"You won't, neither of you, go down while I'm here," said Mr Solomon stoutly.

"What right have you to interfere?" cried Courtenay:

"Same right as any man has to interfere when he sees a young goose going to throw away his life."

"Oh rubbish!" said Courtenay. "Just as if I couldn't go down a ladder.

Here, stand aside."

Mr Solomon did not stand aside, and he looked so very st.u.r.dy and firm that Courtenay gave up and drew back with his brother, whispering and waiting his opportunity.

During this time the plumber had been rattling his tools in his basket, and Mr Solomon turned to him again.

"Ain't you going to try her?" he said. "That well hasn't been open these two years."

"Oh! she's right enough," said the plumber sourly. "It ain't the first time I've been down a well."

"But I don't think it's safe," said Mr Solomon. "What do you say?" he continued, turning to Ike.

"Looks right enough," said Ike, kneeling down and looking into the well.

Then rising, "but I wouldn't go down unless I didn't want to come up no more."

"Tchah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the plumber; and I knelt down once more to look for the danger, but could see nothing but the dark whispering hole, with, at a great depth below, the round disc of light representing the mouth of the well.

Just then something pa.s.sed my head and fell down with, after a while, a strange hollow _plash_ from below.

"That'll do," said Mr Solomon angrily. "No more of that, please."

"You mind your own business, Browny. Anyone would think you were the master here."

"Master or no, here's Sir Francis coming. Let's see whether he likes you to be throwing stones down the well."

Mr Solomon uttered a sigh of relief, for, as Sir Francis came along a neighbouring path, the two lads slowly walked away.

"That's a blessing," he said. "Now we can work in peace. You'll try her first--won't you, plumber?"

"All right, gardener. What are you scared about?"

Mr Solomon looked at him angrily and then said:

"I don't know that I'm scared about you, my man; but I don't want to risk my life, or to send down one of my men to fetch you out."

The plumber grunted, and I looked on wondering what the danger was, for I knew nothing then about chemistry or foul gases; and I stared all the more when the plumber took a ball of thin string from his jacket pocket, tied the candle with a couple of half hitches, and then struck a match and lit the wick. Then as soon as it was burning brightly, sheltered by his hands from the breeze, he stooped down and held it in the well and then lowered it down.

We stood round watching the candle swing gently and the flame dance as the plumber slowly unrolled the ball of string.

At first the light looked very pale; but it grew brighter as it left the sunshine near the mouth of the well and lit up the dark slimy-looking old bricks, the rusty iron pipe, and the cross pieces of timber, while far down I could now and then catch sight of the cylinder of the pump as the candle began to swing now like a pendulum. It was very indistinct, just gleaming now and then, while the walls glistened, and I realised more and more what a horrible place it would be for anyone to fall into.

I was full of imaginings of horror, and I fancied the fearful splash, the darkness, the rising to the surface, and then the poor wretch-- myself perhaps--striving to get my fingers in between the slippery bricks, and getting no hold, and then--"There!--what did I tell you?"

said Mr Solomon.

"She's a foul un, and no mistake," growled Ike.

"Oh! that's nothing," said the plumber. "I've been down worse wells than that."

I was puzzled, for it seemed to me that the candle must be bad. As I had watched it the flame grew brighter and brighter as it reached the darkness, and then it burned more palely, grew smaller, and then all at once it turned blue and went out.

He drew it up, lit it again, and lowered it once more, and it seemed to go down a little lower before it went out.

He drew it up again, relit it, and once more sent it down; and this time it went as far as the cylinder of the pump--which was fixed, I saw, on a sort of scaffold or framework where the foot of the ladder rested.

I was able to see all this before the light went out and was drawn up again.

"All right in a few minutes," said the plumber; and he unfastened the candle, lowered down his basket of tools by means of the string, and made it lodge on a bit of a platform close by the works of the pump.

It was all very interesting to me to see how low down the pump was fixed, and that the handle worked an iron rod up and down--a rod of great length.

The plumber took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves, after sticking the candle in his waist and the matches in his pocket, and prepared to descend.

"Why, you are not going down like that--are you?" said Mr Solomon.

"I always do go down like that," said the man with a laugh. "How should you go down-head first?"

"No," cried Mr Solomon angrily; "but with a rope fastened to my waist, and a couple of men to hold it."

"D'yer think I'm a baby?" said the plumber, "or a little child?"

"Worse," said Mr Solomon shortly. "You can make them do what's right."

"Tchah! I know what I'm about, just as well as you know how to bud roses."

"I dare say you do," said Mr Solomon sternly; "but that well's got a lot of foul gas in it, and you're not going down without a rope to hold you."

"Rubbish!" said the plumber, laughing; "I am."

"And who's going to use the water agen if you're drowned in it?" said Ike seriously. "It'll be all full o' white-lead and putty, and kill the plarnts!"

"You're very clever," said the plumber sharply; "but just mind your own business."

As he spoke he sat down with his legs in the well, but Mr Solomon seized him by the collar.

"You stop," he cried; "I won't have it. You don't go down that well without a rope round you. Fetch Bunce," he said, addressing Ike.

"If I can't do my work my own way," said the plumber sharply, "I sha'n't do it at all."

He started up, threw on his jacket, and went off after Ike, while Mr Solomon stood thinking.

"Such idiocy!" he exclaimed. "The well isn't safe, and he wants to run unnecessary risks. I suppose he'll come back," he muttered. "Perhaps I shall have to fetch him. Here, Grant, you stop here and don't leave the mouth of the well for fear anyone should go near."