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laid, and the layers of mortar between them were finger-thick. With a decent hammer and chisel, I could have cut a way in in a very short time – but not without a ladder on which to stand: and set up a ladder, you could not, because of the well. To this, the floor was sloping, and, since the flags could not be seen for the slime, no ladder could have stood by itself: yet no man could have held it, for he would have slipped; and once he had lost his footing, he must have gone into the depths.
    This, then, was the thieves’ dilemma. They had uncovered the doorway; they had the hammers and chisels with which to cut their way in: but they could not approach the doorway, because whoever did was bound to slide into the well.
    The man with the searchlight was speaking.
    “‘And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed’ – a fact which Punter the Bold preferred to keep to himself.” He sucked in his breath. “I wish he was here. Never mind. When he returns to the fold, we’ll have things out. Don’t forget that, will you? Suppressio veri is a practice I cannot commend. I don’t mind suggestio falsi , because I am never deceived: but its twin is a dart of the wicked, against which no man is proof.” Another spoke over his shoulder.
    “What we want is a nurdle,” he said, “to cover that — well.”
    “But what a brain!” said Friar, for it was he, of course, that had spoken first. “But I have an uneasy feeling that hurdles are, at the moment, in what is called ‘short supply’. A very beautiful phrase. What about a carpet, Orris? A twenty foot square of carpet. I feel that might save your soul.”
    “That’s all right,” said a third. “An’ a ledder’ll stend on that: an ’ cover the well.”
    “Thank you, Goat,” said Friar. “It’s always gratifying to have the obvious perceived – and a declaration, however obscure, made to that effect. Orris and Sloper will now go and win a carpet, while you and I await the fruit of their toil. Get on , you double —. You heard what I said.”
    The tone in which he had spoken was like the crack of a whip, and the two men, Orris and Sloper, fairly jumped in their skins.
    As they turned to do his bidding—
    “We’ll ’ave to ’ave the ladder,” said Orris.
    “I’ll see to that. You go and find a carpet, twenty foot square.”
    We melted into the shadows, to watch, first, Orris and Sloper, and then the others go by.
    “What could be better?” said Mansel. “Let’s pull up the sluice, while they’re gone, and take the boards away.”
    This took hardly a minute, for Palin showed us the way.
    “Can we reach the steps by a window? I’d like to see them out.”
    “Follow me,” said Palin.
    Mansel touched my arm.
    “See how we go, William. I’d like you and Bell to come back.”
    So it fell out that, when we had learned how to reach the postern-steps, Bell and I came back to the dungeons, to watch what befell.
    Returned to its proper channel, a powerful head of water was plunging into the well: because it fell within walls, the bellow it made was monstrous, and so, if words were spoken, I cannot tell what they were. But, when Friar and his man returned, they seemed, at first, unable to credit the report of their eyes. Then with one consent, they let the ladder fall and turned and ran for the sluice.
    Finding their boards removed, they, both of them, drew their pistols, and peered to and fro, all ready to meet the onslaught which did not come. And when the others arrived, dragging a square of carpet and damning its weight, they cursed them into silence, to the others’ great indignation, because, of course, they knew nothing of what had occurred. All this we saw very well from behind the first dungeon’s door, for the lights were on in the passage which led to the sluice. That I was shaking with laughter, I frankly admit, for few things are more entertaining than to see a man fall into the pit you have digged.
    Then Friar gave