The sound seemed to satisfy him, for very soon he was boring a hole
at a point exactly level with his ear; but not without frequent
pauses and much attention given to the possible return of those
departed foot-steps. He remembered that Mr. Brotherson had a way
of coming back on unexpected errands after giving out his intention
of being absent for hours.
Sweetwater did not want to be caught in any such trap as that; so he
carefully followed every sound that reached him from the noisy halls.
But he did not forsake his post; he did not have to. Mr. Brotherson
had been sincere in his good-bye, and the auger finished its job and
was withdrawn without any interruption from the man whose premises
had been thus audaciously invaded.
"Neat as well as useful," was the gay comment with which Sweetwater
surveyed his work, then laid his ear to the hole. Whereas
previously he could barely hear the rattling of coals from the
coal-scuttle, he was now able to catch the sound of an ash falling
into the ash-pit.
His next move was to test the depth of the partition by inserting
his finger in the hole he had made. He found it stopped by some
obstacle before it had reached half its length, and anxious to
satisfy himself of the nature of this obstacle, he gently moved the
tip of his finger to and fro over what was certainly the edge of a
book.
This proved that his calculations had been correct and that the
opening so accessible on his side, was completely veiled on the
other by the books he had seen packed on the shelves. As these
shelves had no other backing than the wall, he had feared striking
a spot not covered by a book. But he had not undertaken so risky
a piece of work without first noting how nearly the tops of the
books approached the line of the shelf above them, and the
consequent unlikelihood of his striking the space between, at the
height he planned the hole. He had even been careful to assure
himself that all the volumes at this exact point stood far enough
forward to afford room behind them for the chips and plaster he must
necessarily push through with his auger, and also - important
consideration - for the free passage of the sounds by which he
hoped to profit.
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