me along; and I warn you once
for all, that if you break faith and attempt to call out, you die, as
sure as your name's Barclay Drinkwater!"

Mr Barclay felt as if he was stunned; and, half-led, half pushed, he
was taken into what had once been the pantry, but was now a
curious-looking place, with a bricked round well in the middle, while on
one side was fixed a large pair of blacksmith's forge bellows, connected
with a zinc pipe which went right down into the well.

"What does all this mean?" he said. "What are you going to do?"

"Wait, and you'll see," was all the reply he could get; and he stared
round in amazement at the heaps of new clay that had been dug out, the
piles of old bricks which had evidently been obtained by pulling down
partition walls somewhere in the house, the lower part of which seemed,
as it were, being transformed by workmen. Lastly, there were oil-lamps
and a pile of cement, the material for which was obtained from a barrel
marked "Flour."

The man called Ned was better, and joined them there, the three being
evidently prepared for work, in which Mr Barclay soon found that he was
to participate, and at this point he made a stand.

"Look here," he said; "I demand an explanation. What does all this
mean?"

"Are you ready for work?" cried the leader of the little gang, seizing
him by the collar menacingly.

"You people have obtained possession of this house under false
pretences, and you have made the place an utter wreck. I insist on
knowing what it means."

"You do--do you?" said the man, thrusting him back, and holding him with
his shoulders against a pile of bricks. "Then, once for all, I tell you
this: you've got to work here along with us in silence, and hard too, or
else be shut up in that cellar in darkness, and half-starved till we set
you free."

"The police shall--"

"Oh yes--all right. Tell the police. How are you going to do it?"

"Easily enough. I'll call for help, and--"

"Do," said the man, taking a small revolver from his breast. "Now, look
here, Mr Drinkwater; men like us don't enter upon such an enterprise as
this without being prepared for consequences. They would be very
serious for us if they were found out. Nobody saw you come in where you
were not asked, and when you came to insult my friend's wife."

"Wife?" exclaimed Mr Barclay, for the word almost took his breath away.

"Yes, sir, wife; and it might happen that the gallant husband had an
accid