“I am very sorry that I led you on, for I see no shed or cottage anywhere,” said Harry, gazing round; “and I am afraid we shall have the rain down upon us before many minutes. Our shortest way to the nearest house at Hurlston will, I suspect, be across the downs. Come along, there is no time to spare.”
They put their horses into a gallop. The downs though at a distance appearing to be level, were intercepted by several deep ravines, and the young men had not gone far before they were compelled to turn inland by coming to one of the most rugged and wild of these ravines, the side of which was too steep to allow them to ride down it.
A little further Harry observed a place which he thought they could descend without difficulty, and thus save some distance. As he reached the bottom, followed by Algernon, he saw nestling under a rock on one side a hut built party of rough stones, and partly of the planks of some wreck cast on shore. At the same moment a bright flash of lightning darted from the clouds, followed by a crashing peal of thunder, when immediately down came the rain.
“We may, at all events, find shelter in yonder hut,” said Harry, “though it seems scarcely large enough to admit our horses, but I will hold them while you go inside.”
They made their way down the ravine, when Algernon dismounting pushed open the door and ran in, while Harry leading the horses followed him.
At the further end of the hut a woman was seated on a stool before the wood fire blazing on the hearth, over which she bent, apparently engaged in watching the contents of an iron pot boiling on it.
“Who dares intrude unbidden into my mansion,” she shrieked out in a wild unearthly tone, which made Algernon start back.
Her long grey hair hung down on either side of her colourless face,
from which beamed forth a pair of wild eyes, glowing with the fire of madness. Her dress being of the same sombre hue as was everything in the hut, had as Algernon entered prevented him from observing her till she turned her face full upon him.