The pit was deeper than anything the foundry crew had ever dug, enough to stand a tube nearly seven feet long upright, and Beorn had already made the men dig it a second time after the first attempt came up two feet too shallow.
Cast-iron stock rested in heavy bars along one wall, each one thick enough that moving it took two men. A smaller stack of steel bars waited apart from the rest, marked with chalk so nobody could mistake one for the other.
Wynn wasn't on the foundry floor. He'd taken the steam hammer's bearing apart again that morning, the third time that week by Beorn's count. Beorn had told him to stay with the machine until it finally ran true. There was no sense pulling him away for this if the hammer still wasn't ready.
