I
must so increase my distance as to get clear away from them, and I
believed I could do this if I could find the right ground for it. If
there had been cover I would have tried a bit of stalking, but on
these bare slopes you could see a fly a mile off. My hope must be in
the length of my legs and the soundness of my wind, but I needed
easier ground for that, for I was not bred a mountaineer. How I
longed for a good Afrikander pony!
I put on a great spurt and got off my ridge and down into the
moor before any figures appeared on the skyline behind me. I
crossed a burn, and came out on a highroad which made a pass
between two glens. All in front of me was a big field of heather
sloping up to a crest which was crowned with an odd feather of
trees. In the dyke by the roadside was a gate, from which a grass-
grown track led over the first wave of the moor.
I jumped the dyke and followed it, and after a few hundred yards
--as soon as it was out of sight of the highway--the grass stopped
and it became a very respectable road, which was evidently kept
with some care. Clearly it ran to a house, and I began to think of
doing the same. Hitherto my luck had held, and it might be that my
best chance would be found in this remote dwelling. Anyhow there
were trees there, and that meant cover.
I did not follow the road, but the burnside which flanked it on
the right, where the bracken grew deep and the high banks made a
tolerable screen.
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