one at the side, on which the marble blocks were once hauled up
by wooden winches. Down these steps no feet ever walked now, for not only
were suffocating gases said to beset the bottom of the shafts, but men
would have it that in the narrow passages below lurked evil spirits and
demons. One who ought to know about such things, told me that when St.
Aldhelm first came to Purbeck, he bound the old Pagan gods under a ban
deep in these passages, but that the worst of all the crew was a certain
demon called the Mandrive, who watched over the best of the black marble.
And that was why such marble might only be used in churches or for
graves, for if it were not for this holy purpose, the Mandrive would
have power to strangle the man that hewed it.

It was by the side of one of these old shafts that Elzevir laid me down
at last. The light was very low, showing all the little unevennesses of
the turf; and the sward crept over the edges of the hole, and every crack
and crevice in steps and slide was green with ferns. The green ferns
shrouded the walls of the hole, and ruddy brown brambles overgrew the
steps, till all was lost in the gloom that hung at the bottom of the pit.

Elzevir drew a deep breath or two of the cool evening air, like a man who
has come through a difficult trial.

'There,' he said, 'this is Joseph's Pit, and here we must lie hid until
thy foot is sound again. Once get to the bottom safe, and we can laugh at
Posse, and hue and cry, and at the King's Crown itself. They cannot
search all the quarries, and are not like to search any of them, for they
are cowards at the best, and hang much on tales of the Mandrive. Ay, and
such tales are true enough, for there lurk gases at the bottom of most of
the shafts, like devils to strangle any that go down. And if they do come
down this Joseph's Pit, we still have nineteen chances in a score they
cannot thread the workings. But last, if they come down, and thread the
path, there is this pistol and a rusty matchlock; and before they come to
where we lie, we can hold the troop at bay and sell our lives so dear
they will not care to buy them.'

We waited a few minutes, and then he took me in his arms and began to
descend the steps, back first, as one goes down a hatchway. The sun was
setting in a heavy bank of clouds just as we began to go down, and I
could not help remembering how I had seen it set over peaceful Moonfleet
only twenty-four hours ago; and how far off we were