I made my way to the mouth of
the Roman shaft, and, having perched myself among the rocks close to
the opening, I shut off my lantern and waited patiently with my loaded
rifle ready to my hand. It was a melancholy vigil. All down the winding valley I could see the
scattered lights of the farm-houses, and the church clock of
Chapel-le-Dale tolling the hours came faintly to my ears. These tokens
of my fellow-men served only to make my own position seem the more
lonely, and to call for a greater effort to overcome the terror which
tempted me continually to get back to the farm, and abandon for ever
this dangerous quest. And yet there lies deep in every man a rooted
self-respect which makes it hard for him to turn back from that which
he has once undertaken. This feeling of personal pride was my
salvation now, and it was that alone which held me fast when every
instinct of my nature was dragging me away. I am glad now that I had
the strength. In spite of all that is has cost me, my manhood is at
least above reproach. Twelve o'clock struck in the distant church, then one, then two. It
was the darkest hour of the night. The clouds were drifting low, and
there was not a star in the sky. An owl was hooting somewhere among
the rocks, but no other sound, save the gentle sough of the wind, came
to my ears. And then suddenly I heard it! From far away down the
tunnel came those muffled steps, so soft and yet so ponderous. I heard
also the rattle of stones as they gave way under that giant tread. They drew nearer. They were close upon me. I heard the crashing of
the bushes round the entrance, and then dimly through the darkness I
was conscious of the loom of some enormous shape, some monstrous
inchoate creature, passing swiftly and very silently out from the
tunnel. I was paralysed with fear and amazement. Long as I had
waited, now that it had actually come I was unprepared for the shock. I lay motionless and breathless, whilst the great dark mass whisked by
me and was swallowed up in the night. But now I nerved myself for its return. No sound came from the
sleeping countryside to tell of the horror which was loose. In no way
could I judge how far off it was, what it was doing, or when it might
be back. But not a second time should my nerve fail me, not a second
time should it pass unchallenged. I swore it between my clenched teeth
as I laid my cocked rifle across the rock. And yet it nearly happened. There was no warning of approach now as
the creature passed over the grass. Suddenly, like a dark, drifting
shadow, the huge bulk loomed up once more before me, making for the
entrance of the cave. Again came that paralysis of volition which held
my crooked forefinger impotent upon the trigger. But with a desperate
effort I shook it off. Even as the brushwood rustled, and the
monstrous beast blended with the shadow of the Gap, I fired at the
retreating form. In the blaze of the gun I caught a glimpse of a great
shaggy mass, something with rough and bristling hair of a withered grey
colour, fading away to white in its lower parts, the huge body
supported upon short, thick, curving legs. I had just that glance, and
then I heard the rattle of the stones as the creature tore down into
its burrow. In an instant, with a triumphant revulsion of feeling, I
had cast my fears to the wind, and uncovering my powerful lantern, with
my rifle in my hand, I sprang down from my rock and rushed after the
monster down the old Roman shaft. My splendid lamp cast a brilliant flood of vivid light in front of me,
very different from the yellow glimmer which had aided me down the same
passage only twelve days before. As I ran, I saw the great beast
lurching along before me, its huge bulk filling up the whole space from
wall to wall. Its hair looked like coarse faded oakum, and hung down
in long, dense masses which swayed as it moved. It was like an
enormous unclipped sheep in its fleece, but in size it was far larger
than the largest elephant, and its breadth seemed to be nearly as great
as its height. It fills me with amazement now to think that I should
have dared to follow such a horror into the bowels of the earth, but
when one's blood is up, and when one's quarry seems to be flying, the
old primeval hunting-spirit awakes and prudence is cast to the wind. Rifle in hand, I ran at the top of my speed upon the trail of the
monster. I had seen that the creature was swift. Now I was to find out to my
cost that it was also very cunning. I had imagined that it was in
panic flight, and that I had only to pursue it. The idea that it might
turn upon me never entered my excited brain. I have already explained
that the passage down which I was racing opened into a great central
cave. Into this I rushed, fearful lest I should lose all trace of the
beast. But he had turned upon his own traces, and in a moment we were
face to face. That picture, seen in the brilliant white light of the lantern, is
etched for ever upon my brain. He had reared up on his hind legs as a
bear would do, and stood above me, enormous, menacing--such a creature
as no nightmare had ever brought to my imagination. I have said that he
reared like a bear, and there was something bear-like--if one could
conceive a bear which was ten-fold the bulk of any bear seen upon
earth--in his whole pose and attitude, in his great crooked forelegs
with their ivory-white claws, in his rugged skin, and in his red,
gaping mouth, fringed with monstrous fangs. Only in one point did he
differ from the bear, or from any other creature which walks the earth,
and even at that supreme moment a shudder of horror passed over me as I
observed that the eyes which glistened in the glow of my lantern were
huge, projecting bulbs, white and sightless. For a moment his great
paws swung over my head. The next he fell forward upon me, I and my
broken lantern crashed to the earth, and I remember no more. When I came to myself I was back in the farm-house of the Allertons. Two days had passed since my terrible adventure in the Blue John Gap. It seems that I had lain all night in the cave insensible from
concussion of the brain, with my left arm and two ribs badly fractured. In the morning my note had been found, a search party of a dozen
farmers assembled, and I had been tracked down and carried back to my
bedroom, where I had lain in high delirium ever since. There was, it
seems, no sign of the creature, and no bloodstain which would show that
my bullet had found him as he passed. Save for my own plight and the
marks upon the mud, there was nothing to prove that what I said was
true. Six weeks have now elapsed, and I am able to sit out once more in the
sunshine. Just opposite me is the steep hillside, grey with shaly
rock, and yonder on its flank is the dark cleft which marks the opening
of the Blue John Gap. But it is no longer a source of terror. Never
again through that ill-omened tunnel shall any strange shape flit out
into the world of men.