On passing through it Robert found that they were not really
within the building, but merely in a large bare ante-chamber, around the
walls of which were stacked the very objects which had aroused his
curiosity and his father's speculations. All mystery had gone from
them now, however, for while some were still wrapped in their sackcloth
coverings, others had been undone, and revealed themselves as great pigs
of lead.
"There is my raw material," said Raffles Haw carelessly, nodding at the
heap. "Every Saturday I have a waggon-load sent up, which serves me for
a week, but we shall need to work double tides when Laura and I are
married, and we get our great schemes under way. I have to be very
careful about the quality of the lead, for, of course, every impurity is
reproduced in the gold."
A heavy iron door led into the inner chamber. Haw unlocked it, but only
to disclose a second one about five feet further on.
"This flooring is all disconnected at night," he remarked. "I have no
doubt that there is a good deal of gossip in the servants'-hall about
this sealed chamber, so I have to guard myself against some
inquisitive ostler or too adventurous butler."
The inner door admitted them into the laboratory, a high, bare,
whitewashed room with a glass roof.
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