rm, he might have done so, but he thought it belonged to some
country laird and resumed his march. He never saw the house again, but
remembered it now and then, as he had seen it with the fading light
that shone through the old apple trees touching its lichened wall.

The road led upwards and he stopped for breath at the summit. The glen
was now shut in and the light going, but here and there in the distance
a loch reflected a pale gleam. A half-moon shone above the hills and
the silver light got brighter as he went on. The wind had fallen and
the silence was emphasized by the faint splash of water. After a time,
he came down to lower ground where broken dykes divided straggling
fields, but there was no sign of life until as he turned a corner an
indistinct figure vanished among the dry fern in the shadow of a wall.
Foster thought this curious, particularly when he passed the spot and
saw nobody there, but there was an opening in the dyke for the sheep to
go through.

A little farther on, the road ran across a field, and when he was near
the middle he saw something move behind a gorse bush. Although it
looked like a man's head, he did not stop. Going on, as if he had seen
nothing, until he was close to the gorse, he left the track and walked
swiftly but softly across the grass. When he reached the bush a man
who had been crouching behind it sprang to his feet. He was tall and
roughly dressed, and looked like a shepherd or farm-hand.

"Weel," he said with a truculent air, "what is it ye want with me?"

The question somewhat relieved Foster, who now noted the end of a long,
thin net in the grass.

"I was curious to see what you were doing. Then I meant to ask the way
to Langsyke."

"What are ye wanting there?"

"To stay the night. I was directed to a change-house where they'd take
me in."

"They might. Ye're a stranger, and ye'll tak' the road again the morn?"

Foster said he meant to do so and the other pondered.

"Weel, there's a soft flow where ye might get mired if ye left the
road, which is no' that plain, and I could set ye on the way, but
there's a bit job I'll hae to finish first." He paused and added with
a grin as he indicated the net: "Maybe ye hae a notion what it is."

"I imagine it's connected with somebody else's grouse or partridges,
but that's not my business. You'll be a shilling or two richer if you
show me the way."

"Then the sooner I'm finished here, the sooner we'll be of