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 covering the ‘ole place with mess and plaster and Lord knows what?” “Well, master, I done the best I could,” says the man; “I don’t know no more than what you do ‘ow it come to fall out this way. I tamped it right in the ‘ole,” he says, “and now it’s fell out,” he says, “I never see.”

‘ “Fell out?” says old Palmer, “why it’s nowhere near the place. Blowed out, you mean,” and he picked up a bit of plaster, and so did I, that was laying up against the screen, three or four feet off, and not dry yet; and old Palmer he looked at it curious-like, and then he turned round on me and he says, “Now then, you boys, have you been up to some of your games here?” “No,” I says, “I haven’t, Mr. Palmer; there’s none of us been about here till just this minute,” and while I was talking the other boy, Evans, he got looking in through the chink, and I heard him draw in his breath, and he came away sharp and up to us, and says he, “I believe there’s something in there. I saw something shiny.” “What! I daresay,” says old Palmer; “Well, I ain’t got time to stop about there. You, William, you go off and get some more stuff and make a job of it this time; if not, there’ll be trouble in my yard,” he says.