distinctly trace the tracks of the whole party. From these we could
see that they had walked abreast, and, furthermore, that each was about
equidistant from the other. Clearly, then, no physical force had been
used in taking the general and his companion along. The compulsion had
been psychical and not material.

Once within the swamp, we had to be careful not to deviate from the
narrow track, which offered a firm foothold.

On each side lay shallow sheets of stagnant water overlying a
treacherous bottom of semi-fluid mud, which rose above the surface
here and there in moist, sweltering banks, mottled over with occasional
patches of unhealthy vegetation. Great purple and yellow fungi had
broken out in a dense eruption, as though Nature were afflicted with a
foul disease, which manifested itself by this crop of plague spots.

Here and there dark, crab-like creatures scuttled across our path,
and hideous, flesh-coloured worms wriggled and writhed amid the sickly
reeds. Swarms of buzzing, piping insects rose up at every step and
formed a dense cloud around our heads, settling on our hands and faces
and inoculating us with their filthy venom. Never had I ventured into so
pestilent and forbidding a place.

Mordaunt Heatherstone strode on, however, with a set purpose upon his
swarthy brow, and we could but follow him, determined to stand by him
to the end of the adventure. As we advanced, the path grew narrower
and narrower until, as we saw by the tracks, our predecessors had been
compelled to walk in single file. Fullarton was leading us with the dog,
Mordaunt behind him, while I brought up the rear. The peasant had been
sulky and surly for a little time back, hardly answering when spoken to,
but he now stopped short and positively refused to go a step farther.

"It's no' canny," he said, "besides I ken where it will lead us tae'"

"Where, then?" I asked.

"Tae the Hole o' Cree," he answered. "It's no far frae here, I'm
thinking."

"The Hole of Cree! What is that, then?"

"It's a great, muckle hole in the ground that gangs awa' doon so deep
that naebody could ever reach the bottom. Indeed there are folk wha says
that it's just a door leadin' intae the bottomless pit itsel'."

"You have been there, then?" I asked.

"Been there!" he cried. "What would I be doin' at the Hole o' Cree? No,
I've never been there, nor any other man in his senses."

"How do you know about it, then?"

"My great-grandfeyther had been t