his girth hadn’t broke.”  He added, as a reason for thinking it was not serious that Mr. Tucker had himself inspected the dam just before tea-time, and hadn’t even seen the crack.  It was a laboring man who had discovered it, through crossing the embankment lower down than usual.  “But you see, sir,” said he, in conclusion, “we lie very low here, and right in the track; and so we mustn’t make light of a warning.  And, of course, many of the workmen stop here and have their say; and, to tell you the truth, one or two of them have always misliked the foundation that embankment is built on:  too many old landslips to be seen about.  But, after all, I suppose they can empty the dam, if need be; and, of course, they will, if there is any danger.  I expect Mr. Tucker up every minute.”

Ransome thanked him for his information and pushed on to Lower Hatfield:  there he found lights in the houses and the inhabitants astir; but he passed through the village in silence, and came to the great corn-mill, a massive stone structure with granite pillars, the pride of the place.  The building was full of lights, and the cranes were all at work hoisting the sacks of flour from the lower floors to the top story.  The faces of the men reflected in the flaring gas, and the black cranes with their gaunt arms, and the dark bodies rising by the snake-like cords, formed a curious picture in the fluctuating moonlight, and an interesting one too; for it showed the miller did not feel his flour quite safe.

The next place Ransome came to was Fox Farm.

Farmer Emden was standing at the door of his house, and, in reply to Ransome, told him he had just come down from the reservoir.  He had seen the crack and believed it to be a mere frost crack.  He apprehended no danger, and had sent his people to bed; however, he should sit up for an hour or two just to hear what Tucker the engineer had to say about it; he had been sent for.

Ransome left him, and a smart canter brought him in sight of what seemed a long black hill, with great glow-worms dotted here and there.

That hill was the embankment, and the glow-worms were the lanterns of workmen examining the outer side of the embankment and prying into every part.

The enormous size and double slope of the bank, its apparent similarity in form and thickness to those natural barriers with which nature hems in lakes of large dimensions, acted on Ransome’s senses, and set him wondering at the timidity and credulity of the people in Hatfield and Damflask.  This sentiment was uppermost in his mind when he rode up to the south side of the embankment.

He gave his horse to a boy, and got upon the embankment and looked north.

The first glance at the water somewhat shook that impression of absolute security the outer side of the barrier had given him.

In nature a lake lies at the knees of the restraining hills, or else has a sufficient outlet.