nothing pleased me better than setting up what we called a robbers cave in the old hill, where they dug the bright red sand; and there, of a Wednesday afternoon, wed go and climb up the side to the steep pitch where it was all honeycombed by the sand-martins, and then, just like them, wed go on burrowing and digging in at the side, scooping away in the beautiful clean sand, till I should think one summer we had dug in twenty feet. Grand place that was, so we thought, and fine and proud we used to be; and the only wonder is that the unsupported roof did not come down and bury some half-dozen of us. Small sets-out of that sort of course we did have, parts of the side falling down; but as long as it did not bury our heads we rather enjoyed it, and laughed at one another.
Well, my old love for underground work seemed to cling to me when I grew up, and thats how it is Ive always been employed so much upon sewers. Theyre nasty places, to say the best of them; but, then, as theyre made for the health of a town, and its somebodys duty to work down in them, why, one does it in a regular sort of way, and forgets all the nastiness.
Now, just shut your eyes for a few minutes and fancy youre close at my elbow, and Ill try if I cant take you down with me into a sewer, and you shall have the nice little adventure over again that happened to me nothing to signify, you know, only a trifling affair; but rather startling to a man all the same. The sewerage is altered now a good deal, and the great main stream goes far down the river, but Im talking about the time when all the sewers emptied themselves straight into the Thames.
Now, weve got an opening here in the street on account of a stoppage, and weve gone down ladder after ladder, and from stage to stage, until we are at the bottom, where the brick arch has been cut away, and now Im calling it all up again, as you shall hear.
I dont think I ever knew what fear was in those days I mean fear in my work, for, being the way in which I got my daily bread, danger seemed nothing, and I went anywhere, as I did on the night I am speaking of. It was a very large sewer, and through not having any clock at home, Id come out a good hour before my time. I stopped talking to the men I was to relieve for some little time, waiting for my mates to come the job being kept on with, night and day. Last of all, I lit a bit of candle in one of the lanterns, and, taking it, stepped down into the water, which came nearly to the tops of my boots, and began wading up stream.
Now, when I say up to the tops of my boots, I mean high navigators boots that covered the thigh; and so I went wading along, holding my lantern above my head, and taking a good look at the brickwork, to see if I could find any sore places it being of course of great consequence that all should be sound and strong.