LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 929, 16 June 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE DEVIL’S HOLE,

[from chamber’s journal.] ( Continued ,)

‘ And how, sir, do you propos* to get to Twellryst ?’ I inquired. *As you are no doubt aware, there is no railway line in that direction. I was intending to walk mysef ; but you surely were not thinking of doing so?’

‘lndeed no, my friend,’he replied with the sunny smile which upon the slightest provocation would break over his large plain features. ‘At upwards of sixty, one doesn’t undertake a walk of thirty mPes unless it be und r the pressure of stern necessity. No, no I crnild walk well enough at your age ; but now, alas! the infirmities of age, <xc., So if you piease, we will go by coach. I have ascertained that one runs twice a week from Aberrnculth to Twellryst. passing through Lleyrudrigg To-morrow will be one of its days, though I do not yet know at w-liat hour of the morning it will arrive here. The landlord, however, will he able to tell us that ; and if you will kindly ring the bell, which I see is on your side of the fireplace, we can make inquiries forthwith.’ In bending forward to obey this request, I noticed that a door immediately behind ray chair stood a little ajar, audit at once Hashed upon me that for some time I had been vaguely conscious of a slight draught. The bell still in my hand, 1 remained for a moment alter ringing, with my eyes fixed upon the door. When last I had looked in that direction it had, I felt quite sure, been closed ; and as an instant’s reflection convinced me, no person bad entered the room by it throughout the entire evening. Prompted by an unpleasant suspicion which had suggested itself against my will, I advanced quietly, and throwing it more widely apart, peered through. It opened into a small china closet, connected by another door with a long passage. Both passage and closet were flagged. I had heard no sound of footsteps, yet there, within the latter, stood the landlord. Upon seeing me, he looked, I thought, confused, but immediately recovering himself, stepped into the ro m, as though he had been coming that way in answer to the bell, I bad certainly no proof that he had been listening, but I felt, nevertheless, a moral assurance of the fact, and wondering what could have been his motive in the act, I eyed him sharply whilst he gave a not very satisfactory reply to Mr Morgan’s interrogations respecting the stage-coach. According to his account, the vehicle in question was a most irregular and unpunctual one, starting at hours varying from ten to twelve in the morning, and being even less reliable as to the time of its return. This report naturally was not agreeable to the minister ; but expressing a hope that the coach would be upon its best behaviour next day, he requested that bedroom candles might be sent in ; and the landlord departed to order hem. In a few moments, however, he returned, and made us a proposition wl i«h had apparently just occurred to him. It was to the effect that wo should hire a horse and dog-cart belonging to the hotel. The horse, its owner affirmed, was a splendid animal, and would carry us to Twellryst in half the time it would take the coach to get there. We should, moreover, he promised, have the conveyance for little more than the amount of our coach-fares, since not only did the horse need exercise greatly, bat he had besides some business of his own in thal lown, which could be transacted for him by a cousin who would drive us. By adopting this plan, too, he concluded, we could see the Spike bocks. Everybody who came to these parts in the summer-time went too «ec the i-pike Rocks, and Jonathan should drive us round that way. A question or two convincing us that the rocks referred to would be well worth a visit, we gladly accepted the landlord’s offer ; and waiting only to make arrangements as to the time of starting, bade each other goodnight and separated for our respective chambers. Chapter 11. Mr John Williams, landlord of the Ship and Anchor, Lleyrudrigg, had not deceived the little minister and myself with regard to the qualifications of his horse. It was a high-stepping thoroughbred; and notwithstanding that the roads were heavy with the rain of the previous day, we bowled along next morning at a famous rate on our way to Twellryst. Clouds of a somewhat suspicious character floated overhead, occasionally depriving us for a space of the sunshine, and the wind was perhaps too high to be altogether agreeable. But on the whole the weather was favourable ; and enlivened by Mr Morgan’s instructive and cheerful conversation, the day’s trip promised to prove a pleasant one. For some time after leaving Lleyrudrigg we followed tho regular coachroad, whiqh, though running for a little way on a hue with tho coast, very soon turns inland, Then quitting it for one upon which was much less trallic, we found ourselves, at the close of three hours’quick driving, again coming within sight of the blue ocean with its foam-flecked billows, and were told by Jonathan Williams, cur hunch-backed, sinister-looking little driver, that we were nearing the Bpike Rocks. The Spike Rocks! how I shudder at the bare mention of that name, recalling as it does-- --- But I will not anticipate. Drawing up before a live-barred gate which led into an extensive piece of meadow land bordering t e shore and, as i afterwards found, crowning precipices which fur nearly a mile in length descended in sheer walls to the sea, Jonathan rose ip, his seat, and pointed out with hio whip the two rocks which we had conic hither to visit. They stood at some distance from the land- small, conical shaped islands, bleak and sharppointed—their interest consisting, as we have been told, in their being a peculiarly favorite resort of a species of sea-bird. At certain seasons of the year, of which the present was ouo, the birds would collect here iu thousands, covering the rocks from base to summit wilh a compact living mantle of whity-brown fa; tiers From the point at which our carriage stopped, however, the rocks were too far away for their clothing to be clearly visible; and we accordingly set off for a nearer inspection, warned by a shout from our driver, when we had taken a few steps, to beware of the ‘Devil’s Holes.’ (So Mr Morgan translated the barbarous-sound-ing Welsh word he used.) ‘ Devil’s, Holjea !• Why, what can they be L I inquired. But my companion was no wiser with regard to the matter than myself, as he confessed with a shake' of the head ; so we walked on,_ trusting to our observation for enlightenment.

The enlightenment came sooner than we anticipated, and was accompanied for me by a great shock. Under the influence of my new friend’s inspiriting society, I was feeling a light heartedness to which I had long been a stranger ; and upon observing before me a small round hollow in the field we wcr ■ crossing, I was seized with a momentary impulse to run forward, as I might have done when a boy, and let the impetus of descending the near side carry me up the sloping grassy bank which I saw upon the farther one. Had I followed out that impulse, however, I should not now have been writing this story ; for when close upon it, but not before, I perceived to my horror that the innocently seeming indentation rf the ground was in reality an awful natural pit. Where the grassy slope terminated, instead of the green level I had expected to see, yawned a black chasm ; and looking downwards, I positively trembled as my eye sank into an abyss some hundred feet in depth at the bottom of which, as though it had been a gigantic caldron, appeared a seething mass of water, rolling and dashing itself against the rocky sides, and sending up a booming sound like the explosion of cannon.

An exclamation of horror burst from my lips as this unexpected phenomenon met my sight, and drawing Mr Morgan backwards, I nervously entreated, him not to stand so near the edge. That ‘Devils Hole’ had filled me with the strangest sensation of creeping dread ; and when presently we came upon a second hollow in the meadow, 1 shrank from approaching it. The little minister, however, would not be deterred from doing so ; and from the manner in which I saw him walking round and round, curiously peering over its side, I was prepared for the announcement which he made upon rejoining me, that that too was a ‘ Devil’s Hole’— larger but in other respects similar to the one I had seen. An involuntary shiver was almost the only comment I made upon this communication ; and as we continued our course, I looked apprehensively in all directions for further suspicious undulations of of the ground. "Rut none presented themselves ; for like the Spike Eocks, these holes are but two in number ; and when we had taken a survey of the Rocks—to my mind the lesser curiosities of the district we returned to o ir dog- < art.

(To he continued.')