and
drawing up of the big buckets had a peculiar fascination for some of the
youngest boys, notably the little set whose playtime was nearly all
monopolised by hard work--to wit, the bowling and fielding for Slegge.
Their anxiety was wonderful. If Glyn was not constantly on the watch,
one or other would be getting in the men's way, to peer down into the
darkness or rush to where the full buckets were emptied into a drain.

On commencing work upon the sixth morning the water was found to be so
lowered that the big buckets had to be removed from rope and chains, for
they would not descend far enough to fill. So they were replaced by
small ordinary pails; and, the work becoming much lighter, they were
wound up and down at a much more rapid rate.

"We shan't be long now, Mr Severn, sir," said Wrench, for each pail as
it came up had for its contents half-water and half-mud, the sediment of
many, many years. And at last Glyn's heart began to throb, for hanging
out over the side of the last-raised bucket was a long length of muddy
string.

"Then I am right," he said to himself. "How strange!" And as he
followed to the mouth of the drain into which the contents of the pail
were to be poured he caught hold of the string.

"Here, don't do that, sir," cried Wrench. "You'll cover yourself with
mud. Let me," and before the boy could stop him the man had snatched
the string from his hand and drawn it out.

"Broken away," said Glyn to himself, as the end was drawn from the
bucket, and he now peered anxiously into the pail, expecting to see one
end of the long morocco case standing up out of the thick contents.

But as the half-fluid mud was poured away the empty bucket went down and
its fellow rose similarly filled.

Glyn expected to see the rest of the string, for nothing like half of
that which he believed he had lost had come up.

Again he was disappointed, for there was neither string nor case, and
for some time bucket after bucket rose, at first full of mud, but by
slow degrees containing half, a quarter, and then only a small portion
of mud and water at a time, while each time the empty ones reached the
bottom a hollow scraping sound arose, as by clever manipulation of the
rope by Wrench they were dragged along the bottom.

"I say, Mr Severn, sir," he cried, "who'd ever have thought that there
was all that mud under the beautiful clear water? Ah, it must be a mort
of years since it was cleared out, and now we a