"Hush! " said the ex-deputy, suddenly; "Don't you hear voices?" They listened. Sure enough. Some one was talking, and the sound came from up in the air, above their heads. Before them loomed the great shape of the iron tower.
"They are at work now," said Congreve, in an excited whisper. Just then a light was struck by some one standing at the bottom of the ladder, which climbed a leg of the tripod and then stretched along the perpendicular sides of the great cylinder itself. The match was used to light a pipe, and the watchers by the fence saw that there was only one figure at the bottom.
"If we could only get hold of him," said Betts, "without the others knowing it, eh!"
"Let's try it," said Hart, in a whisper.
All at once the conversation between the top of the tower and the figure at the bottom of the ladder became more audible.
"Send up that paste, Reddy," called a voice from the sky.
"Y-y-you've got it y-y-yourself," stuttered the voice from below.
"No, we haven't," from the top of the tower.
