The consequence of this letter was that sometimes all four, sometimes only two of us went and kept watch there of a night, very much to old Searby’s disgust, but we could not afford to heed him, and night after night we lost our rest for nothing.
“Are we being laughed at?” said Uncle Bob wearily one night; “I’m getting very tired of this.”
“So we all are, my dear fellow,” said Uncle Jack: “but I can’t help thinking that it is serious.”
Uncle Jack was right, for serious it proved.
Chapter Twenty Six.
Fire and Water.
One dark night at the end of March we went down to the works all four, meaning to watch two and two through the dark hours. The wind blew hard and the rain fell, and as we reached the lane we could hear the water lapping and beating against the sluice and the stones that formed the head of the dam, while the waste rushed away with a hollow roar.
“Pity to lose so much good power,” said Uncle Jack.