maketh he in Tunstall Woods? Jack," he added, "laugh
at me an ye will, but I like not the hollow sound of it."

"Nay," said Matcham, with a shiver, "it hath a doleful
note. An the day were not come" -- --

But just then the bell, quickening its pace, began to
ring thick and hurried, and then it gave a single hammer-
ing jangle, and was silent for a space.

"It is as though the bearer had run for a pater-noster
while, and then leaped the river," Dick observed.

"And now beginneth he again to pace soberly forward,"
added Matcham.

"Nay," returned Dick -- " nay, not so soberly, Jack. 'Tis a man that walketh you right speedily. 'Tis a man in
some fear of his life, or about some hurried business. See
ye not how swift the beating draweth near?"

"It is now close by," said Matcham.

They were now on the edge of the pit; and as the pit
itself was on a certain eminence, they commanded a view
over the greater proportion of the clearing, up to the thick
woods that closed it in.

The daylight, which was very clear and grey, showed
them a riband of white footpath wandering among the
gorse. It passed some hundred yards from the pit, and
ran the whole length of the clearing, east and west. By
the line of its course, Dick judged it should lead more or
less directly to the Moat House.

Upon this path, stepping forth from the margin of the
wood, a white figure now appeared. It paused a little, and

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