niary success of any importance.

"What are you going to do, Roland?" said she, as he rose to leave the
room.

"I am going to find the depth of the hole that shell has made. It ought
to be filled up, and I must calculate how many loads of earth and stones
it will take to do it."

That afternoon he came to Mrs. Raleigh's house.

"Margaret," he exclaimed, "I have lowered a lead into that hole with all
the line attached which we have got on the place, and we can touch no
bottom. I have telegraphed for a lot of sounding-wire, and I must wait
until it shall arrive before I do anything more."

"You must be very, very careful, Roland, when you are doing that work,"
said Margaret. "Suppose you should fall in!"

"I have provided against that," said he. "I have laid a floor over the
hole with only a small opening in it, so there is no danger. And another
curious thing I must tell you-our line is not wet: we have struck no
water!"

When Margaret visited the Works the next day she found Roland Clewe and
a number of workmen surrounding the flooring which had been laid over
the hole. They were sounding with a windlass which carried an immense
reel of wire. The wire was extremely thin, but the weight of that
portion of it which had already been unwound was so great that four men
were at the handles of the windlass.

Roland came to meet Margaret as she entered.

"The lead has gone down six miles," he said, in a low voice, "and we
have not touched the bottom yet."

"Impossible!" she cried. "Roland, it cannot be! The wire must be coiling
itself up somewhere. It is incredible! The lead cannot have gone down so
far!"

"Leads have gone down as far as that before this," said he. "Soundings
of more than six miles have been obtained at sea."

She went with him and stood near the windlass. For an hour she remained
by his side, and still the reel turned steadily and the wire descended
into the hole.

"Shall you surely know when it gets to the bottom?" said she.

"Yes," he answered. "When the electric button under the lead shall touch
anything solid, or even anything fluid, this bell up here will ring."

She stayed until she could stay no longer. She knew it would be of no
use to urge Roland to leave the windlass. Very early the next morning a
note was brought to her before she was up, and on it was written:

"We have touched bottom at a depth of fourteen and an eighth miles."

When Roland came to Mrs. Raleigh's house, abou