, for the first time visited, the horses
were a little skeary; and their riders partook of the feeling, as all
good riders do. In and out of the tufts they went, with their eyes
dilating, wishing to be out of harm, if conscience were but satisfied.
And of this tufty flaggy ground, pocked with bogs and boglets, one
especial nature is that it will not hold impressions.

Seeing thus no track of men, nor anything but marsh-work, and stormwork,
and of the seasons, these two honest men rode back, and were glad to do
so. For above them hung the mountains, cowled with fog, and seamed with
storm; and around them desolation; and below their feet the grave. Hence
they went, with all goodwill; and vowed for ever afterwards that fear of
a simple place like that was only too ridiculous. So they all rode
home with mutual praises, and their courage well-approved; and the only
result of the expedition was to confirm John Fry's repute as a bigger
liar than ever.

Now I had enough of that underground work, as before related, to last me
for a year to come; neither would I, for sake of gold, have ever stepped
into that bucket, of my own goodwill again. But when I told Lorna--whom
I could trust in any matter of secrecy, as if she had never been a
woman--all about my great descent, and the honeycombing of the earth,
and the mournful noise at eventide, when the gold was under the crusher
and bewailing the mischief it must do, then Lorna's chief desire was to
know more about Simon Carfax.

"It must be our Gwenny's father," she cried; "the man who disappeared
underground, and whom she has ever been seeking. How grieved the poor
little thing will be, if it should turn out, after all, that he left his
child on purpose! I can hardly believe it; can you, John?"

"Well," I replied; "all men are wicked, more or less, to some extent;
and no man may say otherwise."

For I did not wish to commit myself to an opinion about Simon, lest I
might be wrong, and Lorna think less of my judgment.

But being resolved to see this out, and do a good turn, if I could, to
Gwenny, who had done me many a good one, I begged my Lorna to say not a
word of this matter to the handmaiden, until I had further searched
it out. And to carry out this resolve, I went again to the place of
business where they were grinding gold as freely as an apothecary at his
pills.

Having now true right of entrance, and being known to the watchman, and
regarded (since I cracked the boul