"Well!" cried the squire angrily. "I'm not a harsh man, but I'd give a hundred pounds down to see the wretch who did this lying dead in the ruins."

"Ay, mester," said Hickathrift in a low hoa.r.s.e voice; "it be a shaame.

Will it spoil the dreern, and stop all the work?"

"Ay," said Dave, as he stood leaning upon his pole, which he had brought over his shoulder; "will it stop dreern?"

The two lads leaned forward to hear the answer, and there was a peculiar solemnity in the scene out there in the wild place in the darkness, merely illumined by the two lanthorns.

"Stop the drain!" exclaimed the squire hoa.r.s.ely, and in a voice full of rage.

"No, my men," said the engineer coolly. "It will make a job for the carpenters and the masons; but if the madman, or the man with the brains of a mischievous monkey, thinks he is going to stop our great enterprise by such an act as this, he is greatly mistaken. You, Bargle, be here to meet me at daylight with a double gang. Get the piles up here at once, and if we work hard we can have the piles in and an embankment up before the next tide. A few days' hindrance, Mr Winthorpe, that's all."

The men broke into a cheer, in which Dave and Hickathrift joined; and as nothing more could be done, the little crowd separated, the men going slowly back to their huts, while the squire and Marston made for the track so as to return, talking earnestly the while.

"You talked as if the thing were a trifle," said the squire angrily.

"It will cost us hundreds!"

"Yes, but it might cost us thousands if we let the scoundrels know how big a breach they have made in our works, and they would renew the attack at once."

"Hah, there's something in that!" said the squire, drawing his breath in angrily through his teeth. "If I only knew who was at the bottom of it!

Marston, it must be the work of a gang among your men."

"Think so?" said the engineer quietly.

"I do."

"But why should my men do such a dastardly act?"

"To make the job last longer."

"Nonsense, my dear sir! We have work before us that will last us for years, for this drain is only the first of many."

"Then who is it--who can it be?"

"I think I've got an insight to-night," said Marston. "Tom Tallington saw a couple of men coming along the road and creep to the edge of the mere."

"True! I had forgotten that," said the squire sharply.

"And that shows us that our enemies belong to a party somewhere at a distance, and that we should be wasting time in searching here. Hallo!

who's this?"

The exclamation was caused by the appearance of a dark figure coming towards them from the direction of the Toft.

"Why, it's Thorpeley, the constable!" said d.i.c.k in a whisper to his companion.

"Oh, it's you!" said the squire gruffly. "Pity you weren't down here sooner."

"Has it been an explosion, sir?" said the constable in a smooth unctuous voice.

"Yes," said the squire abruptly, and he walked on with the engineer.

"Ah, I was going on to see!" said the constable; "but as you're all going back, I'll go back too."

No one spoke, but all walked on in silence, for the man's coming seemed to have damped the conversation; but the opportunity for making himself heard and showing his importance was not to be ignored.

"They're very clever," he said in a high voice, so that the squire and Mr Marston, who were in front, could hear; "but I've got my hye upon them."

"Why didn't you ketch 'em, then, 'fore they did this here?" said Dave with a little laugh.

"Ay, why didst thou not stop this?" growled Hickathrift.

"Because the thing was not quite ripe. I shall tak' 'em yet red-handed, and then--"

He paused and rubbed his hands.

"What then?" asked Dave.

"Transportation or hanging--one of them," said the constable with a chuckle.

"Ay, but you heven't found 'em yet," said Dave, shaking his head.

"Nay, bud I can put my hand on 'em pretty well when I like."

"Wheer are they, then?" said Hickathrift excitedly.

"Ay, wheer are they?" said the constable. "Going about stealthily of a night, creeping behind hedges, and carrying messages one to the other.

I know! They think no one suspects them, and that they're going to be pa.s.sed over, but I'm set here to find them out, and I've nearly got things ready."

"Look here, my man," said the engineer, stopping short; "can you say for certain who's at the bottom of this mischief?"

"Mebbe I can, sir."

"Then who was it?"

"Nay," said the constable with a little laugh; "if theer's going to be any credit for takkin of 'em, I mean to hev it, and not give it over to someone else."

"Pish!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the squire angrily; "come along! The man knows nothing."

"Mebbe not," said the constable with a sneer. "Mebbe if people treated people proper, and asked them to their house, and gave 'em a lodging and a bit of food, things might hev been found out sooner; but some people thinks they know best."

The squire understood the hint, but he scorned to notice it, and went on talking sternly to the engineer; but Thorpeley was not to be put down like that, for he continued:

"Mebbe theer's people in it--old people and young people--as wouldn't like to be exposed, but who hev got to be exposed, and--"

"Look here," said d.i.c.k boldly, "if my father won't speak, I will. Do you mean to say you believe Tom Tallington and I know anything about these cowardly tricks?"

"Nay, I'm not going to show my hand," said the man. "Wait a bit, and you'll see."