Page:Story of Blue Beard, or, The effects of female curiosity.pdf/20

 This is an easier job than you had yesterday,' said the man who held the goat. 'I wish all the throats we’ve cut were as easily and quietly done. Did you ever hear such a noise as the old gentleman made last night! It was well we had no neighbour within a dozen of miles, or they must have heard his cries for help and mercy.’

'Don’t speak of it,' replied the other; 'I was never fond of bloodshed.’

'Ha! ha!’ said the other with a sneer, 'you say so, do you?’

'I do,' answered the first gloomily; 'the Murder Hole is the thing for me---that tells no tales---a single scuffle---a single plunge---and the fellow is dead and buried to your hand in a moment. I would defy all the officers in Christendom to discover any mischief there.'

'Ay, Nature did us a good turn when she contrived such a place as that. Who that saw a hole in the heath, filled with clear water, and so small that the long grass meets over the top of it, would suppose that the depth is unfathomable, and that it conceals more than forty people who have met their deaths there?---it sucks them in like a leech!’

'How do you mean to dispatch the lad in the next room?’ asked the old woman in an nuder tone. The elder son made her a sign