NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



reached his resting-place. Then, with the exertion of 

 all his mighty strength, slowly, slowly, he drew the 

 grisly burden up towards him. He had acquired some 

 purchase over a projecting branch, but the struggle 

 was intense. The man's iron sinews stretched and 

 cracked ; his wrists and arms and shoulders ached 

 horribly ; the sweat, cold as was the night, burst from 

 him ; yet the task was achieved, the rope loosened 

 from the heavy corpse, and then the body of Sir 

 Edmund Wing vanished finally from the eye of the 

 world. With a dull, crashing thud it reached the bottom 

 of the hollow tree. All was still. Goodwin fastened up 

 his rope, climbed down again, and then sped home 

 with all the haste that fear, loathing, and superstition 

 could lend to him. The air was still thick with snow ; 

 the wind had sunk ; but the myriad flakes ceaselessly 

 descending covered up tenderly all traces of that dread- 

 ful night's journey, and the man reached his cottage 

 unperceived. 



Sir Edmund Wing's murder was never discovered. 

 The countryside was searched, the greatest anxiety pre- 

 vailed, but the snow and the oak tree effectually baffled 

 every effort of the searchers. It was believed that 

 during that wild tempest the knight had lost his way, 

 and either fallen into the neighbouring river or perished 

 in a snowdrift in some deep bottom or pit. The search 

 was in time abandoned, and the wonder of the knight's 

 disappearance faded presently into a mere memory. 

 More than two hundred years later, when the old oak 

 tree finally rotted to pieces, and some bones were dis- 

 covered in its recesses, the Wing family had died out, 

 the estate had passed into other hands, and the mystery 

 had been long forgotten. 



The shock of that dreadful day and night killed 

 Goodwin's wife, who died and was buried a fortnight 



184 



