think there's a fire."

"Oh, all right," said Vane, leaving the rope.

"Nay, promise as you weant touch 'em, or I weant go no further."

"I promise," cried Vane merrily. "Now, then, up you go to the clock."

The sexton looked relieved, and went to a broad cupboard at one side of
the chamber, opened it, and there before them was the great pendulum of
the old clock hanging straight down, and upon its being started
swinging, it did so, but with no answering _tic-tac_.

"Where are the weights, Mike?" cried Vane, thrusting in his head, and
looking up. "Oh, I see them."

"Ay, you can see 'em, lad, wound right up. There, let's go and see."

The sexton led the way up to the next floor, but here they were stopped
by a door, which was slowly opened after he had played his tune upon the
key pipes.

"Oh I say, Mike, what a horrible old bore you are," cried the boy,
impatiently.

"Then thou shouldstna hev coom, lad," said the sexton as they stood now
in a chamber through which the bell ropes passed and away up through
eight more holes in the next ceiling, while right in the middle stood
the skeleton works of the great clock, with all its wheels and
escapements open to the boy's eager gaze, as he noted everything, from
the portion which went out horizontally through the wall to turn the
hands on the clock's face, to the part where the pendulum hung, and on
either side the two great weights which set the machine in motion, and
ruled the striking of the hours.

The clock was screwed down to a frame-work of oaken beams, and looked,
in spite of its great age and accumulation of dust, in the best of
condition, and, to the sexton's horror, Vane forgot all about the eight
big bells overhead, and the roof of the tower, from which there was a
magnificent view over the wolds, and stripped off his jacket.

"What are you going to do, lad?" cried the sexton.

"See what's the matter. Why the clock won't go."

"Nay, nay, thou must na touch it, lad. Why, it's more than my plaace is
worth to let anny one else touch that theer clock."

"Oh, nonsense! Here, give me the oil."

Vane snatched the bottle, and while the sexton looked on, trembling at
the sacrilege, as it seemed to him, the lad busily oiled every bearing
that he could reach, and used the oil so liberally that at last there
was not a drop left, and he ceased his task with a sigh.

"There, Mike, she'll go now," he cried. "Can't say I've done any harm."

"Nay, I wean'