You know, I told Jack that I'd go up and take off the earthings myself. But he was half way up the ladder before I could do anything. He had his belt and gloves and everything with him.’ ‘The gloves wouldn't have made much difference up there would it?’ I said. ‘Not against eleven thousand volts.’ ‘No they'd be useless against that.’ The boss took out his tobacco and began rolling himself a cigarette, settling himself down on the floor against the wall by the fire. ‘I still don't know really how it happened. Except that being so short Jack would have had to step up another rung higher than we would have to. The wind must have blown him off balance and he must have reached out to grab the arm. You know how the wind was blowing that afternoon. The ladder was pretty slippery too. But I don't think he could have slipped. He had his rubber boots on. It must have been just as he was strapping on his belt.” I could picture that last fatal second. The sudden wild grab. The realization. The— ‘Hell’, I said. Spaced out at various intervals along the high tension line, or main line as it is better known, there are several connections that can sever the flow of power by throwing a lever and opening the arms of the connection out, like jaws. This deadens one side of the whole line and enables men to work that end safely. But to ensure against any danger at all, we attach what is known as earthing wires to the dead side of the line, so that if the switch happens to be accidentally on while we are still working the line, they run the power to earth. This ensures double safety. It was these wires that Jack Kahui had gone up to disconnect. It is always the last thing done on any job. Such as we were working then. ‘I was looking the other way’, the boss went on. ‘The next thing I heard this bump on the ground behind me. He landed head first. I thought he had broken his neck. But the doctor said that he was dead before he hit the ground. ‘Eleven thousand volts. Hell yes.’ ‘Do you think he felt anything Tom?’ ‘Nooa, he wouldn't have known what hit him. It'd be just like that.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘Is everything fixed now. In town I mean?’ Paul Churchill asked. ‘Yeah’, old Tom said. ‘But God they put up a fight. The b–—s. Talk about a suspicious lot. They'd always been after Les though you know.’ Les Walker was the owner of the Company. Tom was just the foreman. ‘They examined the belt, the gloves, the ladder, everything.’ ‘Why didn't you get us along to help. We could've backed you up.’ ‘Nooa, I didn't want you boys mixed up in it. It had nothing to do with you.’ Tom left not long after that and when he went we were very silent and still for a long time. Then Paul Churchill screwed up his mouth had raised his brows in a way that meant ‘We don't know nothing.’ And someone else said ‘Hell’. It was the first time the boss had ever talked with us like that. The next day one of the men from the other half of the gang which was working in Taupo at the time, arrived in the camp. We were staying in a paper mill camp at the time and we used to eat over in the dining room with the mill workers. That evening we had just finished tea and the new arrival met us in the porch of the dining room as we came out. ‘How's the old b–—taking it?’ he said. He had heard of the accident and the trouble that old Tom had been in over it. ‘I wish to hell he gets in the proper s–—over it’, he said. We did not look at him. And for a long time no one answered. Then Paul Churchill said, ‘Tom's O.K. boy. Yeah he's not a bad fella.’ ‘Like fun.’ Paul Churchill turned away and did not say anything and began walking towards the huts. And I heard him say as he went, not to us, but to himself. With his head down and shaking from side to side: ‘Yeah he's O.K., old Tom. He's not a bad fella.’