Virgin, ye saved min's lives this day!"

Around the two crowded the men, shaking their hands and clapping them
on the back with varied exclamations. "You're the lads!" "Good boys!"
"You're the stuff!" "Put it there!"

"What are ye doin' to us?" cried Rory at last; "I didn't see anything
happen. Did you, Barney?"

"We did, though," answered the crowd.

For once Tom Magee was silent. He walked about among the crowd chewing
hard upon his quid of tobacco, fighting to recover his nerve. He had
seen as no other of the men the terrible catastrophe from which the men
had been saved. It was Charley Boyle that again relieved the strain.

"Did any of you hear the cowbell?" he said. "It strikes me it's not
quitting time yet. Better get your captains, hadn't you?"

"Rory and Tom for captains!" cried a voice.

"Not me, by the powers!" said Tom.

"Oh, come on, Tom. You'll be all right. Get your men."

"All right, am I? Be jabbers, I couldn't hit a pin onct in the same
place, let alone twice. By me sowl, min, it's a splash of blood an'
brains I've jist been lookin' at, an' that's true fer ye. Take Barney
there. He's the man, I kin tell ye."