Nothing stirred over the vast expanse save a pair of ravens, which croaked loudly from a tor behind us.
"You are an educated man.

You don't believe such nonsense as that ?" said I."What do you think is the cause of so strange a sound ?" "Bogs make queer noises sometimes.

It's the mud settling, or the water rising, or something." "No, no, that was a living voice." "Well, perhaps it was.

Did you ever hear a bittern booming ?" "No, I never did." "It's a very rare bird--practically extinct--in England now, but all things are possible upon the moor.

Yes, I should not be surprised to learn that what we have heard is the cry of the last of the bitterns." "It's the weirdest, strangest thing that ever I heard in my life." "Yes, it's rather an uncanny place altogether.