There was a moment’s silence through the crowd, a kind of awe at the spectacle and the possibilities that had been mercifully averted.

Then one of the men said—–­

’That was how it was.  I saw one of them above—–­not Stebbing—–­No—–­ coming out to the brow; and after this last frost, not a doubt but that must have been enough to bring it down.’

‘Not railed off, eh?’ said the voice of young Stebbing from among the crowd.

‘Well, it were marked with big stones where the rail should go,’ said another.  ’I know, for I laid ’em myself; but there weren’t no orders given.’

’There weren’t no stones either.  Some one been and took ’em away,’ added the first speaker.

‘I see how it is,’ Frank Stebbing’s metallic voice could plainly be heard, flavoured with an oath.  ’This is your neglect, White, droning, stuck-up sneak as you always were and will be!  I shall report this.  Damage to property, and maybe life, all along of your confounded idleness.’

And there were worse imprecations, which made Miss Mohun break out in a tone of shocked reproof—–­

‘Mr. Stebbing!’

‘I beg your pardon, Miss Mohun; I was not aware of your presence—–­’

‘Nor of a Higher One,’ she could not help interposing, while he went on justifying himself.

’It is the only way to speak to these fellows; and it is enough to drive one mad to see what comes of the neglect of a conceited young ass above his business.  Life and property—–­’

‘But life is safe, is it not?’ she interrupted with a shudder.

‘Ay, ay, ma’am,’ said the voice of the workman, ’or we should know it by this time.’

But at that moment a faint, gasping cry caught Jane’s ear.

Others heard it too.  It was a child’s voice, and grew stronger after a moment.  It came from the corner of the shed outside the stable.

‘Oh, oh!’ cried the women, pressing forward, ’the poor little Fields!’

Then it was recollected that Mrs. Field—–­one of those impracticable women on whom the shafts of school officers were lost, and who was always wandering in the town—–­had been seen going out, leaving two small children playing about, the younger under the charge of the elder.  The father was a carter, and had been sent on some errand with the horses.

This passed while anxious hands were struggling with stones and earth, foremost among them Alexis White.  The utmost care was needful to prevent the superincumbent weight from falling in and crushing the life there certainly was beneath, happily not the rock from above, but some of the debris of the stable.  Frank Stebbing and the foreman had to drive back anxious crowds, and keep a clear space.

Then came running, shrieking, pushing her way through the men, the poor mother, who had to be forcibly withheld by Miss Mohun and one of the men from precipitating herself on the pile of rubbish where her children were buried, and so shaking it as to make their destruction certain.