rhood. Now if he had ridden alone, most likely he would have
discovered everything; but he feared to venture so, having suspicion of
a trap. Coming as they did in a company, all mounted and conspicuous,
the watchman (who was posted now on the top of the hill, almost every
day since John Fry's appearance) could not help espying them, miles
distant, over the moorland. He watched them under the shade of his hand,
and presently ran down the hill, and raised a great commotion. Then
Simon Carfax and all his men came up, and made things natural, removing
every sign of work; and finally, sinking underground, drew across the
mouth of the pit a hurdle thatched with sedge and heather. Only Simon
himself was left behind, ensconced in a hole of the crags, to observe
the doings of the enemy.

Captain Stickles rode very bravely, with all his men clattering after
him, down the rocky pass, and even to the margin of the slough. And
there they stopped, and held council; for it was a perilous thing to
risk the passage upon horseback, between the treacherous brink and
the cliff, unless one knew it thoroughly. Stickles, however, and one
follower, carefully felt the way along, having their horses well in
hand, and bearing a rope to draw them out, in case of being foundered.
Then they spurred across the rough boggy land, farther away than the
shaft was. Here the ground lay jagged and shaggy, wrought up with high
tufts of reed, or scragged with stunted brushwood. And between the ups
and downs (which met anybody anyhow) green-covered places tempted the
foot, and black bog-holes discouraged it. It is not to be marvelled at
that amid such place as this, 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