The Writings of Ian Hay

ther, forthwith, if not sooner. Those phlegmatic experts made a thorough investigation of the resources of the establishment, and departed mysteriously, after the fashion of the common plumber of civilisation, into space. Three days later they returned, accompanied by a horde of acolytes, who, with characteristic contempt for the pathetic appeals upon the notice- boards, proceeded to dump down lumber, sandbags, and corrugated iron roofing in the most exposed portions of the garden. This done, some set out to shore up the ceilings of the basement with mighty battens of wood, and to convert that region into a nest of cunningly devised bedrooms. Others reinforced the flooring above with a layer of earth and brick rubble three feet deep. On the top of all this they relaid not only the original floor, but eke the carpet. "The only difference from before, sir," explained Box to the admiring Staff Captain, "isthat people will have to walk up three steps to get into the dining-room now, instead of going in on the level." "I wonder what the Marquise de Grandbois will think of it all when she returns to her ancestral home," mused the Staff Captain. "If anything," maintained the invincible Box, "we have improved it for her. For example, she can now light the chandelier without standing on a chair ? without getting up from table, in fact! However, to resume. The fireplace, you will observe, has not been touched. I have left a sort of well in the floor all round...