as foreigners make when they are ordered to keep quiet, and have to

carry on a struggle with their noisy nature.

"This was enough to settle my decision not to budge an inch, until

I knew what they were up to. I could not see round the corner,

mind--though ladies seem capable of doing that, Maria--and so these

fellows, who seemed to be in two lots, some at the top and some at the

bottom of the plankway, were entirely out of my sight as yet, though I

had a good view of their sliding-plane. But presently the ropes began to

strain and creak, drawn taut--as our fishermen express it--either

from the upper or the lower end, and I saw three barrels come sliding

down--sliding, not rolling (you must understand), and not as a brewer

delivers beer into a cellar. These passed by me; and after a little

while there came again that strange sepulchral sound, which had made me

feel so uneasy.

"Maria, you know that I can hold my own against almost anybody in

the world but you; and although this place is far outside my parish

boundaries, I felt that as the Uncle of the present owner--so far at

least as the lawyers have not snapped him up--and the brother-in-law

of the previous proprietor, I possessed an undeniable legal right--quo

warranto, or whatever it is called--to look into all proceedings on

these premises. Next to Holy Scripture, Horace is my guide and guardian;

and I called to mind a well-known passage, which may roughly be rendered

thus: 'If the crushed world tumble on him, the ruins shall strike him

undismayed.' With this in my head, I went softly down the side-wall of

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