But he soon perceived that the gully was empty, so far at least as its course was straight; and with that he hastened into it, though his heart was not working easily.  When he had traced the winding hollow for half a mile or more, he saw that it forked, and one part led to the left up a steep red bank, and the other to the right, being narrow and slightly tending downwards.  Some yellow sand lay here and there between the starving grasses, and this he examined narrowly for a trace of Master Huckaback.

At last he saw that, beyond all doubt, the man he was pursuing had taken the course which led down hill; and down the hill he must follow him.  And this John did with deep misgivings, and a hearty wish that he had never started upon so perilous an errand.  For now he knew not where he was, and scarcely dared to ask himself, having heard of a horrible hole, somewhere in this neighbourhood, called the Wizard’s Slough.  Therefore John rode down the slope, with sorrow, and great caution.  And these grew more as he went onward, and his pony reared against him, being scared, although a native of the roughest moorland.  And John had just made up his mind that God meant this for a warning, as the passage seemed darker and deeper, when suddenly he turned a corner, and saw a scene which stopped him.

For there was the Wizard’s Slough itself, as black as death, and bubbling, with a few scant yellow reeds in a ring around it.  Outside these, bright water-grass of the liveliest green was creeping, tempting any unwary foot to step, and plunge, and founder.  And on the marge were blue campanula, sundew, and forget-me-not, such as no child could resist.  On either side, the hill fell back, and the ground was broken with tufts of rush, and flag, and mares-tail, and a few rough alder-trees overclogged with water.  And not a bird was seen or heard, neither rail nor water-hen, wag-tail nor reed-warbler.

Of this horrible quagmire, the worst upon all Exmoor, John had heard from his grandfather, and even from his mother, when they wanted to keep him quiet; but his father had feared to speak of it to him, being a man of piety, and up to the tricks of the evil one.  This made John the more desirous to have a good look at it now, only with his girths well up, to turn away and flee at speed, if anything should happen.  And now he proved how well it is to be wary and wide-awake, even in lonesome places.  For at the other side of the Slough, and a few land-yards beyond it, where the ground was less noisome, he had observed a felled tree lying over a great hole in the earth, with staves of wood, and slabs of stone, and some yellow gravel around it.  But the flags of reeds around the morass partly screened it from his eyes, and he could not make out the meaning of it, except that it meant no good, and probably was witchcraft.  Yet Dolly seemed not to be harmed by it, for there she was as large as life, tied to a stump not far beyond, and flipping the flies away with her tail.