Looking into the cavity, by the dim and flickering light, they both detected a dark object at the bottom of it.
'I think I can reach the thing,' the manager remarked, 'if I lie down, and put my hand into the hole.' He knelt on the floor--and hesitated.

'Might I ask you, sir, to give me my gloves ?' he said.

'They are in my hat, on the chair behind you.' Henry gave him the gloves.

'I don't know what I may be going to take hold of,' the manager explained, smiling rather uneasily as he put on his right glove.
He stretched himself at full length on the floor, and passed his right arm into the cavity.

'I can't say exactly what I have got hold of,' he said.