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This we have now been doing for some time, and in order to help

us in our operations we erected a hydraulic press. This press, as

I have already explained, has got out of order, and we wish your

advice upon the subject. We guard our secret very jealously,

however, and if it once became known that we had hydraulic

engineers coming to our little house, it would soon rouse

inquiry, and then, if the facts came out, it would be good-bye to

any chance of getting these fields and carrying out our plans.

That is why I have made you promise me that you will not tell a

human being that you are going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I

make it all plain?'

"'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not

quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press

in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out

like gravel from a pit.'