Templeton came round to his friend’s view, and they lost no time in making their preparations.  The lane was apparently used only as a short cut from the high-road when coal was brought to the farm.  It was just wide enough to allow the passage of a cart, and even on a bright night was dark, owing to the tall hedge on one side and the high blank wall on the other.  At its darkest spot, ten or a dozen yards from the house, Eves set to work to prepare the ground.  He measured off a space about four yards long, and at the end farthest from the house dug the soft earth to the depth of four inches.  Working back from this point, in the course of a couple of hours’ diligent spade work he had made a shallow excavation in the lane, varying in depth from four inches to eight. Meanwhile Templeton had broken up the tar and melted it down in the small portable copper which the farmer used for conveying tar from place to place.  They ladled the molten stuff into the excavation, filling up to the level of the lane.