Produced by Al Haines. *MEHALAH* *A STORY OF THE SALT MARSHES* BY SABINE BARING-GOULD AUTHOR OF ’JOHN HERRING’ &c. _NEW EDITION_ LONDON SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1884 [_All rights reserved_] *CONTENTS.* CHAPTER I. THE RAY II. THE RHYN III. THE SEVEN WHISTLERS IV. RED HALL V. THE DECOY VI. BLACK OR GOLD VII. LIKE A BAD PENNY VIII. WHERE IS HE? IX. IN MOURNING X. STRUCK COLOURS XI. A DUTCH AUCTION XII. A GILDED BALCONY XIII. THE FLAG FLIES XIV. ON THE BURNT HILL XV. NEW YEAR’S EVE XVI. IN NEW QUARTERS XVII. FACE TO FACE XVIII. IN A COBWEB XIX. DE PROFUNDIS XX. IN PROFUNDUM XXI. IN VAIN! XXII. THE LAST STRAW XXIII. BEFORE THE ALTAR XXIV. THE VIAL OF WRATH XXV. IN THE DARKNESS XXVI. THE FORGING OF THE RING XXVII. THE RETURN OF THE LOST XXVIII. TIMOTHY’S TIDINGS XXIX. TEMPTATION XXX. TO WEDDING BELLS *MEHALAH:* _*A STORY OF THE SALT MARSHES.*_ *CHAPTER I.* *THE RAY.* Between the mouths of the Blackwater and the Colne, on the east coast of Essex, lies an extensive marshy tract veined and freckled in every part with water. It is a wide waste of debatable ground contested by sea and land, subject to incessant incursions from the former, but stubbornly maintained by the latter. At high tide the appearance is that of a vast surface of moss or Sargasso weed floating on the sea, with rents and patches of shining water traversing and dappling it in all directions. The creeks, some of considerable length and breadth, extend many miles inland, and are arteries whence branches out a fibrous tissue of smaller channels, flushed with water twice in the twenty-four hours. At noon-tides, and especially at the equinoxes, the sea asserts its royalty over this vast region, and overflows the whole, leaving standing out of the flood only the long island of Mersea, and the lesser islet, called the Ray. This latter is a hill of gravel rising from the heart of the Marshes, crowned with ancient thorntrees, and possessing, what is denied the mainland, an unfailing spring of purest water. At ebb, the Ray can only be reached from the old Roman causeway, called the Strood, over which runs the road from Colchester to Mersea Isle, connecting formerly the city of the Trinobantes with the station of the count of the Saxon shore. But even at ebb, the Ray is not approachable by land unless the sun or east wind has parched the ooze into brick; and then the way is