'I have tried every way,' he said, 'to see if we could work this
secretly; but 'tis not to be done without the privity of the man who
keeps the well, and even with his help it is not easy. He is a man I do
not trust, but have been forced to tell him there is treasure hidden in
the well, yet without saying where it lies or how to get it. He promises
to let us search the well, taking one-third the value of all we find, for
his share; for I said not that thou and I were one at heart, but only
that there was a boy who had the key, and claimed an equal third with
both of us. Tomorrow we must be up betimes, and at the Castle gates by
six o'clock for him to let us in. And thou shalt not be carter any more,
but mason's boy, and I a mason, for I have got coats in the house,
brushes and trowels and lime-bucket, and we are going to Carisbrooke to
plaster up a weak patch in this same well-side.'
Elzevir had thought carefully over this plan, and when we left the Bugle
next morning we were better masons in our splashed clothes than ever we
had been farm servants. I carried a bucket and a brush, and Elzevir a
plasterer's hammer and a coil of stout twine over his arm. It was a wet
morning, and had been raining all night. The sky was stagnant, and
one-coloured without wind, and the heavy drops fell straight down out of
a grey veil that covered everything.
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