THE HUT IN THE GLEN, OR DEATH AND THE TREASURE.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2280, 29 September 1899, Page 5

THE HUT IN THE GLEN, OR DEATH AND THE TREASURE.

lAr.r. Rights Rkskrvf.d.]

The glorious sun of a beautiful day in September was sinking swiftly in the horizon as, worn and spent by a walk of soma thirty miles, I came to a halt at the opening of a wild, romantic clen. From early morn trimping hill anil dale, woods and open wolds, I now in the gloaming found myself far distant from any habitation. The late pedestrian I had come across informed me that, if I kept straight on in the path 1 was then pursuing, at the end of three miles I should gain Dead Man's Hollow. Makincr my way the:, through a glen, a couple of miles from this cheer-fully-named spot, accommodation tor the night would be procurable at an inn, The Dun Bull, on the wold.

It was with a rather grim smile and a muttered anathema that, leaning against an old wych elm, [ cast a keen searching glance around me. The sun now sinking fast in the golden and purple coloured sky, dark shadow? were thrown upon the ground of every conceivable grotesque shape and form. A soft, warm bretEe swept with a sighing moan from the adjacent moorland, causing the broad misshapen arms of a blighted oak to stir weirdly to and fro, as they hung almost pendant over the Hollow. I was footsore and weary, and only during my long walk having partaken of a crust of bread and cheese with a small mug of ale to wash it down, I had longings now for a more substantial repast. I had left the good City of York early that day with a light heart and a lighter pocket. A poor strolling player out of an engagement, I had heard of a chance at a portable theatre in the West Riding, and, taking the road for it, stood, I now began to think, a very good prospect of camping out this first night of my journey.

At the end of Dead Man's Hollow I saw that the road gradually diverged. To the left spread a dreary, uncultivated wold —a barren, stony waste, intersected with dangerous morasses, sinking at times into rocky glens, where less than a century ago the wolf had made his lair ; whilst there were still to be found caves and holes for the fox, the stoat and other wild animals. Darker, heavier grew the deepening twilight and then, just as I was about to drag my way into the recesses of Dead Man's Hollow, I was startled by the sound of footsteps, and staring nervously round I caught sight of the burly figure of a thickset man of middle aire, who, gliding and crouching down among the tangled brushwood that lined the Hollow presently disappeared behind a thicket of hazel, blackberry bushes and dwarf oak. There was something so suspicious about the man's movements, and a certain hangdog look about him that I had checked the shout that had risen to my lips at his sudden and mysterious appearance ; nnd, now, stimulated by curiosity, copying his own movements, I slowly and cautiously made my way to that cluster of bushes where he had vanished from my sight. Near to this spot was erected an upright stump of a tree, with a piece nailed near the top of it, strongly resembling in foim a rude cross. A wild wealth of bracken and shrubbery round it formed for me an effectual and safe screen, and behind this I crept, breathles< with surprise, as I b held the stranger kneeling down and grasping ;i hazel bough, whilst he appeared to be intently examining the grass and fern at its roots A few excited sentences given utterance to by the stranger now filled ine with horror and alarm. '• The gold is all mine, and Martha is now at rest ! She died hard ; for so old a woman I should not have thought she had so much blood in her. Well, well, all is over now,the old woman's hoarded gold will enable me to carry out my utmost desires. 1 now return to the hut. and to morrow will make my way to York, and from thence to London, it will be a dark night and no moon-the better for the work I have in hand."

: Start nt!\ to his feet, the man, with a gliding,' swift, movement, made his way along the Hollow in the direction I myself was about to take.

With a cold, nervous thrill—for evidently foul murder had been done—l now boldly crept Vforward to the spot where a few momenta ( before I had beheld the assassin kneeling. V It was growing very dark, but upon carefully examining the earth at the roots of the bushes I fancied that the turf had been disturbed, A black object that had caught in a thorny branch of a blackerry tree catching my sight I seized hold of the srticle.and, holding it up, discovered that it was an old silk glove. A shudder of wild horror passed through all my frame, as I found my lingers were now clammy with moisture ; and with a cry of loathing I could not repress, I dropped the glove as though it were some poisonous reptile. It was sopped and saturated with blood ! "A glove of that poor murdered woman," I gasped aloud, as I recalled those words of her assassin ; " that he should not have thought she had so much blood in her ! " For a few minutes I lay cowering upon the ground, undecided how to act, or what course to pursue, and then with another nervous thrill I rushed at mad speed into the Hollow, for a sudden thought had Hashed upon me that I had been groping about the poor murdered woman's grave, the disturbed state of the grass, tiie bloodbedabbled glove, the presence there of the vile assassin all went to favour m .• dread supposition. Each moment now the darkness grew thicker and denser ; and rushing oti at times, "tumbling over a piojecting mass of rock, or gnarled root of a pollard oak, 1 made uiv way half down the wild len lei ling to 'he verge of the wold where 1 had been told I should tin 1 the old Dun Bull Inn, when a shifting gleam of light eaused me to come to a «udden halt All was thick, impenetrable daikness now in the glen, only a few pale stars shining in tin' night sky, and it was with a f .eling of dread and dismay that 1 stood stanng at the yellow glimni.-nng light that Kept ila-hing. and th< n momentarily disa pcaiing in themuiky gloom. What 1 had seen and heard in bead Man's Hollow had quite unnerved me. 1 had pniii'sed to make with all speed tithe Dun Bull Dm on the Moor, and there tell mv tale of horror, leaving my hearers to act as they thought tit, but I now learul that in the larkno-s 1 had missed my way I had not yet got clear of the glen and that wavering, shifting light showing now -M'l again like a will .' th'-w isp in the i' ami depressed me. ' i, - ''■<» cowardly

thought possessed me of retracing my steps and neek Iny some opening in the under growbli or boughs of a tree, camping out for the night, troubling no further about Ihe vile assassin whom L had seen, and whose crime revealed bv hi? own lips I had overheard. Then indignation and detestation against the murderer impelled me to do my best to avenge the death of his victim, and with a sudden resolve I made up my inind to make my way to that shifting gleam of light, when I might perchance discover a woodman, or wandering nomad who mitrht be willing to direct or u'uide me to the Dun Hull.

Having made up my mind I at once boldly but silently strode cautiously forward to that pale yellow light. To my .surprise 1 soon found that I was nearly at the end of the glen, and that the that had so fixed my attention was fitfully lla-liin<_' from a tiny opening in the walls of a small wooden building a veritable woodman's iiut it appealed to me. Ktndered wary and suspicious by what I had already seen and overhead—instead of calling out and thus making my presence known, I crept) stealthily 'forward, and at length gaining the walls of the rude tenement, peeped through an opening in the decayed timbers, nearly losing all my presence of mind, and about to give utterance t3 an ejaculation of terror at the sight that met my prying gaze.

Stooping over a hole in the hard, clay flooring of the hut was the man I had seen in the Hollow, upon a small table close beside him rested two or three tin cups, an old teapot, an earthenware jar, and an old-fashioned lady's work-box, all and every article full to the brim with gold and silver coins, a treasure that, poor as I was, made my heart throb again as I caught sight of it.

With a shout of exultation the man notv drew forth from the cavity, over which he had been stooping a cash-box and a pewter quart pot, like the other receptacles on the table, both being full of gold and silver

coin?. " The miserly old hag ! and with all this wealth she allowed me, her own sister's child, to buffet the world without a penny; and her niece,her brother's only girl, to die of starvation in London ! Ah ! if I had guessed she had only got half this hoard I'd have settled the old cat before I went abroad ! Well, she is quiet and comfortable enough iti Dead Man's Hollow ; her gold was no good to her in her lifetime, and I'm sure it is no use to her now." With a hoarse laugh as he rose to his feet, tiie assassin now proceeded to empty all the articles upon the table into a sack, and then, taking a small hand-lamp from a bracket in the wall, he was going to step to another part oi the dwelling, when, to his wild alarm and my own terror and astonishmen, I fell head first into the nut, being prostrated at his feet. Leaning too heavily against the worn and decayed timber, that portion of the wooden tenement upon which I had been restintr had suddenly given way, sending me, with a crash and in a cloud of dust, on the floor. Dropping the lamp, which was extinguished in its fall, with the howl of a beast oi prey, the murderer hurled himself u[_on my prostrate form. "You spying hound! it's your life or mine ! I never do tilings by halves ! You shall share old Martha's bed—it'll hold two !"' cried the enraged assassin, as, kneeling upon my chest, he laced his hard muscular and bony hands about my throat. Weak and fatigued with my long journey that day I was not in the best of condition to fight with the herculean ruffian, who had -eized upon me with a death errip. But I was struggling for life, was lithe and wiry of frame, and savage at the ferocious attack made upon me. I fought with wild desperation, and suddenly drawing up my legs caused the table to come tottering with a crash upon my assailant. His horny hands loosened from my throat, with a twist I rolled myself away, and eluding a clutch made at mo by the murderer, had staggered to my feet and had gained the door when 1 was hurtled by a crashing, splintering sound : and then, enveloped in a cloud of dust, I received a blow upon the shoulder that sent me flying a couple of yards or more out into the glen. There were myriads of glistening stars now in the heavens, and a weirdish white light in the glen, a pale crescent moon just rising up in the firmanent. For a few moments I lay dazed and stupified, glaring about me like one in a dream, and then staggering to my feet looked round bewildered. The hut where 1 had a minute before been at face with death had disappeared. Was no longer to be seen. Then as the silvery rim rose higher in the sky, casting a thin pale light over the spot, I saw what had happened. The old hut in the glen had suddenly fallen in, the decayed structure losing he support of the timber that had given way as I had leaned heavily upon it. The roof had shortly after followed, and falling in upon tho head of the doomed Cain, had crushed him out of life ; whilst a beam that struck me sideways, acting like a catapult, had hurled me forth out into the glen uninjured save for a severe bruise and sprained ankle. Fur an hour or more I remained stretched upon the green sward, too fatigued and prostrated to crawl away, until fortunately a passing patrol came to my relief, and I rested after all safely that night beneath the hospitable roof of The i)un Bull on the wold. The next day the wretched assa.-sin of old Martha Pol-on wa- fnuii I under a heavy beam that in its fall had beaten in his skull; thus Providence meted out to him his award a few hours only after tho death of his victim. The next of kin, a rich old mai ten lady, out of the treasure left by the wretched me with £SOD as an award for my courage and suffering that night at the hut in the glen.