"'Tis the very marrow uv it, sorr, an' mighty aisy it would be. Sure there are plenty uv boulders left, an' they could make a dam that would turn this stream at the narrow part above, an' niver a blessed dhrop uv dhrink should we get."
"You're right, Barney. We must be prepared for anything. Let us go and look round."
Strolling up stream, they came, within a short distance of the spot where inspiration had flashed upon Barney, to a small spring bubbling up near the river bank.
"Here's water, Barney," said Jack. "It rather suggests that we'd find water inside the camp if we sank a well."
"True, sorr; but I'm thinking that would need a terrible deal uv diggin'."
"Still it may have to be done. We can't use this spring; it's a hundred yards at least away from the stockade—too far to come, under fire from Albini rifles."
"And we couldn't make it run into the camp, sorr, more's the pity."
"Stop a bit. I don't know that we couldn't. We might make a conduit."
"What might that be, sorr?"
"A pipe. It would have to be underground."