JIM. I've seen a man there get caught in one of the cranes. They
stopped the machinery, but they couldn't get him out. They'd have had
to take the crane apart, and that would have cost several days, and it
was rush time, and the man was only a poor Hunkie, and there was no
one to know or care. So they started up the crane, and cut his leg
off.

MRS. AUSTIN. Oh, horrible!

JIM. It's the sort of thing you couldn't believe unless you saw it.
But I saw it. I didn't care, though. I was a fool. And then my time
came.

MRS. AUSTIN. How do you mean?

JIM. A blast furnace blew out, and a piece of slag hit me here, where
you see that patch. If it wasn't for the patch you'd see something
that would make you sick. It was a pain you couldn't tell about . . .
it was a couple of days before I knew where I was. And the first thing
when I came to my senses . . . in the hospital, it was . . . there was
a lawyer chap with a paper waiting for me.

MRS. AUSTIN. [In agitation.] A lawyer?

JIM. Yes, ma'am. Company representative, you know. And I was to sign
the paper . . . it was a receipt for the hospital expenses . . . the
operation and all that . . . you see they had to take out what was
left of my eye. And of course I couldn't see . . . I had to sign where
he told me to. And when I got well, I found they had trapped me into
signing a release.