one of them was safe but they were unable to save the faller.
a faller among thieves.
Examples of faller
faller
Faller was executive producer of Dragon Hunter, a feature film released in 2008.
From the en.wikipedia.org
Its shares closed down 21.5p at 565.5p, the biggest faller in the leading index.
From the guardian.co.uk
Man is the biggest faller, down 4.8p at 132.6 after its shares went ex-dividend.
From the guardian.co.uk
In the whole of the first circuit he named one faller, and he even got that wrong.
From the independent.co.uk
The biggest blue-chip faller was insurance group Resolution with a decline of 32%.
From the guardian.co.uk
The FTSE 100 is down 44.22 points at 5847.94, with BAE Systems the biggest faller.
From the guardian.co.uk
The news has made Wolseley the biggest faller in a FTSE 100 trying to edge higher.
From the guardian.co.uk
Faller became a teacher there that year and in 1997 was appointed dean of students.
From the heraldtribune.com
Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation is the leading faller in the FTSE 100.
From the guardian.co.uk
More examples
Lumberman: a person who fells trees
A person who falls; "one of them was safe but they were unable to save the faller"; "a faller among thieves"
Faller is a German company specializing in making scenery and plastic model kits for model railroads. Their product line contains houses, trees, bridges, amusement rides and terrain accessories in H0, N, TT and Z scales. ...
One who falls
(Fallers) Use axes or chainsaws to fell trees using knowledge of tree characteristics and cutting techniques to control direction of fall and minimize tree damage. Illustrated Example: Cross Cut Sawyer, Lumberjack, Timber Cutter
A logger who fells timber; usually restricted to people doing hand felling, not to operators of tree harvesters. AKA "Chopper", "Feller".
A person on a Crew with a chainsaw who is responsible for falling trees