As nearly as he might, London Bill, going northward in the drain, slowly paced off seventy feet from the manhole; then he halted and drove two large spikes between the bricks that formed the walls, using the pinch-bar to do the driving.

On these nails he hung his basket and fixed his lamp, the latter so as to light the opposite wall.

Being disencumbered of the basket, London Bill took the tape and again made his measurements, this time more accurately than might be done by pacing.
London Bill got to work, breast-high and where the lamplight fell, on the wall of the drain nearest the Treasury, and with the point of the pinch-bar began taking out the bricks.

Our cracksman worked slowly and surely, laying the bricks in the bottom of the drain so as to form a floor on which to stand.

In this way he soon found himself above the water, which thereafter muttered about the bricks instead of his boots, as was the former uncomfortable condition.
After three hours of toil, the last brick was removed; a circular hole four feet in diameter showed in the wall of the drain.