" Delighted at this excitement, the little boy forgot to eat into
his bread and butter, rolling his eyes wildly from one to the other,
still silent.
Meanwhile, without replying, Vandover had gone down upon the floor
again, poking about amid the filth under the sink. The four others, the
burnisher, his wife, his sister-in-law and his little boy, stood about
in a half-circle behind him, seeing to it that he did the work properly,
giving orders as to how he should proceed.
"Now, be sure you get everything out that's under there," said the
burnisher. "Ouf! how it smells! They made a regular dump heap of it."
"What's that over in the corner there?" cried the wife, bending down. "I
can't see, it's so dark under there--something gray; can't you see, in
under there? You'll have to crawl way in to get at it--go way in!"
Vandover obeyed. The sink pipes were so close above him that he was
obliged to crouch lower and lower; at length he lay flat upon his
stomach. Prone in the filth under the sink, in the sour water, the
grease, the refuse, he groped about with his hand searching for the
something gray that the burnisher's wife had seen.
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