the rugged waste to a distant cairn, they sat down upon the
stones, and Pete filled his pipe from Foster's pouch.

"Ye'll haud east until ye find a burn that will lead ye doon to the
road; then as ye cross the breist o' a fell ye'll see the reek o'
Hawick," he said and added after a pause: "Maybe ye'll no' be stopping
in the town?"

"I'll stay the night. After that, I think I'll take the hills again.
I'm going south towards Liddesdale, but I expect that's out of your
beat."

Pete smiled. "There's maist to be done in my regular line this side o'
Hawick. Buccleugh looks after his hares and paltrigs weel, and his
marches rin wide across the country from Teviot to Liddel. But I hae
freends a' the way to the North Tyne, and there's no' many sheep sales
I do not attend. If ye're wanting them, I could give ye a few
directions that might help ye on the road."

Foster thanked him and listened carefully. It looked as if the
poachers, who seemed to work now and then as honest drovers, knew each
other well and combined for mutual protection. It might be useful to
be made an honorary member of the gang.

"Weel," his companion concluded, "if ye stop at the inns I've told ye
o', ye'll find folks who can haud a quiet tongue, and if ye see ony
reason for it, ye can say ye're a freend o' mine."

Foster rather diffidently offered him some money, but was not surprised
when the man refused the gift. Indeed, he felt that it would have
jarred him had Pete taken it. The latter gave him his hand with a
smile and turned back to the glen while Foster pushed on across the
heath. He reflected with some amusement that Pete probably thought him
a fugitive from the law.

After a time he stopped to look about. His view commanded a horizon of
two or three miles, for he seemed to be near the center of the
tableland. Its surface was broken by the hummocks and hollows of the
peat, and tufts of white wild cotton relieved the blackness of the
gashes in the soil. Sheep fed in the distance, and he heard the harsh
cry of a grouse that skimmed the heath. The skyline was clear, and by
and by two sharp but distant figures cut against it.

Foster's first impulse was to drop into the ling, but he did not. If
the men were following him, it would take them half an hour to reach
the spot he occupied and, if necessary, the roughness of the ground
would enable him to reach the edge of the moor without their seeing
which way he went. Besides, si