The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-10-06
The Black Allotment
By n. MORTIMER BATTEN

1t was just after sunset one summer
evening when first ! saw the pit. We
were returning home over the moors.
Hollick and I. and the winding sheep
track on which we walked led US
through the Black Allotment wild.
uncultivated stretch Of land. covered
with coarse bent. and strewed here
and there with rugged boulders Of
rock. I noticed q strong wooden fence.
built in a circle. and enclosing what
at first thought to be the mouth OF
an old shaft till Hollick told me 9th.
wise.
I'VE call 1t the Black Pit" he said.
It's simply huge hole in the earth.
no one knows how deep. 1t may have
been made by water centuries ago; or
who can tell?-it may hove been
made by some prehistoric mammoth
forcing its way to the earth's surface,
after having remained buried for thou
sands of years. Hollick was always
q romantic fellow.
We crossed the low wooden fence.
| Su0p tCohAu8 III WdA0, PCOiSu ADeO
the inky blackness of the pit. From
somewhere far below. muffled by the
distance. came the gurgling swish OF
water. The mouth OF the pit was al
most round, and perhaps twenty feet
In width. On one side there was a
steep, sloping bark Of loose stones; on
the other the walls dropped perpen-
dicularly from the level ground.
And this was the place Hollick
led me to Just after sunrise one
morning, year later.
well. what dor you make OF this?"
he asked. saw that the wooden
fence that surrounded the hole was
broken, and that the turf all around
had been trampled down by the hoofs
OF cattle.
Its the second night within a week
that this has happened" he told me.
-Four days ago. at sunrise, when
came this way. found the fence brok-
en- and the grass trodden down al,
round. just as you see 1t now. I count
ed the cattle-there was one beast
missing. She had evidently fallen into
the pit. So repaired the fence. and
now'-he waved his hand and paus-
ed. that his words should gain their
full significance-"and now there is
another beast missing!"
We smoked a pipe each in silence,
and after that we repaired the fence.
and fortified It's weak places with
heaps of stones,
That night found us both stretched
In the long. sun-dried grass. close to
the mouth Of the pit, but we saw and
heard nothing.
We watched during the night fol.
lowing, and during the night follow.
ing that, but nothing happened. On
the fourth night we went home to
bed.
slept with my window open and
the sweet summer air tanning in my
face. At midnight awoke, wide
awake, and found myself listening
The house was silent as cave. I lay
still. looking out of the window at the
stalD. and the distant hills bathed in
the moonlight. And SO, suppose.
dropped off to sleep again, when the
sound which had evidently caused me
to waken few minutes previous
brought me back to consciousness
with = Jerk. 1t was the low Of distant
cattle, coming from the direction oil
the Black Allotment.
Slipping ON my clothes I went out
OF the house, and made a bee-line FOL
the pit.
On reaching the place I pulled ur
short. and stood staring. There, In
the moonlight. closely grouped round
the fence. with their necks extended
towards. the mouth Of the hole. stood
Hollick's heard Of cattle.
as though the pit had some attraction
for them, and they wished to get tc
1t. AS I approached. most of them
never even looked In my direction.
| thought of Hollick: after all, Il
was his affair, so I set off at run to
wards his house. and half an hour
later we stood together at the mouth
of the pit.
They can smell something dowr
there that they want" he remarked.
| We talked back and forth for 8
long time, then finally drove thu
beasts to the other end of the allot
ment and went home.
All went well till the end of Angus
and 1t was then that by chance l hap
pened to stumble across the key to tn,
whole mystery.
was strolling along the bank o
the wide stream that flowed by Hol
lick's house. On one side of tn,
stream was high hill. to which tn,
Black Allotment formed a tableland
The rocks rose up perpendicular!
from the water on the allotment side
overshadowed by trees, and in man!
places inaccessible.
II was q wild little gully, only passa
BILE In summer time when the water,
were low. and doubt II more thar
three people a year passed that way
Presently l discovered q large cave
which ran off at right angle toward
the center Of the Black Allotment Al
underground river tumbled and swill
ed out of 1t. emptying itself into |
still pool.
This set me thinking. Was the cav
connected with the pit into which
Hollick's cattle had fallen? Selecting
la large log of wood from a spinne.
lnear NV I carved n cross IN II an,