“A rescue party that went in search of George found him in a dying condition at the bottom of the shaft. The fact that he was not killed outright was due to his having fallen in a foot or two of mud and water, which had somewhat broken the force of the concussion. He was fatally injured, but he lingered just long enough to confess that he, and he only, was to blame for the recent disaster. He had had a violent quarrel with Dick, whom he had hated, and, when Dick’s back was turned, he had struck him over the head with his pick and killed him. Seized with horror, he then dragged Dick’s body into the passage, and, in order to minimise the risk of discovery, had saturated it with paraffin and set fire to it. He had had just time enough to reach the ladder leading up from the shaft, and climb up it, before the explosion had taken place.”
......
The Welsh miners are at times magnanimous, and on this occasion they agreed to keep George’s crime a secret. To give publicity to the affair, they argued, would not give them back the relatives they had lost, and would only do harm to the dead man’s widow and family, who were left almost penniless. Thus the matter ended, and to the outside world the cause of the explosion remained, as before, a mystery.
Of course, it may be said of this case that it has no great value from the evidental point of view, no one having witnessed the ghostly happening but Morgan and the man who was subsequently killed. This may be. At the same time much depends upon the character of a witness, and the evidence of one man, who is reliable, is surely worth more than the evidence of several men who are not reliable.
Morgan told his story in a simple, straightforward manner, and I believed him.
CHAPTER XIII
THE POOL IN WALES THAT LURES PEOPLE TO DEATH
I think there is very little doubt that two of the mediums through which the occult forces “get at” humanity are colour and locality. Red, for example, being the colour of blood, is made the medium for instilling thoughts of murder; green, in a similar manner, is used to suggest suicide by drowning; yellow suggests madness; pink—vice of the most alluring and attractive nature; and so on, until, by a careful study of human crimes in their relation to colour, one might tabulate a complete list.
And so with localities. Certain spots attract certain types of spirits, and these, in turn, suggest certain thoughts, some beautiful and some the reverse.
I was still in North Wales, when, a week or so before the expiration of the tour, I did a day’s tramping on the hills, and, being caught in a heavy rain-storm, I had to take shelter under one of those low stone walls with which the whole country-side is intersected. The afternoon was drawing to a close, and the fading light made me a bit anxious as to how I should find my way back to my lodgings. As I was crouching there, praying to heaven that the storm would soon cease, so that I could continue my way, I suddenly heard a loud cry, as of someone in distress, and, on its being repeated, I scrambled up and hastened in the direction of the sounds. About a hundred yards further on there was a break in the wall, and I caught the glimmer of water. It was one of those roadside pools, not uncommon in Wales, and usually of great depth. As I drew nearer, I saw it was fringed on the far side by a cluster of tall pines, that creaked and groaned dismally as the strong west wind drove volumes of water through their bowed branches.