"Let us proceed to the pit, gentlemen.

May I ask you to keep clear of the footprints?
I do not want them obliterated before I can take plaster casts." They followed the footsteps up the rise.

Near the summit they disappeared in a growth of nettles, but reappeared on the other side, skirting a number of bowl-shaped depressions clustered in groups along the brow of the rise.

These were the hut circles--the pit dwellings of the early Britons, shallow excavations from six to eight feet deep, all running into one another, and choked with a rank growth of weeds.
Between them and a little wood which covered the rest of the summit was an open space, with a hole gaping nakedly in the bare earth.
"That's the pit where the body was thrown," said Queensmead, walking to the brink.
The pit descended straight as a mining shaft until the sides disappeared in the interior gloom.

It was impossible to guess at its depth because of the tangled creepers which lined its sides and obscured the view, but Mr.Cromering, speaking from his extensive knowledge of Norfolk geology, said it was fully thirty feet deep.