t stop dreern?"

The two lads leaned forward to hear the answer, and there was a peculiar
solemnity in the scene out there in the wild place in the darkness,
merely illumined by the two lanthorns.

"Stop the drain!" exclaimed the squire hoarsely, and in a voice full of
rage.

"No, my men," said the engineer coolly. "It will make a job for the
carpenters and the masons; but if the madman, or the man with the brains
of a mischievous monkey, thinks he is going to stop our great enterprise
by such an act as this, he is greatly mistaken. You, Bargle, be here to
meet me at daylight with a double gang. Get the piles up here at once,
and if we work hard we can have the piles in and an embankment up before
the next tide. A few days' hindrance, Mr Winthorpe, that's all."

The men broke into a cheer, in which Dave and Hickathrift joined; and as
nothing more could be done, the little crowd separated, the men going
slowly back to their huts, while the squire and Marston made for the
track so as to return, talking earnestly the while.

"You talked as if the thing were a trifle," said the squire angrily.
"It will cost us hundreds!"

"Yes, but it might cost us thousands if we let the scoundrels know how
big a breach they have made in our works, and they would renew the
attack at once."

"Hah, there's something in that!" said the squire, drawing his breath in
angrily through his teeth. "If I only knew who was at the bottom of it!
Marston, it must be the work of a gang among your men."

"Think so?" said the engineer quietly.

"I do."

"But why should my men do such a dastardly act?"

"To make the job last longer."

"Nonsense, my dear sir! We have work before us that will last us for
years, for this drain is only the first of many."

"Then who is it--who can it be?"

"I think I've got an insight to-night," said Marston. "Tom Tallington
saw a couple of men coming along the road and creep to the edge of the
mere."

"True! I had forgotten that," said the squire sharply.

"And that shows us that our enemies belong to a party somewhere at a
distance, and that we should be wasting time in searching here. Hallo!
who's this?"

The exclamation was caused by the appearance of a dark figure coming
towards them from the direction of the Toft.

"Why, it's Thorpeley, the constable!" said Dick in a whisper to his
companion.

"Oh, it's you!" said the squire gruffly. "Pity you weren't down here
sooner."

"Has it been