day night."

"Eh! But if it hedn't been for yow we could ha kep' on."

"Well, you'll have to get some other place," said Uncle Dick; "we want
this."

He turned his back on them and spoke to his brothers, who both, knowing
their great strength, which they cultivated by muscular exercise, had
stood quite calm and patient, but watchful, and ready to go to their
brother's aid in an instant should he need assistance.

"Come on and look round," said Uncle Dick coolly; and he did not even
glance at the squinting man, who had tried to get up, but sank down
again and sat grinning with pain and holding his injured leg.

The calm indifference with which my three uncles towered above the
undersized, pallid-looking fellows, and walked by them to the entrance
to the stone building had more effect than a score of blows, and the men
stopped clustered round their companion, and talked to him in a low
voice. But I was not six feet two like Uncle Bob, nor six feet one like
Uncle Jack, nor six feet three like Uncle Dick. I was only an ordinary
lad of sixteen, and much easier prey for their hate, and this they saw
and showed.

For as I followed last, and was about to enter the door, a shower of
stones and pieces of iron came whizzing about me, and falling with a
rattle and clangour upon the cobble stones with which the place was
paved.

Unfortunately, one piece, stone or iron, struck me on the shoulder, a
heavy blow that made me feel sick, and I needed all the fortitude I
could call up to hide my pain, for I was afraid to say or do anything
that would cause fresh trouble.

So I followed my uncles into the spacious ground-floor of the works, all
wet and dripping with the water from the grindstones which had just been
left by the men, and were still whizzing round waiting to be used.

"Plenty of room here," said Uncle Dick, "and plenty of power, you see,"
he continued, pointing to the shaft and wheels above our heads.
"Ugly-looking place this," he went on, pointing to a trap-door at the
end, which he lifted; and I looked down with a shudder to see a great
shaft turning slowly round; and there was a slimy set of rotten wooden
steps going right down into the blackness, where the water was falling
with a curiously hollow echoing sound.

As I turned from looking down I saw that the men had followed us, and
the fellow with the squint seemed to have one of his unpleasant eyes
fixed upon me, and he gave me a peculiar look and grin tha