[Transcriber's Note: The author is not named and has not been located elsewhere. Dialect spelling is copied faithfully.]
THE WATER-FINDERS
By the Author of 'Two of a Trade'
LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK THOMAS NELSON AND SONS
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CONTENTS.
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I. Willowton in Trouble
II. The Chapman Family
III. The Dowser
IV. The Search for Water
V. Old Jimmy's Scruples
VI. Public Opinion on the Bridge
VII. Tom Chapman "Takes on" at the Well
VIII. A Neighbourly Action
IX Nurse Blunt Arrives
X. Another Fever Victim
XI. The Strike at the Well
XII. Back to the Work
XIII. Rain at Last
XIV. The Collapse
XV. Friends in Need
XVI An Anxious Sunday
XVII Geo to the Fore Again
XVIII The Rescue
XIX Geo again Surprises Himself and hisFriends
XX Conclusion
THE WATER-FINDERS
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CHAPTER I.
WILLOWTON IS IN TROUBLE
Willowton is a village of some seventeen thousand population,large enough for the inhabitants to talk of "going up the town"when they mean the broad main street which stands on a gentleslope leading from the railway station to the church. Thisstreet, which is paved at the sides with nice old-world,ankle-twisting cobbles, boasts of two drapers', a chemist's, asaddler's, grocer's, and bootmaker's shops. Away in the lessaristocratic parts of the village are the butchers and bakers,and the miscellaneous stores so dear to the country housewives.About the middle of the town, in the very widest part, is thebridge, and close to the bridge itself is the Wild Swanpublic-house, or rather hotel, as it calls itself. Thelittle stream that runs under the bridge comes along throughmiles of cool meadows, now golden with buttercups, for it is May.It comes through many gardens and orchards, now white with appleblossom; and when it leaves the bridge it burrows underground forsome little distance, and reappears at the foot of the cottagegardens, to lose itself in pleasant meandering through moreflowery meadows, till it passes out of the ken of Heigham folks,and out of our story's picture.
It was noon, and the sun was hot and the stream was low. Therehad been no rain for several weeks. The March winds had blown theseeds about; the wheat even drooped in the fields; April hadrefused her usual showers, and there was a dry, parched lookeverywhere while yet it was only May. Three men hung over thebridge, lazily resting their elbows on the par