Part 14 (1/2)

”Had he any luck?”

”Not h we got a few partridges Pete lost his net”

There was silence for a moment, and then another reh We hae helpit Pate oot before, and a change is lightso till the moss-side folk noo”

They let the iven a better supper than he expected and afterwards a bed in a cupboard fixed to the kitchen wall

XII

A COMPLICATION

At noon next day Foster sat, se near the clachan

The air was mild and sunshi+ne filled the hollohile Foster had just dined upon soetables, but he did not think the meat in it came from a barn-door fowl The clachan was a poor and untidy place, but he was tired, and as the gaer, had thought of stopping another night When he had nearly finished his pipe Long Pete caht, now noted that he had a rather frank brown face and a twinkling smile

”Ye'll be for Hawick?” he re there and Pete resurand day for the road and ye could be in Hawick soon after it's dark”

”Just so,” said Foster, who could take a hint ”But is there any reason I should start this afternoon?”

”Ye should ken I was across theand found a polisman frae Yarrow at Watty Bell's He'd co if they'd seen a stranger wi' a glove on his left han'”

Foster ht the other noted, but said carelessly, ”The fellow s roon' up the waterside, though I wouldna' say it's very good I' he made an early start and would wait for dinner with Watty Then ye et here”

Foster looked at his watch and pondered He was beginning to understand Scottish tact and saw that PeteIt was obvious that the policeman would not have set off across the hills in the dark of a winterunless he had been ordered to a to do with the poaching

”Perhaps I had better pull out,” he said ”But the felloon't have one”

”I'm no' sure o' that There's a road o' a sort rins west to Annandale and Lockerbie”

”But I'ht start that way, and I would len--ye'll ken it by the broken dyke where ye cross the burn Then I would set ye on the road to Hawick ower the hill”

”Thanks,” said Foster thoughtfully ”I suppose I ought to let the folks at the inn know I've gone towards Annandale, so they can tell the policeht be better if they didna' exactly tell him, but let him find it oot; but I'll see tae that Polisman Jock is noo and then rather shairp”

Ten minutes later, Foster left the inn and set off across the moor

The heath shone red, and here and there little pools, round which white stones lay in the dark peat, flashed in the sunshi+ne The pale-blue of the sky changed near the horizon to delicate green, and a soft breeze blew across the waste Foster enjoyed the walk, although he was puzzled and somewhat disturbed If inquiries had been made about Featherstone, he could have understood it, but the police were asking for a love on his left hand, which could only apply to hiet him out of the way, if he had learned that he was in Scotland, but the police could not arrest a retted that he had helped the poachers, although he thought he had ht be useful He hadabout their character They were marked by a stern independence, inherited froht Pete was a typical specimen of the virile race Thethe road they turned east up the side of a sparkling burn

The narrow strip of level ground et and covered with moss, in which their feet sank, but the hillside was too steep to walk along