ailors do. Upon
that such a hideous noise arose, as I never should have believed any
creature capable of making, and I ran to the well of the mine for air,
and to ease my ears, if possible.

'Enough, enough!' shouted Uncle Ben by the time I was nearly deafened;
'we will digest our goodly boulder after the devil is come abroad for
his evening work. Now, John, not a word about what you have learned; but
henceforth you will not be frightened by the noise we make at dusk.'

I could not deny but what this was very clever management. If they could
not keep the echoes of the upper air from moving, the wisest plan was to
open their valves during the discouragement of the falling evening;
when folk would rather be driven away, than drawn into the wilds and
quagmires, by a sound so deep and awful, coming through the darkness.

CHAPTER LIX

LORNA GONE AWAY

Although there are very ancient tales of gold being found upon Exmoor,
in lumps and solid hummocks, and of men who slew one another for it,
this deep digging and great labour seemed to me a dangerous and unholy
enterprise. And Master Huckaback confessed that up to the present time
his two partners and himself (for they proved to be three adventurers)
had put into the earth more gold than they had taken out of it.
Nevertheless he felt quite sure that it must in a very short time
succeed, and pay them back an hundredfold; and he pressed me with great
earnestness to join them, and work there as much as I could, without
moving my mother's suspicions. I asked him how they had managed so long
to carry on without discovery; and he said that this was partly through
the wildness of the neighbourhood, and the legends that frightened
people of a superstitious turn; partly through their own great caution,
and the manner of fetching both supplies and implements by night;
but most of all, they had to thank the troubles of the period, the
suspicions of rebellion, and the terror of the Doones, which (like the
wizard I was speaking of) kept folk from being too inquisitive where
they had no business. The slough, moreover, had helped them well,
both by making their access dark, and yet more by swallowing up and
concealing all that was cast from the mouth of the pit. Once, before
the attack on Glen Doone, they had a narrow escape from the King's
Commissioner; for Captain Stickles having heard no doubt the story of
John Fry, went with half a dozen troopers, on purpose to search the
neighbou