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open, but with high winds, and little or no rain. Thus as the land dried
after the floods there began to open cracks in the heavy clay soil on
which Moonfleet is built, such as are usually only seen with us in the
height of summer. There were cracks by the side of the path in the
sea-meadows between the village and the church, and cracks in the
churchyard itself, and one running right up to this very tomb.

It must have been past four o'clock in the afternoon, and I was for
returning to tea at my aunt's, when underneath the stone on which I sat I
heard a rumbling and crumbling, and on jumping off saw that the crack in
the ground had still further widened, just where it came up to the tomb,
and that the dry earth had so shrunk and settled that there was a hole
in the ground a foot or more across. Now this hole reached under the big
stone that formed one side of the tomb, and falling on my hands and knees
and looking down it, I perceived that there was under the monument a
larger cavity, into which the hole opened. I believe there never was boy
yet who saw a hole in the ground, or a cave in a hill, or much more an
underground passage, but longed incontinently to be into it and discover
whither it led. So it was with me; and seeing that the earth had fallen
enough into the hole to open a way under the stone, I slipped myself in
feet foremost, dropped down on to a heap of fallen mould, and found that
I could stand upright under the monument itself.

Now this was what I had expected, for I thought that there had been below
this grave a vault, the roof of which had given way and let the earth
fall in. But as soon as my eyes were used to the dimmer light, I saw that
it was no such thing, but that the hole into which I had crept was only
the mouth of a passage, which sloped gently down in the direction of the
church. My heart fell to thumping with eagerness and surprise, for I
thought I had made a wonderful discovery, and that this hidden way would
certainly lead to great things, perhaps even to Blackbeard's hoard; for
ever since Mr. Glennie's tale I had constantly before my eyes a vision of
the diamond and the wealth it was to bring me. The passage was two paces
broad, as high as a tall man, and cut through the soil, without bricks or
any other lining; and what surprised me most was that it did not seem
deserted nor mouldy and cob-webbed, as one would expect such a place to
be, but rather a well-used thoroughfare; for I co