Part 22 (1/2)

”Ye'll soon ken Watch the bit scaur”

Foster saw a faint dark line down the hill, and supposed it was a gully, torn out of the peat It ran nearly straight up, crossing the strangers' indirect course to the suh means of ascent, but if they entered it the ht

He bla back before but had felt safe in the wilds, and even noas hard to believe that thehis eyes, he watched theully, and set his lips when they disappeared It was plain that they et as close as possible before they were seen

He did not move for the next few ht have come back down the north road in his car and afterwards taken to the moors, but it was difficult to understand how he had found Foster's track Chance, however, soht have found out that he had left the road and expected hiht in Bewcastle dale Since Foster had Pete with hih the felloas, no doubt, dangerous, he was not likely to force an equal fight The risk would coe, when Foster thought it would go hard with him

This hy he could not have the ht ers were police, and he lay in the heath with knitted brows until Pete touched him

”They wouldna' find us easy if we keepit still, but I' the bents,” he said ”I' flow and lose the the summit started down the incline, while Foster followed as fast as he could It would be some time before the others reached the spot they had left, but the light of the sinkingas they were ures could be seen When they reached the bottoe of a wide level space Tufts of wild cotton gleaht, and here and there a sparkle marked a pool, but, farther on, a trail of , and when Pete stopped for a few h the wet moss in which his feet sank

”The black burn rins on the ither side, and there's just one place where ye can cross,” Pete said thoughtfully ”An old shi+eling stands on a bit dry knowe near the ht spend the night there, if it was needful”

Foster left it to hiht of spending the night in the bog, and Petea track, because he went straight ahead, tra into pools Foster noted that the latter were shallow, though he had fallen into bog-holes that were deep They tried to move silently, but they ed into a belt of mist that would hide theround to left and right, he ier who lost the track would have serious trouble in regaining firan to find the silence daunting On the hills one could hear the grouse and plover crying and thewater, but an oppressive quietness brooded over the flow Nor could he seepools By and by, however, a dark h the haze and Pete stopped and looked back

For a , and then there was a splash and a noise, as if soh the rushes The sounds were nearer than he had thought possible, and he glanced at his co badly and they've keepit the track so far,”

Pete remarked ”Maybe ye wouldn'a care to try their speed for the next two or three miles?”

”Certainly not,” said Foster; ”that is, if there's another way”

”Weel,” said Pete, ”they're surely nearer than I thought, and ht for't but the shi+eling on the knowe”

He went on, and the dark rew into a rocky mound covered with small trees They were birches, because Foster saw their drooping, lacelike twigs above the lowtheir ste It was obvious that the hut would catch the eyes of the h, and he stopped where the ground rose

”We'll no' gang in yet,” said Pete

They skirted the ht and broken by out-cropping rock, and when a thick screen of the birches rose between the the stones

Foster iht without finding the tone: ”There's just the twa, and I hae a good stick”

Foster se, and would have liked to confront Graham and settle their differences by force; but the matter could not be treated in this primitive way He could not shoot the men, and would be no better off if he overpowered and threw the They would knohere he was and would follow him as close as was safe, while he wanted to shake them off and make them uncertain whether they were on his track or not Besides, his antagonists 's too co solad I'etting nearer, for Foster heard therass They alking fast, which indicated that they thought theitives; but stopped when they saw the birches, and then caain cautiously Foster could not see the the trees So long as he kept still there was little chance of his being found

The h the low mist that rose half-way up the thin birch trunks on the top of thestood on a lower level, and when they went towards it the ot very indistinct They vanished, but he knew they had gone in when a pale strea the trees

”A polisman's trick,” Pete said in a low voice ”A poacher would not ha' let ye see the light”

Foster felt that hewas risky, but it orth trying, and he crawled out froh and wet; his hand plunged into some water and he scraped his knee, but he ht went out It looked as if the others had heard him, and he lowered his head until his face was buried in withered fern There was silence for a few led as he heard steps; theout to look for hiot farther off By and by there was a sharp rustle and he cautiously looked up Two hazy figures showed a away

It was i heard, and he waited until Pete joined hie by the noise they

”They're awa', but I wouldna' say they'll no' coht place, they'll no' find it easy to cross the burn She rins in a deep cut an' the bottoet off the track?”