hree to stand back, told
Nelly Hardy to lift Harry's head and undo his shirt, stripped him to the
waist, and then set the boys to work to rub vigorously on his chest.
Whether the efforts would have been successful is doubtful, but at this
moment there was a sound of hurrying feet and of rapid wheels.

Those who had started at the first alarm had reached the village and
told the news, and most fortunately had met the doctor as he drove in
from his rounds. A man with a rope had leaped into the gig, and the
doctor as he drove off had shouted that hot blankets were to be
prepared.

When he reached the spot and heard that Harry had been brought to bank,
he leapt out, climbed the mound, wrapped him in his coat, carried him
down to his gig, and then drove back at full speed to Stokebridge, where
with the aid of hot blankets and stimulants the lad was brought back to
consciousness.

Jack Simpson was the hero of the hour, and the pitmen, accustomed to
face death as they were, yet marvelled at a boy trusting himself to a
chain which looked unfit to bear its own weight only, and into the
depth of a well where the air might have been unfit to breathe.

Jack strenuously, and indeed angrily, disclaimed all credit whatever.

"I didn't think nowt about the chain, nor the air, nor the water
neither. I thought only o' Harry. It was me as had pushed him down, and
I'd got to bring him oop. If I hadn't a gone down Nelly Hardy would ha'
gone, though she be a lass and doan't know how to swim or to hold on by
a chain, or nowt; but she'd ha' gone, I tell e'e, if I hadn't; I saw it
in her face. She didn't say nowt, but she was ready to go. If she hadn't
gone down to th' shaft none of them would ha gone. She's a rare plucked
'un, she is, I tell e'e."

But in spite of Jack's indignant repudiation of any credit, the brave
action was the talk of Stokebridge and of the neighbouring pit villages
for some time. There are no men appreciate bravery more keenly than
pitmen, for they themselves are ever ready to risk their lives to save
those of others. Consequently a subscription, the limit of which was
sixpence and the minimum a penny, was set on foot, and a fortnight later
Jack was presented with a gold watch with an inscription.

This was presented in the school-room, and Mr. Brook, who presided at
the meeting, added on his own account a chain to match. It needed almost
force on the part of Bill Haden to compel Jack to be present on this
occasi