Stories with a Vengeance — page 26: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AT THE TUNNEL’S MOUTH. BY RICHARD DOWLING. CHAPTER I. THE RIVALS. THE river Wander flows through the middle of a gentle valley which bearsits own name. All round the valley are soft, green, gentle hills, which, although largely covered with grass, are not too steep for tillage. The valley Wander is one of the most quiet and secluded in all England. It is wholly devoted to pasture, and across its length and breadth there 1s nothing worthy of the name of village, although it has a radius of about three miles. Thefew farm- houses of the men who rent the land are thinly scattered here and there, and within a short distance of each farmhouse stand the cottages of the labourers who tend the cattle and serve the farmer. The most striking feature in the whole scene is the Great Bannermouth Canal, which crosses the plain at right angles from east to west, across a huge embankment, one of the engineering wonders of the day. When the canal reaches the hills, at the east and west extremities of the vale, it emerges into the open beyond by means of two tunnels. Midway across the vale, and flowing, loosely speaking, from north to south, runs the river Wander, a deep, placid stream, which flows slowly all the year round, and is not much affected by winter rains or summer drought. Before the canal pierces either hill, by means of the tunnel, it takes one step upwards at what may be called, speaking with relation to the Wander valley, the first lock. The water, flowing into the lower level of the canal, m locking boats up or down, escapes at an overflow sluice into the Wander river at the point where the latter passes under two arches beneath the canal. At the eastern extremity of the Google Bannermouth Canal, and just as it emerged from darkness, stood a small mi!l, which derived its waters from a hill stream having its source at some distance to the north- east. Almost opposite the house stood the lock-man’s cottage, which was the hand- somest and largest on the Bannermouth Canal. Here lived. Gregory Menton, the lock-man, who, although he was paid for and discharged the duties of an ordinary man of the class, was far above his position in oi wri and education, and con- siderably better off than mosi of his fellows. He had his cottage rent-free, his weekly wages, more than an acre of market-garden, and a small pension which he received from a firm of Bristol merchants in consideration of a hurt received by him in their employ- ment, which rendered him lame of his left leg for life. : Gregory Menton was aman of medium height, slender build, red hair, clear com- plexion, bright blue, fearless eyes, and fifty years of age. He was a man of singular integrity and straightforwardness, and his old employers at Bristol were exceedingly sorry to lose his services; but his accident wholly unfitted him for the hard physical work of their place, and they interested themselves for him until they got him made lockman at East Wander, a position which | he told them would suit him better than any other he knew of. Hither he had come, a widower, ten years ago, with his little daughter, Mary, then eight years of age. ow Mary was eighteen, tall, lithe, oval- faced, fair, with hght brown eyes, and a face always ready to break into a smile of singular gentleness and contentment. In a large town, no doubt, she would not have been considered a beauty, but im that CONA @ JOO S CO)