swampy meadows strewn with drowned shrew-mice and moles. Even my aunt was
not at church, being prevented by a migraine, but a surprise waited those
who did go, for there in a pew by himself sat Elzevir Block. The people
stared at him as they came in, for no one had ever known him go to church
before; some saying in the village that he was a Catholic, and others an
infidel. However that may be, there he was this day, wishing perhaps to
show a favour to the parson who had written the verses for David's
headstone. He took no notice of anyone, nor exchanged greetings with
those that came in, as was the fashion in Moonfleet Church, but kept his
eyes fixed on a prayer-book which he held in his hand, though he could
not be following the minister, for he never turned the leaf.

The church was so damp from the floods, that Master Ratsey had put a fire
in the brazier which stood at the back, but was not commonly lighted till
the winter had fairly begun. We boys sat as close to the brazier as we
could, for the wet cold struck up from the flags, and besides that, we
were so far from the clergyman, and so well screened by the oak backs,
that we could bake an apple or roast a chestnut without much fear of
being caught. But that morning there was something else to take off our
thoughts; for before the service was well begun, we became aware of a
strange noise under the church. The first time it came was just as Mr.
Glennie was finishing 'Dearly Beloved', and we heard it again before the
second lesson. It was not a loud noise, but rather like that which a boat
makes jostling against another at sea, only there was something deeper
and more hollow about it. We boys looked at each other, for we knew what
was under the church, and that the sound could only come from the Mohune
Vault. No one at Moonfleet had ever seen the inside of that vault; but
Ratsey was told by his father, who was clerk before him, that it underlay
half the chancel, and that there were more than a score of Mohunes lying
there. It had not been opened for over forty years, since Gerald Mohune,