"Keep back!" said several.

The crowd swayed a little, and I elbowed my way through.  Every one
seemed greatly excited.  I heard a peculiar humming sound from the
pit.

"I say!" said Ogilvy; "help keep these idiots back.  We don't know
what's in the confounded thing, you know!"

I saw a young man, a shop assistant in Woking I believe he was,
standing on the cylinder and trying to scramble out of the hole again.
The crowd had pushed him in.