The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories

fresher there. The trees and shrubs of the garden stood stiff and dark; beyond in the roadway a gas-lamp burnt, bright orange against the hazy blu

ct?" said the man,

itated her. "He thinks of nothing but the works and

have," he said sententiou

ttle of the tender. As the train passed, there was a glare of light above the cutting and a driving tumult of smoke; one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight black oblongs-eight trucks-passed

othing but pot-banks and chimneys belching fire and dust into the face of heaven…But what does it

ing in a whisper too, and st

d, putting his

tened to his gaze. "My dear one!" she said, and then: "It seems so stran

en?" h

esitated, and spoke still more s

adowy figure-silent. They saw the face dimly in the half-light, with unexpressive dark patches under the pent-house brows. Every muscle in Ra

last, after a pause that seeme

id the man at the window, gripping the window

out of the shadow. He made no answer to Rau

Mr. Raut it was just possible you might come

enched; one saw now the fire of his eyes under the shadow of his brows. He was trying to get his breat

e moment all three half

rd to ease the pent-up

s voice that broke

o see me?" he

came to see you," he said,

said Ho

"to show me some fine effec

ffects of moonlight and smoke," rep

ght before you went down to the works,

ey heard the door, their attitudes … Horrocks glanced at the profile of the woman, shadowy pallid in the half-light. Then he glanced at Raut, and seemed to r

ubling you-"

suddenly come into the sultry gloom of

for the first time, her confidence creeping back again, her voice just one half-note too high-"that dreadful theory of yours that machinery is

Horrocks grimly, damping her suddenl

?" sh

suddenly he r

to Raut, and put his big, clumsy hand on his

d Raut, and

them peered through the indistinc

. But Mrs. Horrocks knew her husband better, knew that grim quiet in his voice, and the confusion in her mind t

looked round in

on the back of the chair. "Here it is!" he said. She had an impulse to warn him in an undertone, but she c

ocks, standing with

e to Mrs. Horrocks," said the ironmaster, ev

d-evening, Mrs. Horrocks," he

mmed heavily. She went to the window, moving slowly, and stood watching, leaning forward. The two men appeared for a moment at the gateway in the road, passed under the street lamp, and were hidden by the black masses of the shrubbery. The lamplight fell for a moment on their faces, showing only unmeaning pale patc

went side by side down the road in silence, and in silence turned into t

or a wheel, black and sharp against the hot lower sky, marked some colliery where they raise the iridescent coal of the place. Nearer at hand was the broad stretch of railway, and half-invisible trains shunted-a steady puffing and rumbling, with every run a ringing concussion and a rhymthic series of impacts, and a passage of intermittent puffs of white steam across the further view. And to the left, between the railway and the dark mass of the low hill beyond, dominating the whole view, colossal, inky-black, and crowned with smoke and fitful flames, sto

our furnaces," said Raut, breaking a

ning down at the dim steaming railway and the busy ironworks b

ight effect is hardly ripe," he continued, looking upward;

ourse, of course." He too looked up at the moon, pale still in the midsummer sky. "Come along," he said sudd

e near to say. Horrocks's hand tightened and then relaxed. He let go, and before Raut wa

rise upon us as we come down the hill. That to the right is my pet-seventy feet of him. I packed him myself, and he's boiled away cheerfully with iron in his guts for five long years. I've a particular fancy for him. That line of red there-a lovely bit of warm orange you'd call it, Raut-that's the puddlers' furnaces, and there, in

ness. He had come striding down the black path towards the railway as though he was possessed.

ertone of snarl in his voice, "why on earth are you nippi

in. "Nipping your arm off?" he said. "Sorry. But it's y

se to the fence that bordered the railway. The ironworks had grown larger and spread out with their approach. They looked up to the blast furnaces now instead of down; the further view of Etruria and

nge glare, the round eye of light in front of it, the melodious rattle. Fine effects! But these

aid Raut

hat is it?-pillars of cloud by day, red and black smoke, and pillars of fire by night. Now we run it off-i

aid Raut, "you get a burst

uipoise. You shall see it nearer. Else, of course, there'd be no way of getting

ed over his shoulder. "The

ke a vice, and swung him backward and through a half-turn, so that he looked up the line. And there a chain of lamp-lit carriage windows telescoped swiftly as it came towards them, and the red and yellow lights of an engine grew larger and larger, rushing down upon them. As he grasped wha

, as the train came rattling by, and they s

en in spite of his own apprehensions, trying to

e," he said, and then, as one who recove

't," sa

u run over then for the

I lost my nerv

own the slope. As we get nearer, the heap rises up and cuts the blast furnaces. See the quiver up above the big one. Not that way! This way, between the heaps. That goes to the puddling furnaces, but I want to show you the canal first." He came and took Raut by the elbow, and so

as he reasoned with himself. After all, Horrocks might have heard nothing. At any rate, he had pulled him out of the way in time. His odd mann

Rather! The haze in

nse. You've never seen it? Fancy that! You've spent too many of your evenings philandering u

words they passed into the shadows. Horrocks pointed to the canal close before them now: a weird-looking place it seemed, in the blood-red reflections of the furnaces. The hot water that cooled the tuyères came into it, some fifty yards up-a tumultuous, almost boiling affluent, and the steam rose up from the water in silent white wisps and s

ot as sin; but yonder there, where the moonlight falls on it, a

ing-mills," said Horrocks. The threatening hold was not so evident that time, and Raut felt a little reassured.

ushed the plastic bars, like hot sealing-wax, between the wheels, "Come on," said Horrocks in Raut's ear; and they went and peeped through the little glass hole behind the tuyères, and saw the tumbled fire writhing in the pit

eet. It was a dangerous place. They pushed by a truck of fuel to get to the railing that crowned the thing. The reek of the furnace, a sulphurous vapour streaked with pungent bitterness, seemed to make the distant hillside of Hanley quiver. The moon was

"and, below that, sixty feet of fire and molten metal, with th

e. The boiling of the iron and the tumult of the blast made a thunderous accompanime

ch of gunpowder in a candle. Put your hand out and feel the heat of his breath. Why, even up here I've seen the rain-water boilin

red degrees

" said Horrocks. "It will boil t

id Raut, a

out of you in

creamed Raut.

with a violent jerk, Horrocks had twisted him from his hold. He clutched at Horrocks and missed, his foot went ba

flame, released from the chaos within, flickered up towards him. An intense pain assailed him at the knees, and he could smell the singeing of his hands. He raised hi

esticulating figure was bright and white in the moonlight, and shouting, "Fizzle,

oal out of the truck, and flung it d

cried Raut

Horrocks flung hit him. His clothes charred and glowed, and as he struggled the cone dropped,

kened figure, its head streaked with blood, still clutching and fumbling with the chain, and writhing

y sickness came upon him. The heavy odour of burning flesh c

me!" he cried. "O G

ind, and overcame every other feeling. For a moment he stood irresolute, and then, turning to the truck, he hastily tilted its contents upon the struggling thing that had once been a man. The mass fell

ng, clinging to the rail with both hands.

and running steps. The clangour of