The statue was evidently a very antique one; but so well had it been preserved in the clay that the gilt still flashed upon it where they had scraped away the dirt, and in the early grey of dawn that was now spreading we could just distinguish the bright silver stars upon the blue robes.
Again they all returned to their work with pick, spade, and “grubbers,” toiling on in the hole they had made, their heads only being visible above the surface, until the abbey bells chimed out, and then solemnly struck five o’clock.
Day had broken, and the warning notes of the bell caused his lordship to order a cessation of the labour. All four regarded the surface and looked with regret upon their rather fruitless efforts, well knowing that the damage they had done would, in an hour, be discovered, and that to continue their secret search of the spot would be entirely impossible.
“We can’t return; that’s very evident,” remarked Selby. “The village constable will be put on to watch, I expect. Therefore, we shall have to wait a month or so before we come back.”
“Couldn’t we perhaps square the constable?” the fourth man suggested.
“I doubt it. These country policemen are so much more straight than the men in town. As like as not, they’d split upon you, so as to get their promotion. You see, the work we’ve done tonight is a bit ugly, for a magistrate would probably call it stealing.”
“Rubbish!” snapped his lordship. “Don’t stay gossiping here. Let’s pack up and get away. There are a lot of labourers already on the move. Don’t you see the smoke from the cottage chimneys over there? We shall have someone across this footpath to the fields in a minute if we don’t get clear away.”
Scarcely, indeed, had he finished speaking when the dark figure of a man, with a fork over his shoulder, whistling to himself on his way to work, appeared at the stile at the opposite corner of the field, and took the footpath in their direction.
They noticed him, and, hastily snatching up their picks and spades and other tools, all four made off in the direction where the cart stood, and, ascending into it, drove rapidly off down the long highway across the fen, in the mists of which they were quickly lost to sight.
As soon as they had gone we emerged from the spot where we had remained cramped for so long, and rushed to the big hole they had made.