men watched him
curiously, as having completed his preparations he stood grim and silent
with his hands by his sides.

"I wish you'd let me go, sir," said George, plucking up courage to
address him. "You ain't fit to go, you've got a chill or something. I
shouldn't wonder it's the typhoid. They've got it in the village bad."

For a moment Benson looked at him angrily, then his gaze softened. "Not
this time, George," he said, quietly. He took the looped end of the rope
and placed it under his arms, and sitting down threw one leg over the
side of the well.

"How are you going about it, sir?" queried George, laying hold of the
rope and signing to Bob to do the same.

"I'll call out when I reach the water," said Benson; "then pay out three
yards more quickly so that I can get to the bottom."

"Very good, sir," answered both.

Their master threw the other leg over the coping and sat motionless. His
back was turned toward the men as he sat with head bent, looking down the
shaft. He sat for so long that George became uneasy.

"All right, sir?" he inquired.

"Yes," said Benson, slowly. "If I tug at the rope, George, pull up at
once. Lower away."

The rope passed steadily through their hands until a hollow cry from the
darkness below and a faint splashing warned them that he had reached the
water. They gave him three yards more and stood with relaxed grasp and
strained ears, waiting.

"He's gone under," said Bob in a low voice.

The other nodded, and moistening his huge palms took a firmer grip of the
rope.

Fully a minute passed, and the men began to exchange uneasy glances.
Then a sudden tremendous jerk followed by a series of feebler ones nearly
tore the rope from their grasp.

"Pull!" shouted George, placing one foot on the side and hauling
desperately. "Pull! pull! He's stuck fast; he's not coming; PULL!"

In response to their terrific exertions the rope came slowly in, inch by
inch, until at length a violent splashing was heard, and at the same
moment a scream of unutterable horror came echoing up the shaft.

"What a weight he is!" panted Bob. "He's stuck fast or something.
Keep still, sir; for heaven's sake, keep still."

For the taut rope was being jerked violently by the struggles of the
weight at the end of it. Both men with grunts and sighs hauled it in
foot by foot.

"All right, sir," cried George, cheerfully.

He had one foot against the well, and was pulling manfully; the bu