visits, twice splashed up
the drain to see how London Bill came on. Storri was heedful to give the
signals agreed upon by rapping on the walls of the drain. He had no
desire to be killed in the dark by London Bill upon a theory that he,
Storri, was the enemy, and so rapped out the signals handsomely, with a
little hammer he had by him for the purpose, while still ten rods from
the scene of operations.

London Bill was slowly, yet surely, boring forward with his tunnel. The
clay as it was dug must be dragged to the mouth of the tunnel in the
willow basket, and cast into the stream; that was a process to require
time. However, time there was and plenty; London Bill would have his
work in perfect trim against the Friday evening for which the final and
decisive attack on the gold was scheduled. The tunnel, as London Bill
had said it must be, was about four feet high and three in width, and
Storri found that he went in and out very readily by traveling on hands
and knees. Storri would have come oftener to observe how London Bill
fared with his work, but the cracksman discountenanced the thought.

"There's no sense in comin'," explained London Bill. "You can't do any
good, an' you get in the way. Besides, there's the chance of being piped
off; some party might see you and catch on."

One day Inspector Val brought Richard a contrivance made of thin rubber.
It was circular, and eighteen inches in diameter. If the rubber
contrivance resembled anything, it was one of those hot-water bags
common in the trade of hospitals. It was hollow, and had a metal mouth
shaped like the mouth of a bottle; instead of water, however, the bag
was intended to hold air. Pumped full of air, the rubber bag, or rather
cushion, exhibited a thickness of about six inches. It looked a little
like a life preserver; the more since there was a hole in the center,
albeit the hole was no wider than an inch across. The rubber bag or
cushion was extremely light, the material being twice the weight of that
employed in the making of toy balloons. Inflated and considered as a
raft, the rubber cushion would support a weight of twenty pounds, and
draw no more than three inches of water in so doing.

"Storri bought four thousand of these from the Goodyear Company,"
vouchsafed Inspector Val; "had them made after patterns of his own. A
mighty tidy invention, take my word for it!" and the eye of Inspector
Val glanced approval of the circular rubber raft. Then he showe