“Yes,” said Will; “carried here and there by the wind.”
“Well,” said the artist, “the water makes roaring noise enough, without our listening for echoes. Let’s go a bit higher where we can see the sky. It’s horribly dark down here, but the stars are very bright if we get out of the shadows. What’s the matter?” he said sharply, for Will caught his arm.
“There it is again,” cried the boy. “Somebody must be hammering and thumping. What can it be?”
“It’s what I said,” said Josh; “the bearings of the big wheel are a bit loose. Who could be hammering and thumping in the darkness? Wouldn’t he have a light?”
“I don’t know,” said Will; “but if something’s got loose, it ought to be seen to.”
“But you couldn’t do anything in the dark,” said Josh. “My word, what a game it would be if the old wheel broke away! What would happen then?”
“Once started, I should say it would go spinning down the valley for miles,” said Manners, laughingly. “Just like a Brobdingnagian boy’s hoop gone mad.”
“Ah, I should like to see that by daylight,” cried Josh.
“I shouldn’t,” said Will, bitterly. “It wouldn’t be much fun. There! now, can you hear it? That thumping?”
“Yes, I heard it then,” said Manners, “and I don’t think that there’s any doubt of its being the echo of something giving a thump as the wheel turns. Is it worth while to go and tell old Jack-of-all-trades Drinkwater to come and see if anything’s wrong?”