`` Let us try to the left , '' said Dick . `` We had near fallen foully , Jack . '' Ten minutes afterwards they struck into a beaten path . `` Here is a piece of forest that I know not , '' Dick remarked . `` Where goeth me this track ? '' `` Let us even try , '' said Matcham . A few yards further , the path came to the top of a ridge and began to go down abruptly into a cup-shaped hollow . At the foot , out of a thick wood of flowering hawthorn , two or three roofless gables , blackened as if by fire , and a single tall chimney marked the ruins of a house . `` What may this be ? '' whispered Matcham . `` Nay , by the mass , I know not , '' answered Dick . `` I am all at sea . Let us go warily . '' With beating hearts , they descended through the hawthorns . Here and there , they passed signs of recent cultivation ; fruit trees and pot herbs ran wild among the thicket ; a sun-dial had fallen in the grass ; it seemed they were treading what once had been a garden . Yet a little farther and they came forth before the ruins of the house . It had been a pleasant mansion and a strong . A dry ditch was dug deep about it ; but it was now choked with masonry , and bridged by a fallen rafter . The two farther walls still stood , the sun shining through their empty windows ; but the remainder of the building had collapsed , and now lay in a great cairn of ruin , grimed with fire . Already in the interior a few plants were springing green among the chinks .
`` Now I bethink me , '' whispered XXXXX , `` this must be Grimstone .
Dick Jack Matcham cairn chinks choked fire hawthorn hawthorns left