tremendous length and solemnity. For hours nothing definite seemed
to happen; no one ate or drank, and the current of life at the corner of
Trafalgar Road and Wedgwood Street ceased to flow. Boys and men who had
heard of the affair, and who had the divine gift of curiosity, gazed in
rapture at the `No Admittance' notice on the ramshackle double gates in
Woodisun Bank, It seemed that they might never be rewarded, but their
great faith was justified when a hand-cart, bearing several beams three
yards long, halted at the gates and was, after a pause, laboriously
pushed past them and round the corner into the alley and up the alley.
The alley had been crammed to witness the taking of the beams into the
baker's storeroom. If the floor above had decided to yield, the noble,
negligent carpenters would have been crushed beneath tons of machinery.
At length a forest of pillars stood planted on the ground-floor amid the
baker's lumber; every beam was duly supported, and the experts
pronounced that calamity was now inconceivable. Lastly, the tackle on
the Demy Columbian had been loosed, and the machine, slightly askew,
permitted gently to sink to full rest on the floor: and the result
justified the experts.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TWO.

By this time people had started to eat, but informally, as it were
apologetically--Passover meals. Evening was at hand. The Clayhangers,
later, had met at table. A strange repast! A strange father! The
children had difficulty in speaking naturally. And then Mrs Hamps had
come, ebulliently thanking God, and conveying the fact that the town was
thrilled and standing utterly amazed in admiration before her heroical
nephew. And yet she had said ardently that she was in no way amazed at
her nephew's coolness; she would have been surprised if he had shown
himself even one degree less cool. From a long study of his character
she had foreknown infallibly that in such a crisis as had supervened he
would behave precisely as he had behaved. This attitude of Auntie
Hamps, however, though it reduced the miraculous to the
ordinary-expected, did not diminish Clara's ingenuous awe of Edwin.
From a mocker, the child had been temporarily transformed into an
unwilling hero-worshipper. Mrs Hamps having departed, all the family,
including Darius, had retired earlier than usual.

And now, on meeting his father and Big James and Miss Ingamells in the
q