For about two hours I heard and saw nothing of any man, and I began to
think I was a fool for all my pains. So I sat down a good while and
rested, and even thought that I would go back again. But just as I was
about to get up again I heard a stone fall a great way behind me: it was
on some rocky ground about two hundred yards away. The night was quite
still, and I could hear the stone very plainly.... It was I that crawled
then, further down the hill, and it was then that I saw once more a
man's head move against the stars.
"I went straight on then, as quietly as I could. I made sure that it was
but one that was after me, and that he would not try to take me by
himself, and I saw no more of him till I came down near Padley--"
"Near Padley? Why--"
"I meant to go there first," said the priest, "and lie, there till
morning. But as I came down the hill I heard the steps of him again a
great way off. So I turned sharp into a little broken ground that lies
there, and hid myself among the rocks--"
* * * * *
Mistress Alice lifted her hand suddenly.
"Hark!" she whispered.
Then as the three sat motionless, there came, distinct and clear, from a
little distance down the hill, the noise of two or three horses walking
over stony ground.
III
For one deathly instant the two sat looking each into the other's white
face--since even the priest changed colour at the sound. (While they had
talked the dawn had begun to glimmer, and the windows showed grey and
ghostly on the thin morning mist.
Pages:
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449