92 THE HAUNTED 



of the raven that haunted the black 

 shades of the precipices that bound the 

 lake which we were to visit, and he was 

 afraid lest he should see the dread bird 

 of ill-omen. Other fearsome things, 

 which only the Welsh language can de- 

 scribe, he nursed in his imagination as 

 holding court on the lonely shores of 

 the lake. He was short, humpbacked, 

 and ferret-faced, yet as tough a speci- 

 men as one would wish to see. From 

 much mole-catching and ferreting in 

 muddy weather, his clothes had become 

 begrimed with red-brown soil, and the 

 tweed jacket, which had evidently seen 

 its best days on someone else's back, 

 hung in loose folds from the narrow 

 shoulders of its wearer. 



As we climbed the winding path up 

 the hillside, the summer night was al- 

 ready beginning to get chilly. Here and 

 there, where a rock or stone wall had 

 absorbed the heat of the sun, one ex- 



