“Now we’ll go down,” said Uncle Richard. “I’m more than satisfied. I’ll have two or three stout fellows to lower down the stones; the rest we will do ourselves.”
He led the way down, locked up the mill again and the outer gate, and then entered the garden and crossed it to the coach-house, where the packages brought down were waiting.
“Go to the tool-chest and fetch an iron chisel and the biggest hammer,” said Uncle Richard. “No, it’s screwed down. Bring the two largest screw-drivers.”
Tom hurried away, and soon returned, to find that his uncle had opened one of the packages he had brought down, and was untying some brown paper, which proved to contain brass tubes and fittings, with slides and rack-work.
“Know what these are?” said Uncle Richard.
“They look like part of a photographic camera,” said Tom.
“A good shot, my lad, but not right. Now for the big chest. I hope they are not broken. Try and get out some of the screws.”
These were gradually drawn from the very stout chest, the lid lifted, a quantity of thickly-packed straw removed, and a round package of brown paper was revealed.
“Out with it, Tom,” said his uncle. “No, don’t trust to the string.”
Tom bent down to lift out the package, but failed, and his uncle laughed.