until now it was finished to the
last detail in a shorter time than it takes to build many a six-roomed
cottage. Every morning two long special trains had arrived from
Birmingham, carrying down a great army of labourers, who were relieved
in the evening by a fresh gang, who carried on their task under the rays
of twelve enormous electric lights. The number of workmen appeared to be
only limited by the space into which they could be fitted. Great lines
of waggons conveyed the white Portland stone from the depot by the
station. Hundreds of busy toilers handed it over, shaped and squared, to
the actual masons, who swung it up with steam cranes on to the growing
walls, where it was instantly fitted and mortared by their companions.
Day by day the house shot higher, while pillar and cornice and carving
seemed to bud out from it as if by magic. Nor was the work confined
to the main building. A large separate structure sprang up at the same
time, and there came gangs of pale-faced men from London with much
extraordinary machinery, vast cylinders, wheels and wires, which they
fitted up in this outlying building. The great chimney which rose from
the centre of it, combined with these strange furnishings, seemed to
mean that it was reserved as a factory or place of business, for it
was rumoured that this rich man's hobby was the same as a poor man's
necessity, and that he was fond of working with his own hands amid
chemicals and furnaces. Scarce, too, was the second storey begun ere the
wood-workers and plumbers and furnishers were busy beneath, carrying
out a thousand strange and costly schemes for the greater comfort and
convenience of the owner. Singular stories were told all round the
country, and even in Birmingham itself, of the extraordinary luxury and
the absolute disregard for money which marked all these arrangements.
No sum appeared to be too great to spend upon the smallest detail which
might do away with or lessen any of the petty inconveniences of life.
Waggons and waggons of the richest furniture had passed through the
village between lines of staring villagers. Costly skins, glossy
carpets, rich rugs, ivory, and ebony, and metal; every glimpse into
these storehouses of treasure had given rise to some new legend. And
finally, when all had been arranged, there had come a staff of forty
servants, who heralded the approach of the owner, Mr. Raffles Haw
himself.

It was no wonder, then, that it was with considerable c