"Nay," said Matcham, with a shiver, "it hath a doleful note. An the day were not come----"
But just then the bell, quickening its pace, began to ring thick and hurried, and then it gave a single hammering jangle, and was silent for a space.
"It is as though the bearer had run for a paternoster while, and then leaped the river," d**k observed.
"And now beginneth he again to pace soberly forward," added Matcham.
"Nay," returned d**k--"nay, not so soberly, Jack. 'Tis a man that walketh you right speedily. 'Tis a man in some fear of his life, or about some hurried business. See ye not how swift the beating draweth near?"
"It is now close by," said Matcham.
They were now on the edge of the pit; and as the pit itself was on a certain eminence, they commanded a view over the greater proport
