If we can get this block out, the worst will be
over."
"It is easier to drill holes in stone than in water," said Masin, who
had put his ear to the hole. "I can hear it much louder now."
"Of course you can," answered Malipieri. "We are wasting time," he
added, picking up the drill and holding it against the block at a
point six inches higher than before.
Masin took his sledge again and hammered away with dogged regularity.
So the work went on all that day, and all the next. And after that
they took another tool and widened the holes, and then a third till
they were two inches in diameter.
Masin suggested that they might drive an iron on through the
brickwork, and find out how much of it there was beyond the stone, but
Malipieri pointed out that if the "lost water" should rise it would
pour out through the hole and stop their operations effectually. The
entrance must incline upwards, he said.
They made long round plugs of soft pine to fit the holes exactly, each
one scored with a channel a quarter of an inch deep, which was on the
upper side when they had driven the plugs into their places, and was
intended to lead the water along the wood, so as to wet it more
thoroughly. To do this Malipieri poked long cotton wicks into each
channel with a wire, as far as possible. He made Masin buy half-a-
dozen coarse sponges and tied one upon the upper end of each
projecting plug.
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