Our Adventures at West Poley by Thomas Hardy

1. I come to see my aunt.

One fine evening in early autumn I stopped at the door of a house in West-Poley, a village in the south-west of England. I came to see my Aunt Draycot. Her husband was dead, and she with her son Steve lived on a farm.

Steve ran out to meet me. He was three years older than I. Steve was strong and brave and he liked to be the first among the boys.

“Good evening,” said Steve. “My mother is not at home, but she will soon be back.”

“I am very glad that your farm is not far away from the hills,” I said. “And I think we shall often climb the hills, before I go home. But I thought these hills were higher.”

“They are not very high but there are many caves inside them,” said Steve.

“Caves?” I said. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am,” said Steve. “Have you heard of Mendip Caves?”

At that moment my aunt came in. Soon she called us to supper, and that evening we did not speak any more about Mendip Caves.

Steve, of course, did not forget my words about the hills. The next morning when he came into my room he began to speak about the caves.

“I want to show you the caves, Leonard, if you come with me,” he said. “But we must go out quietly because my mother does not like when I go there — my shirt and trousers are so dirty when I come back home. Well, let’s go into the garden and see what I have prepared.”

We went out, and in the garden he showed me the place where I saw all the things which we needed. There were many candles, a piece of board with a handle at one end and with many holes for the candles. There was also some bread and butter, and a few apples, too.

When I saw this I understood that the caves must be large and I said that I wanted to go and see them.

2. We start for the caves.

It was the time after harvest, there was not much work to do on the farm, and Steve’s mother allowed her son to go for a walk with me. We took some bread and butter, some apples and candles and started for the caves.

Soon we came up to the mouth of the cave which people called Nick’s Pocket. The way there was past the village houses and the mill, across the mill-stream which came from a spring in the hill-side.

Nobody saw us as we came into the cave. Steve lit three candles and stuck them into the board. We went on slowly. I saw the caves for the first time, everything there was new to me and I liked it very much. The candles gave very little light, and we could see only the nearest walls.

“I have been here hundreds of times,” said Steve, “and I am not at all afraid. Are you afraid?”

“No, of course not,” I said, but it was not quite true.

We went on and on, till at last the walls came so near each other that it seemed there was no way further.

“Look, this place is what everybody calls the end of Nick’s Pocket,” said Steve. “But there is a little entrance.

“Well,” I said at last, “I can stay here always.”

“But we have too little food for that,” said Steve, “and now let’s have lunch.”

We sat down and ate the bread and butter and the apples. Then it was time to go home.

So we gathered up the candles, jumped down from the niche, crossed the old bed of the stream again and found our way into the open air.

We liked our adventure very much and decided to repeat it very soon. So we did not take home the candles and the spade, but laid them not far from the entrance.

Then we cleaned our boots and started for the village. Soon we heard a great noise in the road.

3. What happened in the village while we were in the cave.

“What is it?” I said, and stood still.

“Voices, I think,” answered Steve. “Listen.” A man was shouting.

“I have never heard anything like that in my life,” said Steve.

“Let’s come nearer,” I said.

We came nearer, and soon saw a man who stood in the middle of the road. He was shouting loudly and many people gathered around him.

“Why, this is the miller!” said Steve.

Soon we could hear his words.

“The money — my money!” he was shouting. “A terrible thing happened now — I lost everything I had.” The miller put his hands on his face and began to cry.

We came quite near, and Steve asked,

“What is happening here? Why is the miller crying?”

“The river has suddenly stopped,” said one of the farmers, “and his mill will not go any more.”

I looked at the stream — there was no stream any more.

“The river is dry!” whispered Steve.

“Yes,” I said. “Don’t you know why?”

I quickly thought of the cave and of the stream there which we had directed into another hole.

“The river in the village disappeared because of that,” I thought.

I looked at Steve and understood that he thought the same.

We walked quickly to the river-bed. There was no water in it. We saw many people who were going with the buckets in their hands and on their shoulders.

“Where are you going?” said Steve to one of them.

“To your mother’s well, for water,” was the answer. “The river from which we took water is dry. Oh, how shall we wash clothes and cook dinner? It is very hard to bring water on your back when your house is so far from the well! This work can kill not only a man, but a horse too.”

“Listen,” I said to Steve, “we must immediately go back to the cave, and turn the water into its old bed.”

“Of course we must immediately do that,” answered Steve.

We went back to the cave. There we quickly lit the candles, Steve took the spade and began to work. First he threw some large stones into the stream, and then he put some earth on the both sides of the stones. The stream turned into its old bed almost immediately.

“Look here,” said Steve, “it is just as it was when we saw it for the first time. Now, let’s go home.”

When we walked into the village street we saw the miller. His face showed that he was very glad. We also saw many people of West Poley on the bridge near the mill. They were talking about the strange things that were happening to their river.

4. We go to see the village on the other side of the hill.

Everything was quiet during the next two days. Then one fine warm morning we decided to cross the hills and come down into East Poley. This was the next village which lay on the other side of the hill. We reached the top of the hill and sat down to rest a little. Suddenly a man came up to us and Steve saw that it was one of the farmers from West Poley.

“A terrible thing has happened again,” he said to us.

“What is it this time?” said Steve, and jumped to his feet.

“Oh, the river is dry again. It happened at a quarter past ten this morning, and people think that it will never run any more.”

The man continued his way. I turned to Steve.

“I know how that has happened,” he said. “The water has washed away the earth and stones that we threw into the stream.”

“Let’s go to the cave and put everything in order again,” I said.

“No,” said Steve, “we are too far from the caves now and we wanted to go for a walk to East Poley. The West Poley people can live without water for one day. We shall return home earlier and then put everything in order again.”

We walked on and on. When we were coming up to East Poley we suddenly saw a man standing in the road. When we came nearer we saw that he was laughing. He laughed until he was tired. Then he stood still for a few minutes and looked on the ground as people do when they are thinking of something. And then he began to laugh again and walked on. He walked a little, then stopped again, and again he began to laugh.

We came up to him, and Steve said,

“Good morning, may I ask why you are laughing so?”

“Why am I laughing so?” he repeated. “When you are as happy as I am, you will laugh too.” He said this and walked on.

We went down the hill to the village, and soon reached it. We came to a green field. On the other side of the field there was an inn. When we came nearer we heard music. In front of the door of the inn there stood a large table and some people were sitting at it. They were eating and drinking, while two young men and two young girls were dancing. We could not understand what was happening, and, of course, we wanted to know why these people were so merry.

I turned to one of the old men at the table and asked him,

“Why are you all so merry in this village, sir?”

“Because we are all very happy now,” he answered. “Because we don’t get a new river every day.”

“A new river?” asked Steve and I.

“Yes,” said one of the men. “Yesterday afternoon a river of beautiful water began to run from the hill; in an hour it stopped again, and it is running now very well. We think it will run here always.”

“We are happy because there was always very little water in this place, and we had to make deep wells. But still we did not have enough water for our cows and horses. Now we have got a new river, and the village will grow and grow and become a town.”

5. We help Job to get rid of his master.

When we left the village we began to speak at once.

“What a fool I am!” said Steve. “Of course, if you stop the stream in one direction, the water must run in some other direction.”

“Listen,” I said, “if we give the water back to the people of West Poley, we shall take it away from the people of East Poley. So if we do good to one village, we shall do harm to the other.”

“Yes,” said Steve, “I am thinking about the same thing too.”

“We have no right to take the water away from one village and give it to the other and not ask the people of both villages about it,” I said.

We did not decide the question, and when we reached West Poley we were very hungry and tired.

When we passed the mill we heard loud shouts. We came nearer and saw that the miller was beating the boy who worked on his mill. The miller was a strong man, but Steve got very angry and went up to the miller.

“Why are you beating the poor boy?” he said.

“He says he will leave me,” cried the miller. “What right has he to say that he’ll leave, I want to know!”

“But there is no work for me to do. The mill does not go,” said the boy, “and the agreement says that I may leave the place if there is no work on the mill. He keeps me here and does not pay me. I don’t know how to live.”

“Go and work in the garden!” cried the miller.

Steve liked Job — this was the name of the miller’s worker — and now Steve wanted to help him. At that moment Steve saw a man in very poor clothes.

“We shall ask him to help us,” Steve said to me.

“And who is that man?” I asked Steve.

“People call him the Man Who Had Failed. He is a very clever and honest man, and the people of West Poley respect him.”

We asked the man to help us, and in a few minutes he proved to the miller that Job had the right to leave.

We thanked the Man Who Had Failed for his help and Job thanked us.

“My master beat me very often,” Job said, “almost every day, and I am very glad that I can go to work to some other master.”

We went to bed early that night because we were too tired, but, at the same time, could not sleep.

“I think that we have done more good than harm,” said Steve, “the miller is the only man whom we did much harm because his mill has stopped. But he is a bad man, and I am glad that we did him so much harm. At the same time poor Job is free and this is another good thing that we did.”

I answered him something—I do not remember what — but suddenly Steve said, “I know what to do.”

“What?”

“You must first promise not to tell anybody about it.”

“I promise,” said I.

6. Steve’s wonderful plan.

“Listen,” said Steve, “here is my plan. We shall go to Job, tell him our secret, show him the cave, give him a spade, and ask him to stop the water which is running to East Poley at twelve o’clock for five minutes. Then we shall go to the East Poley boys and tell them that we are magicians who can dry up rivers and make them run again when they want it. We shall tell the East Poley boys that at twelve o’clock their river will stop, and that after a short time it will run again. And in order to look like magicians we shall take some gold lace, which is on my grandfather’s old coat, and put that lace round our caps. Then we must make great beards of horsehair.”

“And we must have wands,” I said. I liked Steve’s plan very much.

In the morning we found Job, told him our secret and asked him to help us. He liked our plan very much too and promised his help.

We took Job to the cave, gave him Steve’s watch and showed him the West Poley hole into which we asked him to turn the stream at twelve o’clock for five minutes.

Then we went to East Poley. When we climbed up the hill we found a place where nobody could see us. I began to work at the sticks and made two white wands. Steve was putting pieces of old lace round our caps. Then we made the beards, put them on and went down the other side of the hill.

The first boys whom we saw were playing in the garden near the new stream. It was almost twelve o’clock, and Steve began.

“How do you do, gentlemen?” he said.

The boys answered something and Steve continued,

“You will give us some of those red apples from the garden because you, of course, know who we are.”

The boys laughed at his words, and one of them said, “Who are you that we must give you our apples?”

“We are magicians — I am sure you have heard of us.

Everybody knows us because we gave this new river to your village.”

“I don’t believe it,” said one of the boys.

“Get out of here, we shall not give you any apples,” said another. “Don’t try to make fools of us.”

“Very well, gentlemen, very well! You are not kind and we shall stop the water of your new river at twelve o’clock today,” said Steve.

“Do it! Do it!” said the boys. They still did not believe us.

We came up to the stream and began to wave our wands.

“But the river continues to run,” said the boys.

“Wait a little,” I said. “Even the magicians cannot do these things at once.” Then I turned to Steve and whispered, “I hope Job has not forgotten what he must do, or these boys will beat us.”

And we stood there, near the stream, and waved our white wands. Seven or ten minutes passed, and we did not already know what to do or think, when suddenly the stream began to become less and less.

The boys did not believe their eyes. They could not even speak, but were only whispering to each other.

Steve came up to them and said,

“Do you see what you have done? I ask you again, will you give us those red apples? We give you five minutes to think.”

“Take the apples,” cried the boys.

“Thank you, gentlemen,” said Steve, “and next time listen to what magicians are telling you.”

“I see that you are good boys,” I said. “You became kind and clever very quickly, and we shall give you the river back in two or three minutes.”

We began to wave our wands and the water began to run again. Job did his work very well!

Suddenly we saw a man who was coming up to us. Steve looked at him and saw at once that it was one of his neighbors from West Poley.

“Oh, Steve, what are you doing here in this village? I see your little cousin is with you. And your beards?”

Steve came up quickly to the man and told him something, I did not hear what. Then he returned to me and said,

“Let’s go home before the boys can understand who we really are.”

“With pleasure,” I said, and we walked to West Poley.

Soon we saw a poor woman and a rich farmer. They were quarreling. The rich farmer wanted to build a watermill on the new stream. So he dammed the water, and poor woman’s garden became a lake.

“Please, sir, make the dam lower.”

“In order to make the dam lower I shall have to spend much money. When your father died the house came into my hands; and I can do what I like with it.”

The woman went into the house. Steve and I couldn’t look at the poor woman’s garden. The fruit-trees were standing deep in the water.

“We have not done much good to the people of East Poley,” I said. “Let’s better give the river back to the people of West Poley, and save the poor woman’s garden.”

“But then,” said Steve, “the mill will work again, and poor Job will have to go back to the miller and he will beat Job as before! It is very difficult to do good to all the people!”

7. We decide to give water to nobody.

When we returned to West Poley we met Job.

“Well,” he asked, “was it all right? I began to work in the cave at a quarter past eleven. But I did not turn the water to West Poley. I was afraid to make the mill work even for a few minutes.”

“Then where did you turn the water?” cried Steve.

“I found another hole,” said Job.

“It is very good that you have found a third hole, Job,” said Steve. “I think that to give water to East Poley is as bad as to give it to West Poley, because rich people are bad in both villages. Tomorrow we shall go to the cave and turn the stream in the third direction.”

All the next day my cousin was away from home. His mother sent him to town to buy something, so Job and I had to meet him at the cave’s mouth in the evening. The day was very difficult for me. All the time I was thinking and thinking and thinking. “Do we have a right to leave the villages without water, even if we hate the miller and the rich farmer?” I thought.

At last evening came and I went to the cave. When I was going out of the village. I saw some people who were going along the other side of the field, and in a moment I heard the words of their conversation.

“It is a very strange story,” spoke the voice of the miller.

“And what do the people of East Poley say?” asked the voice of the shoemaker.

“They say that these two boys came to their village and said that they could stop the river and they really stopped it. I think the boys got to the head of the river and did something with it. I am sure the water that runs down East Poley is the water that must run through my mill,” said the miller.

“I’ve never liked Steve and his cousin,” said the shoemaker.

The miller could give no answer to that.

Now I knew what to do. I ran like a rabbit across the field and soon reached the cave. I was very glad to see that Steve was already there. I quickly told him everything.

“Let’s go and tell the whole thing to some good and clever man,” I said.

Steve thought a little and then agreed.

“But let us first finish what we decided to do and then we shall tell somebody about the whole thing. And now, where is Job? He must be inside the cave. Let’s go in.”

We went into the cave and saw Job there. We told him that the neighbors began to think that we did something with the river.

“Ah,” said Job, “if they find out why the river has stopped, they will come here, and turn back the stream. Then the mill will go again, and I shall have to work for the man who beat me almost every day.”

“I think we must turn the water into the third hole for ever,” said Steve. “Then we shall save you, Job, and the poor woman too. We can do it with stones and earth.”

“Let us begin our work,” I said.

Steve took the spade, and we began to work. First we turned the stream into the third hole. Then we began to put stones into the other two holes.

Suddenly I noticed that the sound of the water which was going into the third hole had changed. I looked around. What I saw was terrible. The whole cave behind us was full of water. The third hole led nowhere. It was just a stone sack. When Job first turned water into the third hole it did not fill the whole sack because Job soon turned the stream back into the East Poley hole.

“Oh, Steve, Job!” I cried.

They looked round at once and understood everything. Nick’s Pocket had become a trap. The mouth of the gallery by which we came here was already under water. Besides, the water stood above the old holes which led to West Poley and East Poley.

“There is only one way out for us — only one,” said Steve. “We must try to open the West Poley hole.”

“But how can we open it?” I asked.

It was difficult to answer this question, because the holes were under water.

But you didn’t know my cousin Steve.

“You will help me,” he said to Job. “We must dive and get out the stones.” And then he turned to me. “All that you can do is to stand in the niche with the candles and give us light.”

Steve and Job took off their clothes and put them on the floor of the niche behind me, then stepped down into the middle of the cave, where there was already much water. At the place where the West Poley hole was it was much deeper; into this part Steve dived. Soon he came up with a big stone in his arms.

“That’s one of them!” he said when he could speak. “But there are many, many more.”

Then Job dived and soon came up with another big stone. He threw the stone and Steve dived again. To take out the stones became more and more difficult; the water was rising and the lake became deeper and deeper. Besides, the stones were further and further down in the hole. But my two brave friends took out seven big stones. Then they dived and brought up nothing. They said they couldn’t take out more stones, and put on their clothes.

8. How we met our enemies.

We turned our eyes to the roof of the cave and tried to find some hole there. Our candle gave very little light, so we could not see the whole of the roof.

There was an opening in the roof, but it was so high above our heads that only a fly could reach it.

On the same side with the niche in which we stood there was a small ledge. It was the highest and safest place in the cave. When we reached it I said,

“Let’s wait and hope that the water will find some way out before we are drowned.”

“This is all my fault,” said Steve.

“No,” said Job, “we did all this because we wanted to stop the mill and save me from the miller.”

“But I began it all,” said Steve. “I see now what a fool I was. What right have I to take water away from so many people who are much older than I am?”

We then stood silent. There was nothing for us to do. Steve and Job were very tired, and they soon fell asleep.

I was not so tired as they were and I did not want to sleep at all. So I sat beside them with the candle in my hand and thought, “Was there really nothing before us but death?”

I began to look at the roof of the cave again. And again I saw a large opening up there. I took a stone and threw it into the opening which looked like an open mouth. I heard how the stone fell down inside the opening. And at that moment I heard something that made me jump up.

“Where, I want to know, did that stone come from?” That was the voice of the miller.

“How can I know — but it nearly broke my head!” That was the voice of the shoemaker.

“Steve, Job!” I said. They woke up and jumped to their feet. “They have found us up there — in the hole — the miller — shoemaker!” I whispered.

We stood and listened with our mouths open. Then we heard the voice of the miller again.

“Oh, here they are! They are throwing stones, they are trying to frighten us! But now we have found where the secret of the stream lies! Climb up here, my friend!”

Then we saw the light of their candle. The miller was climbing too quickly He noticed nothing in front of him and in a moment he fell down into the water.

The miller was a bad swimmer.

“I am drowned!” he shouted. “Oh, bub, bub, bub!”

“He is a bad man,” said Job, “but we must save him.”

“Of course,” said Steve.

“Well,” Job said to the miller, “my friends and I will help you only if you promise that you will do us no harm. Do you hear?”

“What must I promise you, Job, bub, bub, bub?!” the miller shouted.

“Say: I promise that if I ever beat Job again, he can stop working for me, and go to some other place.”

“Very well — I say it — bub, bub, bub — I say it.” And the miller repeated the words.

As soon as we helped the miller to climb up beside us, he began to call the shoemaker. But the shoemaker did not answer.

“Well,” said the miller, “we’ll follow him. Which is the way?”

“There is no way — we can’t follow him,” answered Steve.

“Can’t follow?” shouted the miller.

“We have been waiting here for death these two hours,” said Steve, “and we shall die if the shoemaker does not return.”

“He couldn’t run away,” said Job. “I think he went to bring some help.”

“He must come back!” repeated the miller.

“I think so too,” said Steve, “if he is a man.”

“Yes, he must!” repeated the miller again. And he began to call the shoemaker all bad names he knew.

“Perhaps you will be better to other people now when the water is rising to drown us?” said Job.

“What? Rising to drown us?” said the miller.

“Yes,” said Steve. “It has reached my feet.”

9. How we became good friends with the people of West Poley.

The water was already on our ledge, and in a short time it ran into our shoes. Suddenly we heard a noise from the opening and saw a light. Then we saw hats and heads in the opening — one, two, three, four — then candles, arms and shoulders. We could see that the people had ropes with them.

Then one of them shouted, “We’ll throw you a rope’s end, and you must catch it. Tie it round one of you, jump into the water and we shall take you up.”

Then they threw the rope. Job caught it, and tied it round me. I was afraid to jump into the cold water, but I did it, swam up to the place which was under the opening, and soon the people took me up.

Then they took up my cousin Steve. It was Job’s turn now. But the miller was afraid to stay in the cave alone.

“I'm afraid I shall not catch the rope,” he said to Job. “Let me go first.”

“All right,” said Job. “I shall let you go up first if you do one little thing.”

“I agree,” said the miller.

Job took a little pocket-book and a pencil out of his pocket, came nearer to the candle and began to write. When he finished he said to the miller, “Put down your name under this.”

The miller read: “Job, my worker, is free and may not do any work for me.”

“Well,” said the miller, “I agree.” He took the pencil and put down his name.

Then Job caught the rope, tied it round the miller, and sent him off.

Soon we stood among the people who were asking us questions. But before we could give them answers we heard a strange sound from the lake. Some men looked down and in the light of the candles saw that the water was quickly disappearing. Steve knew in a moment what it was. The weight of the water had completed the work which Job’s and Steve’s diving had begun, and now the stream ran in its West Poley bed.

When all was over, we saw that nobody understood how we could turn the water of the stream to East or West Poley.

Of the three of us only Steve fell ill. I often came to see him when he was ill, and one day he said to me,

“If I die, and you go away home, and Job stays away in another part of England, nobody in our village will know the secret of the stream. So if suddenly the water stops, and turns into the East Poley hole, our people will not know how to turn it back again.”

So we decided to tell the people of West Poley all about their river. The doctor agreed, and in the evening the blacksmith, the shoemaker, the farmers and some men who worked on the farms came to hear what Steve was going to tell them.

“How did you get there?” was the first question. “Did you walk in through Grim Billy, like the miller and the shoemaker?”

“No,” answered Steve, “we walked in through Nick’s Pocket.”

“Oh,” said everybody, “that explains everything.”

“It is very strange,” said the shoemaker. “We never knew that Nick’s Pocket leads to the head of our river.” Then Steve told the people everything that the reader already knows.

“Well, it isn’t all I want to say,” he finished. “If the people of East Poley learn the secret, they will go there and turn the water to their village. But didn’t somebody leave the room a minute ago?”

“I think a man went out,” said one of the farmers. One or two others said the same, but it was already dark, and we could not see who it was.

“I think,” Steve continued, “someone of our village must go and close up the little gallery in Nick’s Pocket which leads to the stream and close up the entrance to Grim Billy, too. Then we shall never lose the water again.”

Everybody agreed with Steve and decided to go and close up the entrances to the cave the next evening.

So the next evening people took spades and went to the cave. Steve was still in bed, and I had to show them where the gallery was. But when we came up to the gallery and were ready to begin our work we suddenly heard a noise.

10. How we made the East Poley men give us back the water of the stream.

“What’s the matter?” said one of the farmers. “Somebody is there,” whispered the shoemaker.

“Let’s go quickly into Grim Billy,” said the shoemaker, “and look through the opening into the cave.”

The shoemaker and one of the farmers went to Grim Billy, and I went together with them. In order to get to Grim Billy we had to cross the mill-stream. When we crossed it we saw that it was dry again.

“The people in the cave are our enemies!” said the farmer.

“Of course,” said the shoemaker. “Who else can do such a thing?”

We walked into Grim Billy, and on our hands and knees went up to the hole which opened into Nick’s Pocket.

When we looked in we saw some men from East Poley who were busy at work down there. These people were trying to close up the hole which led to our village, and to open the hole which led to their village.

When we came back to Nick’s Pocket we told everything to the men who were there.

“How did they learn the secret?” asked the shoemaker. “This is what I want to know!”

“I know it,” said one of the farmers. “Have you forgotten how somebody went away from Steve’s bedroom in the dark last night and we didn’t know who it was?”

“We must close the gallery,” said another farmer. “Then they will be in prison.”

All the men liked the farmer’s plan. Five of our men brought some very big stones. We put them so that nobody could remove them from within. Then all of us went to the other cave—Grim Billy — and soon came up to the opening into Nick’s Pocket.

The East Poley men were so busy that they did not notice us.

“Let us frighten them!” said the shoemaker.

And we frightened them with a terrible shout. They looked and looked round but could not understand where the shout came from. At last they looked up and saw us.

“Men of East Poley,” said the shoemaker, “you sent a spy to learn our secret, and now you have come here to steal our stream. Do you agree to turn the stream back into our village, and to close up the new hole?”

“No-o-o-o!” shouted the East Poley men.

“Very well,” said the shoemaker, “you are prisoners. If you don’t turn the water into our village, you will have to stay where you are.”

The East Poley men ran into the gallery, but soon they met the stone wall, and came back into the cave.

“Do you give in?”3 we asked them.

“Never,” they said.

“Very well,” said the shoemaker, “very well! Let’s see what they will tell us tomorrow morning.”

The next morning Steve jumped out of bed and said that he must go to the cave with the West Poley people.

When the East Poley men saw us in the opening of Grim Billy they began to shout,

“We give in! Let us out! We shall finish soon — the river will run in its old bed. Let us out!”

“All right!” we said. “Finish your work.”

They quickly finished their work. We took the big stones out of the gallery and the East Poley people came out. They were very angry, and didn’t even look at us.

“I think they will come here to do the same soon,” said the Man Who Had Failed.

“I tho ught the same,” said the shoemaker.

Steve looked at me, and there was sadness in his look.

11. How all our difficulties came to an end.

Some months passed, and some people from East Poley came to the cave and again turned the stream as before. When the miller and some other men in West Poley got up in the morning, they saw that their river was dry. The West Poley people were very angry and ran quickly to Nick’s Pocket. They found nobody there, and turned the water into the West Poley hole.

At that time I again came to see my aunt and cousin.

“I am glad you have come, Leonard,” Steve said, “because I want to talk to you. I have never been happy since the adventure. I have done much harm to my village and I must make the stream run in its old bed for ever.”

“But you cannot do it,” I said.

“Well, I have a plan,” answered Steve.

“What is your plan?” I asked.

“I cannot tell you that now,” he said.

I soon noticed that my cousin was always thinking about his plan.

When the last day of my visit came, somebody again turned the water into the East Poley hole. The West Poley people decided to go to the cave in the evening and turn the water to the West Poley hole. After dinner I went for a walk. Suddenly I saw Steve. He was going to the caves. I went after him.

“Steve,” I called him when he came up to Nick’s Pocket.

“Oh — Leonard,” he said. “The people want to come here in the evening. But I think it will be not necessary. I am going to carry out my plan.”

“When?”

“Now — this hour — this minute. Give me your word that you will not go after me,” he said.

“All right,— I’ll no go after you.”

And he ran quickly into the cave.

For some minutes I did not know what to do. Suddenly I heard footsteps behind my back. I turned round and saw Job and the Man Who Had Failed.

Job was glad to see me. He was now working on a farm not far from West Poley.

“I have come here for a holiday,” he said.

I told them all I knew about Steve, and the Man Who Had Failed did not like it.

“Let’s go after him,” he said.

Before I could answer, a jet of smoke burst from the mouth of the cave, and in a moment we heard a terrible noise.

“Oh — what can it be?” I said.

“Gunpowder,” said the Man Who Had Failed.

“Yes. I know what he has done,” said Job. “He has blasted the rocks inside.”

“Let’s go in,” said the Man Who Had Failed. “He may be alive.”

Job ran for candles and almost in a moment he came back, and with him a crowd of people.

“The river is running again,” they shouted. “Water runs better than ever.”

“Steve has done it,” I said.

“A brave boy,” said the Man Who Had Failed.

Job lighted the candles and we went into the cave. Some people from the village went with us.

“Grim Billy is partly closed up,” they told us. The whole rock has fallen down, so there is no opening there to look into Nick’s Pocket.”

We could not get further than the first cave — there was too much smoke there. But suddenly we heard a shout. The men who were behind us shouted, “Here he is!” We ran back and found that they were in a small niche, near the entrance.

“We didn’t notice this niche when we were passing by,” said the shoemaker.

The Man Who Had Failed was there, and he and one of the farmers were carrying Steve to the entrance.

“Don’t be frightened,” the Man Who Had Failed said to me. “He is not dead.”

“No, I am not,” said Steve, “I fell when I was running out of the cave.”

All of us congratulated him.

Now all the people of West Poley were very glad that they had their river back for ever, and were very proud of Steve.

You may be sure that Job and I were more proud of Steve than anybody else in the village.