as we realised that
this was the end of our search.

A little way from the downward path was the return trail made by the
feet of those who had come back from the chasm's edge. Our eyes fell
upon these tracks at the same moment, and we each gave a cry of horror,
and stood gazing speechlessly at them. For there, in those blurred
footmarks, the whole drama was revealed.

_Five had gone down, but only three had returned_.

None shall ever know the details of that strange tragedy. There was no
mark of struggle nor sign of attempt at escape. We knelt at the edge of
the Hole and endeavoured to pierce the unfathomable gloom which shrouded
it. A faint, sickly exhalation seemed to rise from its depths, and there
was a distant hurrying, clattering sound as of waters in the bowels of
the earth.

A great stone lay embedded in the mud, and this I hurled over, but we
never heard thud or splash to show that it had reached the bottom.

As we hung over the noisome chasm a sound did at last rise to our ears
out of its murky depths. High, clear, and throbbing, it tinkled for an
instant out of the abyss, to be succeeded by the same deadly stillness
which had preceded it.

I did not wish to appear superstitious, or to put down to extraordinary
causes that which may have a natural explanation. That one keen note may
have been some strange water sound produced far down in the bowels of
the earth. It may have been that or it may have been that sinister bell
of which I had heard so much. Be this as it may, it was the only sign
that rose to us from the last terrible resting-place of the two who had
paid the debt which had so long been owing.

We joined our voices in a call with the unreasoning obstinacy with which
men will cling to hope, but no answer came back to us save a hollow
moaning from the depths beneath. Footsore and heart-sick, we retraced
our steps and climbed the slimy slope once more.

"What shall we do, Mordaunt?" I asked, in a subdued voice. "We can but
pray that their souls may rest in peace."

Young Heatherstone looked at me with flashing eyes.

"This may be all according to occult laws," he cried, "but we shall see
what the laws of England have to say upon it. I suppose a _chela_ may be
hanged as well as any other man. It may not be too late yet to run them
down. Here, good dog, good dog-here!"

He pulled the hound over and set it on the track of the three men.
The creature sniffed at it once or twice, and then, fa