The tireless, vigilant forewoman kept a sharp lookout for incipient hysteria, and once led a narrow-chested, stoop-shouldered young thing out of the place in time to prevent a collapse.
Saxon was startled by the wildest scream of terror she had ever heard.
The tense thread of human resolution snapped; wills and nerves broke down, and a hundred women suspended their irons or dropped them.

It was Mary who had screamed so terribly, and Saxon saw a strange black animal flapping great claw-like wings and nestling on Mary's shoulder.

With the scream, Mary crouched down, and the strange creature, darting into the air, fluttered full into the startled face of a woman at the next board.
This woman promptly screamed and fainted.

Into the air again, the flying thing darted hither and thither, while the shrieking, shrinking women threw up their arms, tried to run away along the aisles, or cowered under their ironing boards.
"It's only a bat!" the forewoman shouted.

She was furious.