Produced by Marcia, Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net THE SHRIEKING PIT BY ARTHUR J. REES CO-AUTHOR OF THE MYSTERY OF THE DOWNS, THE HAMPSTEAD MYSTERY. NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS Made in the United States of America COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY STREET & SMITH CORPORATION COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY JOHN LANE COMPANY +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Transcriber's Notes: Obvious printer errors have been corrected, all| |other inconsistencies are as in the original. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ TO MY SISTERS IN AUSTRALIA ANNIE AND FRANCES _The sea beats in at Blakeney-- Beats wild and waste at Blakeney; O'er ruined quay and cobbled street, O'er broken masts of fisher fleet, Which go no more to sea._ _The bitter pools at ebb-tide lie, In barren sands at Blakeney; Green, grey and green the marshes creep, To where the grey north waters leap By dead and silent Blakeney._ _And Time is dead at Blakeney-- In old, forgotten Blakeney; What care they for Time's Scythe or Glass; Who do not feel the hours pass, Who sleep in sea-worn Blakeney?_ _By the old grey church in Blakeney, By quenched turret light in Blakeney, They slumber deep, they do not know, If Life's told tale is Death and Woe; Through all eternity._ _But Love still lives at Blakeney, 'Tis graven deep at Blakeney; Of Love which seeks beyond the grave, Of Love's sad faith which fain would save-- The headstones tell the story._ _Grave-grasses grow at Blakeney Sea pansies, sedge, and rosemary; Frail fronds thrust forth in dim dank air, A message from those lying there: Wan leaves of memory._ _I send you this from Blakeney-- From distant, dreaming Blakeney; Love and Remembrance: These are sure; Though Death is strong they shall endure, Till all things cease to be._ _A. J. R._ _Blakeney, Norfolk._ PREFACE As the scenes of this story are laid in a part of Norfolk which will be readily identified by many Norfolk people, it is perhaps well to state that all the personages are fictitious, and that the Norfolk police officials who appear in the book have no existence outside these pages. They and the other characters are drawn entirely from imagination.