point it seemed that the cow s mouth must be some sort of fringed to the lips with rank vegetation all sight of what lay below him was blocked by the thick foliage of trees that leaned forward bowing their heads together as night over a corpse once upon a time there had been rude steps leading down the almost sheer descent but the naked feet had worn them to and and blown dust had made a thin soil in their looked long and angrily because the laugh came from the bottom of this track and then digging his heel into the mould began to let himself down step by step himself by the of grass before he had realized it he was out of reach of the sun and neck deep in tall grass still there was a sort of pathway under his feet down the almost perpendicular side he the grass and went on the earth beneath his elbows grew moist and the rock where it out showed rotten with moisture and with moss the air grew cold and damp another plunge downward revealed to him what the trees were guard a of west and east ing as he drew breath on a narrow stone ledge they sprung from the round the sides of a square of water so that it had past corruption and lay dull blue under the blackness of the trees the of summer had shrunk it and a bank of dried mud ran round its sides the head of a sunken stone pillar carved with monstrous and gods reared itself from the water like the head of a swimming to land the birds moved in the branches of the trees far overhead little twigs and dropped into the water and the noise of their fall echoed from side to side of the that received no sunlight the chuckle that had so annoyed broke out again as he listened this time it was behind him and sharply he saw that it came from a thin stream of water that from the rudely carved head of a cow and along a stone into the heavy blue pool behind that the moss grown rock rose sheer this then was the cow s mouth the lay at the bottom of a shaft and the one way down to it was that by which had come � a path that led from the sunlight to the chill and mould of a vault well this is kind of the king anyhow he said pacing the ledge cautiously for it was almost the as slippery as the pathway on the rocks now what s the use of this he continued returning the ledge ran only round one side of the and unless he trusted to the mud banks on the other three there was no hope of continuing his further the cow s mouth chuckled again as a fresh jet of water forced its way through the jaws oh dry up he muttered impatiently staring through the half light that veiled all he dropped a piece of rock on the mud under the lip of the ledge then tested it with a cautious foot found that it bore and decided to walk round the as there were more trees to the right of the ledge than to the left he stepped off on the mud from the right holding cautiously to the branches and the of grass in case of any false step when the was first made its rock walls had been perfectly perpendicular but time and weather and the war of the tree roots had broken and the stone in a thousand places giving a scant here and there crept along the right side of the resolved whatever might come to go round it the gloom deepened as he came directly under the largest fig tree throwing a thousand arms across the water and the rock with snake like a story of west and east roots as thick as a man s body here sitting on a he rested and looked at the ledge the sun shooting down the path that he had trampled through the tall grass threw one patch of light on the marble of the ledge and on the blunt of the cow s head but where rested under the fig tree there was darkness and an intolerable scent of the blue water was not inviting to watch he turned his face inward to the rock and the trees and looking up caught the green of a s wing moving among the upper branches never in his life had so desired the blessed sunshine he was cold and damp and conscious that a gentle breeze was blowing in his face from between the tree roots it was the sense of space more than actual sight that told him that there was a passage before him by the roots on which he sat and it was his instinct of curiosity rather than any love of adventure that led him to throw himself at the darkness which parted before and closed behind him he could feel that his feet were treading on cut stone with a thin of dried mud and extending his arms found on each side then he lighted a match and congratulated himself that his ignorance of cows mouths had not led him to bring a lantern with the him the first match in the and went out and before the flame had died he heard a sound in front of him like the shivering backward draw of a wave on a beach the noise was not but pressed on for a few steps looking back to see that the dull glimmer of the outer day was still behind him and lighted another match guarding it with his hands at his next step he shuddered from head to foot his heel had through a skull on the ground the match showed him that he had 