Then, as he got used to the darkness, he saw the legs of two men; and they had great wrenches and were doing something to long pipes, and they had a candle which they held close up to the pipes, so that they could see.
And the pipes went along close to the beams overhead, so that the men were all the time bumping their heads and knocking their elbows on the beams, and they didn't have room enough to work.
That was the reason why David had seen only their legs when he first came down.
It wasn't a very convenient way to work, but the men didn't seem to mind. Perhaps they were used to it.
"Are those the pipes that the water goes through?" David asked.
"Yes, Davie," the foreman said. "It comes in through the wall there, close down to the floor, from that pipe that you saw the men laying in the street.
"Then it goes up and through these pipes to the back of the cellar, and then up again to the kitchen and the pantry and the bathrooms.
"It isn't much fun being down here, is it?"
"No," David said, "it isn't."
The foreman laughed.