he 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
neighbourhood. 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