xt
two or three miles?"

"Certainly not," said Foster; "that is, if there's another way."

"Weel," said Pete, "they're surely nearer than I thought, and might see
where we crossed the burn. There's nought for't but the shieling on
the knowe."

He went on, and the dark mass ahead grew into a rocky mound covered
with small trees. They were birches, because Foster saw their
drooping, lacelike twigs above the low mist; and the indistinct object
among their stems was the shieling. It was obvious that the hut would
catch the eyes of the men behind if they came close enough, and he
stopped where the ground rose.

"We'll no' gang in yet," said Pete.

They skirted the mound, which was larger than Foster thought and broken
by out-cropping rock, and when a thick screen of the birches rose
between them and the building, crept into a nook among the stones.
Foster imagined that the others might search for half the night without
finding them unless they were lucky. Then Pete remarked in a meaning
tone: "There's just the twa, and I hae a good stick."

Foster smiled. He was tired, wet, and savage, and would have liked to
confront Graham and settle their differences by force; but the matter
could not be treated in this primitive way. He could not shoot the
men, and would be no better off if he overpowered and threw them in the
bog. They would know where he was and would follow him as close as was
safe, while he wanted to shake them off and make them uncertain whether
they were on his track or not. Besides, his antagonists might avoid a
conflict.

"The thing's too complicated to be straightened out by knocking
somebody down," he said. "But I'm glad I'm not here alone."

In the meantime, the others were getting nearer, for Foster heard them
splash through the wet moss and stumble among the rushy grass. They
were walking fast, which indicated that they thought themselves some
distance behind the fugitives; but stopped when they saw the birches,
and then came on again cautiously. Foster could not see them until
their blurred figures appeared among the trees. So long as he kept
still there was little chance of his being found.

The moonlight filtered through the low mist that rose half-way up the
thin birch trunks on the top of the mound, but the shieling stood on a
lower level, and when they went towards it the men's forms got very
indistinct. They vanished, but he knew they had gone in when a pale
stream of light fl