Pilgrim Street : a story of Manchester life / [Hesba Stretton].

  • Stretton, Hesba, 1832-1911.
Date:
[1867]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pilgrim Street : a story of Manchester life / [Hesba Stretton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    186/228 (page 174)
    PILGRIM STREET. gazed anxiously into his master’s face. As soon as he recovered himself Nat rushed to the door; but his fancy had not deceived him; the lock was secured from the outside, and he was made a helpless prisoner in his office. For a few minutes Nat remained motionless with his hand upon the latch, trying to realise his position. His room was a small office inside the factor}'-, with the window only looking out upon the small square court about which the mill was built. He could see from it the windows of most of the rooms; but there was not the smallest chance of making himself heard into the street, which, of course, lay outside the buildings. The bell which summoned the mill-hands to their voik every morning at six o’clock, and by which he might have given an alarm, and brought a thousand people to his aid, hung just outside the door, and he could have reached it from the thres- hold, but with the door locked it might as well ha\e been on the other side of the mill. He shook the lock again and again, but it was too secure and too strong to give way, and he quickly gave up his useless efforts. The window was a good height in the wall, but by standing on a chair he could see through it very well. For a minute he thought of trying to force his way through it; but at one time the room had been in use as a counting-house, and the casement was