or quite two hours he twisted, turned, stretched himself, yawned, got
out of bed and drank cold water, bathed his face, walked up and down,
tried to count a hundred forwards, then backwards, counting sheep going
through a gap, did everything he could think of, and even thought of
standing upon his head to see if that would do any good; but sleep would
not come.

"Am I going to be ill?" he asked himself, and while he was waiting for
the answer he dropped off soundly.

But for no pleasant rest, for it was into nightmare-like dreams of some
great trouble. While he was trying to sleep, all recollection of the
mysterious sounds was in abeyance; but they attacked him again in his
dreams, with this peculiarity, that he seemed to know now exactly where
they were. He was able to locate them precisely. There they were--
hammer, hammer, hammer, throb, throb, throb, till it was almost
maddening.

He tried to escape from them; he longed to get away; but there they were
in the deep darkness, hemmed in by the deep booming chorus of the
falling waters--the only part of his dreams that was real.

For during the whole night, through the sluices, along the chute, and
over the wheel, the waters continued their course, keeping down the
overburdened pool to the same level, for once more heavy rains in the
hills rushed along the stream to augment the supply.

It was with a feeling of intense relief that the boy woke at last in the
faint dawn of morning, sprang from the bed, and rushed to the open
window again, to thrust his burning brow out into the cool, fresh air.
The beating in his brain was gone, his mind was clear, and he strained
out to try whether he could hear through the roar of falling waters the
hammering that had tormented him all through the night.

"No," he said, "it's impossible to hear it from this window;" and he
hurriedly dressed, to make his way out and up to the spot where he had
stood with his friends.

"Nothing now," he said. "Could it have been fancy?"

He listened for a few minutes longer, and then mounted the rough steps,
to stand on the top of the great stone wall to listen from there once
more, before gazing up the valley and noticing that there were two
little clusters of wild-ducks busily feeding just at the mouth of the
stream where it entered the pool. There was a faint glow in the east,
and flecks of gold high towards the zenith, promises of a glorious day,
and he turned slowly, hesitating as to w