"There's no miracle at all about it," grumbled Jimmy, turning round and arguing the other way when he found himself worsted.
"Well, then, I don't see that you have no call to make such a to-due about it. If that be so as you say jest ordinary tappin', there can't be no witchcraft nor Satan's work about it. Bless me, if I'd a got your legs I'd have been there long ago."
And so it happened that before many minutes were over Jimmy's curiosity had overcome his scruples, and he became one of the fast-increasing crowd.
The sun was setting, and the long shadows were slanting into the tired faces of the crowd, before the dowser considered he had satisfactorily accomplished his self-imposed task. He had made his circuit of the village, and come back again to the common. He had found and marked three springs: two were, he said, at a considerable depth, some hundred or more feet below the surface; and one, the most conveniently-placed for those who were to benefit by it, was on the edge of the common, perhaps three or four hundred yards from the church. When he and his following returned after their long and successful quest, they found motor car standing at the Wild Swan, puffing and snorting in the impatient way that motors do. The driver, who was most unmistakably out of patience, called out to him to hurry, or "they would not get to Ipswich that night;" and after a brief adieu to Mr. Barlow, and a comprehensive word to the assemblage, he climbed into the car and disappeared in a cloud of dust.
Willowton metaphorically rubbed its eyes. It was like a dream. This morning they were to die for want of water; this evening it appeared there was "water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink."
When the last sound of the departing motor's horn had died away Geo Lummis joined his cronies on the bridge.
"Well," said Corkam, in his rancorous voice, "of all the tomfoolery I ever seed in my life, I never seed anything to ekal this! Do yew mean ter tell me as that old bloke with a piece a' stick can find out where the water is, a hundred feet under the earth? Well, if yew think I'm goin' ter believe _that_, why you're greater fules nor I took yer for."
"He, he, he!" laughed the cripple admiringly. "He knaw a thing or tew, due Mr. Corkham."