“Can’t you see!” cried Dick, starting off in the direction of where the men were at work; “there’s something the matter.”
Certainly something did seem to be wrong, for the men were hurrying along the black embankment of the great drain in the direction of the sea; and as the boys reached the spot where the digging had been going on, the explanation was plain.
The last time they were there, the men were at work in the bottom of the oozy dike, where a little water lay, soaked out of the sides; but now, right away to the flood-gates, there was a glistening lane of water, the open ditch resembling a long canal in which a barge could have been sailed.
“There isn’t anything the matter,” said Tom. “They’ve let the water in to try how it goes.”
But when at last they reached the sea end, it was to find Mr Marston very busy with his men closing the great gates to keep out the tide, which had risen high and threatened to flood a good deal of low-lying ground. For probably by carelessness the sluice-gate down by the sea had been left open, and the tide had come up and drowned the works.
The two lads stood looking on for some time, until the gates were closed, and then, as the men sauntered away to their lodgings, Mr Marston joined them.
“What did you fill the dike for, Mr Marston?” said Dick.
“Yes: wasn’t it to try how it would go?”
“No,” said the young engineer. “I did not want it filled. The gates were left open.”
“And what are you going to do now?”