Page:Tudor Jenks--The defense of the castle.djvu/177

Rh ward of the gate-towers, the sounds of pick and shovel could be heard faintly whenever one of the steel tools struck a stone. To make sure that they would not bore too far ahead, the party then walked back a few paces, and began to dig down toward where the tunnel ran, as near as they could judge from the sounds. Using a long-handled shovel, a hole or trench was made slanting outward, and sunk about twenty feet. Then the wooden tube was inserted and worked down into the earth. They were lucky enough to strike the tunnel, or mine, at their first attempt, and they felt the tube slide forward into the opening.

They listened intently, but could not hear anything from the miners, who had probably stopped their work because of the noise that had been made in digging the trench, and were waiting to learn its cause. The Friar and Hugh now set fire to a large pot of pitch and sulphur they had brought with them, and placing this near the mouth of the tube, covered both with a barrel which had been cut to fit over the end of the tube. At the other end of the barrel a hole had been cut for the nozzle of the great bellows, and three or four of the party now pumped air into the barrel as fast as they could work the handles.

After a few minutes they could hear muffled cries from below, and then came the sound of