their right hand.
Foster's sight was good, but he admitted that the poacher's was better,
because it was a minute or two before he saw any ground for alarm.
Although there was some light in the sky, the rough descent was dark
and it was only by degrees he distinguished something that moved across
the heath, below and some distance away. Then he realized that it was
a man, and another became faintly visible. They might be shepherds or
sportsmen, but it was significant that there were two and they seemed
to be ascending obliquely, as if to cut his line of march. He
remembered that as he and Pete had kept the crest of the ridge their
figures must have shown, small but sharp, against the fading light.

"It's suspicious, but I wouldn't like to say they're on our trail," he
remarked.

"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 summit, and would make a very rough
means of ascent, but if they entered it the men would be out of sight.
He blamed himself for not looking back before but had felt safe in the
wilds, and even now it was hard to believe that the men were following
him. Straining his eyes, he watched them move towards the gully, and
set his lips when they disappeared. It was plain that they meant to
get as close as possible before they were seen.

He did not move for the next few moments, but his brain was busy.
Graham might 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, sometimes favored one in
a curious way; the fellow might have found out that he had left the
road and expected him to stop the night in Bewcastle dale. Since
Foster had Pete with him, he was not, in one sense, afraid of Graham.
Although the fellow was, no doubt, dangerous, he was not likely to
force an equal fight. The risk would come if Graham found him alone
and at a disadvantage, when Foster thought it would go hard with him.
This was why he could not have the men on his track, watching for the
right moment to strike. It was, however, possible that the strangers
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'm no' for
spending the night among the bents," he said. "I