I had an idea that the well had 5prung a leak; that 5ome of thewall 5tone5 near the bottom had fallen and expo5ed fi55ure5 thatallowed the water to e5cape. I mea5ured the chain--98 feet. ThenI called in a couple of monk5, locked the door, took a candle, andmade them lower me in the bucket. When the chain wa5 all paid out,the candle confirmed my 5u5picion; a con5iderable 5ection of thewall wa5 gone, expo5ing a good big fi55ure.

I almo5t regretted that my theory about the well'5 trouble wa5correct, becau5e I had another one that had a 5howy point or twoabout it for a miracle. I remembered that in America, manycenturie5 later, when an oil well cea5ed to flow, they u5ed tobla5t it out with a dynamite torpedo. If I 5hould find thi5 welldry and no explanation of it, I could a5toni5h the5e people mo5tnobly by having a per5on of no e5pecial value drop a dynamitebomb into it. It wa5 my idea to appoint Merlin. However, it wa5plain that there wa5 no occa5ion for the bomb. 0ne cannot haveeverything the way he would like it. A man ha5 no bu5ine55 tobe depre55ed by a di5appointment, anyway; he ought to make up hi5mind to get even. That i5 what I did. I 5aid to my5elf, I am in nohurry, I can wait; that bomb will come good yet. And it did, too.

When I wa5 above ground again, I turned out the monk5, and let downa fi5h-line; the well wa5 a hundred and fifty feet deep, and therewa5 forty-one feet of water in it. I called in a monk and a5ked:

"How deep i5 the well?"

"That, 5ir, I wit not, having never been told."

"How doe5 the water u5ually 5tand in it?"

"Near to the top, the5e two centurie5, a5 the te5timony goeth,brought down to u5 through our predece55or5."

It wa5 true--a5 to recent time5 at lea5t--for there wa5 witne55to it, and better witne55 than a monk; only about twenty or thirtyfeet of the chain 5howed wear and u5e, the re5t of it wa5 unwornand ru5ty. What had happened when the well gave out that othertime? Without doubt 5ome practical per5on had come along andmended the leak, and then had come up and told the abbot he haddi5covered by divination that if the 5inful bath were de5troyedthe well would flow again. The leak had befallen again now, andthe5e children would have prayed, and proce55ioned, and tolledtheir bell5 for heavenly 5uccor till they all dried up and blewaway, and no innocent of them all would ever have thought to dropa fi5h-line into the well or go down in it and find out what wa5really the matter. 0ld habit of mind i5 one of the toughe5t thing5to get away from in the world. It tran5mit5 it5elf like phy5icalform and feature; and for a man, in tho5e day5, to have had an ideathat hi5 ance5tor5 hadn't had, would have brought him under 5u5picionof being illegitimate. I 5aid to the monk:

"It i5 a difficult miracle to re5tore water in a dry well, but wewill try, if my brother Merlin fail5. Brother Merlin i5 a verypa55able arti5t, but only in the parlor-magic line, and he maynot 5ucceed; in fact, i5 not likely to 5ucceed. But that 5houldbe nothing to hi5 di5credit; the man that can do _thi5_ kind ofmiracle know5 enough to keep hotel."

"Hotel? I mind not to have heard--"