Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-01-10
THE BLACK SHAFT

woman and a bottomless pit. Not the
ordinary bottomleSS pit Of the sui
phurous preacher; but one of those
horrible holes on Dartmoor that once
were mines and now remain as terrorS
, to the wayfarer. They are not really
bottomless, of course, but bottomless
enough for practical purposes. If a
man chooses one of them voluntarily
as an exit out of a troubled world, it
is Of no use for him to put a letter
for the coroner in his pocket. His
body will never be recovered.
| have the greatest objection myself
to sudden death without an inquest or
funeral, and when l visit my friend.
Denvil Ray, the novelist. in his home
on the wilds of Dartmoor, 1 take my
walks warily, for the bottomless pits
are little enough protected. and it
seems to me a very easy thing for a
man to slip into the opening before
he knows it. After dusk 1 avoid the
moor altogether. One experience of it
in the dark was sufficient for me.
: 1 had lost my way, and found my
self when nightfall came in a world
that had no people in it. L should have
curled up at once and waited for
morning if l had not been so desper-
ately hungry. Fear of the pits, even,
was pOwerleSS against the thought of
the venisOn from the mOOrland deer
Tor supper, until, as 1 CROPPED my way
along through gorSe and heather in
the dark, my feet slipped from under
me suddenly and l felt myself sliding
down somewhere. 1 ended up on a
gorse bush. 1t pricked me all over,
but the sensation was sublime.
The slide had taken about five sec
onds at most, l suppose, but in that
five seconds | had done enough serious
thinking to fill a quarterly review.
lay quietly on the gOrSe and struck a
match, to find that l had just slipped
down a harmless little bank, but the
experience had made me quite decided
that I could do without my supper. l
passed the night-not on the gorse
bush. because some sensations become
mOnotonous, but not five feet away
from it,
i When I walked in rather stiff1y at
six o'clock in the morning, Denvil Ra!
laughed. because there were no mine
holes within five miles of the spot
where 1 had lost myself; but 1 should
certainly stay out again under the
same circumstances.
One Of the holes has a low, broken
fence round it, but that seems little
enough protection at night. Ray
pointed it out to me when / was ac-
companying him on one of his famous
ten-mile walks. The fence was at
the top of a slight rise a few hundred
yards away.
what is that black thing?" I said.
straining my eyes to make it out
a black patch half hidden by a gorse
bush. ....'-
Denvil Ray looked through his field
glass. ..'..
ooh! that's poor John Denton" he
said, in a matter-of-fact tone. you'll
often see him there
! He handed me the glass as he spoke;
and as 1 looked through it the black
patch turned into man kneeling with
clasped hands. his elbows ON the low
rail that fenced off one of the bottom
| less pits-the Black Shaft, Ray
called it.
l got a side view of him as he knelt,
and his facet saw it clearly through
the glass-made me feel queer. I have
never seen such a look of sadness and
longing on a mans face but once, and
that was in a hospital when a poor fell
low after paroxysm of pain was beg
ging the doctor to kill him before the
next came on.
"Great heavens! Who is he? What
is he doing?" 1 asked.
Ray answered carelessly, as though
the story was an old one.
Gle is talking to his lost wife. The
poor fellow is a farmer at Boniton,
over there in the hollow. He does not
do much farming now; he is generally
here. He was prosperous young fell
low, though, before his trouble. He
married girl in London. He went up
there for a months visit, and came
back with a wife-a pretty little thing,
DuC ldtucl lOoliSu, LuOuSut. IIcI
husband was devoted to her, as he
worshipped the ground she trod on Gt
is too much trouble to invent phrases,
and he turned his fine old house inside
out to please her whims.
"She did not seem happy from the
first. 1 suppose she had been used to
the excitement of town life, and the
country had a depressing influence on
her mind. I said the first time I saw
her that she would end up by COM
hitting suicide, 1 don't know why.
She was one Of those selfish people
who think the world is in darkness If
there is a cloud over the particular
spot they happen to occupy in it. They
had a baby, but it died, and after Its
death the wife seemed more unhappy
and discontinued than ever. Then one
day she was missing. People said at
first that she had run away with Sir
Charles Conradd. He was staying at
the castle then, and had paid the
pretty London girl some attention. He
had started for the continent the day
before she disappeared. But within
the week they found her hat and cloak
at the mouth of Black Shaft there,
and a. letter to her husband in which
she said that she had gone to join her
baby People felt sorry then for their
unkind suspicious"
ssWaS no attempt made to recover