Chapter 1
The Start of the Journey
1931
ROSEHALL
THE HAUNTED ROOM
TALES OF ADVENTURE
1932
VISIONS OF ELI
1932-1933
CINEMATIC ESCAPE
1934
THE ABANDONED COTTAGE
LITERARY ENCOUNTER
THE DERELICT MILL
1939
J. M. DENT
1934
11
YEARS
THE ABANDONED COTTAGE
“A friend had relatives near Cambridge,
and he chanced to tell me
that he had visited an abandoned cottage.”
“The story went that a man had commited suicide there
by jumping down the well in the garden,
and leaving his wife an enigmatic note…”
“His wife had lost her reason,
and it was said that the empty cottage rang
with her wails…”
“…while from time to time
the sounds of unexplained gasping and gulping
issued from the garden well…”
“We cycled over
one beautiful and still
summer’s day.”
“The sun beat down on us
as we sped past Royston Heath
and into Cambridgeshire…”
“We entered the cottage
through an empty window-frame
at the back of the house.”
“Wide-eyed
and with hearts thumping,
we explored every room.”
“It seemed unusually quiet,
particularly in the little bedroom
at the top of the stairway…”
“The cottage had been empty of human beings for a long time, and was now the home of bats,
which I remember thinking might well be responsible for the sounds that were heard
in the garden…”
“We found the well covered with a massive stone for safety.”
“Easing this a little ot one side, we peered into the ominous dark hole and dropped a pebble,
waiting for what seemed an interminable time for the tiny spalsh, which seemed to echo somewhat strangely in that quiet garden...”
“We sat on the well for a few moments,
and began to be aware of a strange air of expectancy
in that isolated and forsaken place.”
“There was not another human habitation within sight,
and we neither saw nor heard a single person or a bird
in the vicinity…”
“As we turned to go, we both heard a kind of groan or heavy sigh
that stopped us in our tracks…”
“But the sound was not repeatet.”
“Years afterwards,
I tried to find the cottage again,
but could find no trace of it.”
“The only spot I could pinpoint as its site
was an odd little plot of waste land that nobody seemed to care about…”
“…and I noticed that no birds sang
at that forsaken place…”
