half feet wide. It varied in
dimensions here and there, however, and was rough and irregular
throughout.

For the first hundred yards or so Maggot could see well enough to grope
his way by the daylight which streamed in at the entrance of the adit,
but beyond this point all was intense darkness; so here he stopped, and,
striking a light by means of flint, steel, and tinder, lit one of his
candles. This he attached to a piece of wet clay in the usual fashion,
except that he placed the clay at the lower end of the candle instead of
round the middle of it. He then stuck it against the rock a little
above the level of his head. Lighting another candle he advanced with
it in his hand. Walking, or rather wading onward (for the stream was
ankle-deep) far enough to be almost beyond the influence of the first
candle, he stopped again and stuck up another. Thus, at intervals, he
placed candles along the entire length of the adit, so that he might
have light to guide him in his race from the water which he hoped to set
free. This precaution was necessary, because, although he meant to
carry a candle in his hat all the time, there was a possibility--nay, a
strong probability--that it would be blown or drowned out.

Little more than a quarter of an hour brought him to the scene of his
intended adventure. Here he found the water spirting out all round,
much more violently than it had been the day before. He did not waste
much time in consideration, having made up his mind on the previous
visit as to which part of the rock he would drive the hole through.
Sticking his last candle, therefore, against the driest part of the wall
that could be found, he seized his tools and commenced work.

We have already said that Maggot was a strong man. As he stood there,
naked to the waist, holding the borer with his left hand, and plying the
hammer with all his might with the other, his great breadth of shoulder
and development of muscle were finely displayed by the candlelight,
which fell in brilliant gleams on parts of his frame, while the rest of
him was thrown into shadow, so deep that it would have appeared black,
but for the deeper shade by which it was surrounded--the whole scene
presenting a grand Rembrandt effect.

It is unnecessary to say that Maggot wrought with might and main.
Excited somewhat by the novelty and danger of his undertaking, he felt
relieved by the violence of his exertion. He knew, besides, that the
candles