t his hosts asked no questions and presently gave him
supper.

Soon afterwards he was shown a comfortable room and went to bed,
leaving Pete with the others in the kitchen. Foster was glad to feel
he could be trusted not to tell them too much, although he would, no
doubt, have to satisfy their curiosity to some extent. A hint went a
long way with the reserved Borderers.

XIX

ALICE'S CONFIDENCE

Foster got up late and after breakfast sat by the kitchen fire,
studying his map. He imagined that his pursuers, believing him to be
in front, had crossed the low ground towards the cultivated valley of
the Esk, where they would not have trouble in finding shelter for the
night. Then, if they thought he was making for the Garth, the railway
would take them up Liddesdale.

He meant to visit the Garth, although this might prove dangerous if
Graham and his companion watched the neighborhood. So long as Pete was
close at hand, the risk might not be great, but Pete could not be with
him always and he thought Graham would stick at nothing to get his
papers back. One of the gang had killed Fred Hulton, and Foster did
not suppose the others would hesitate about getting rid of him, if it
could be done without putting the police on their track. A shot or
stab in the dark would effectually prevent his betraying them, and it
might be made to look like an accident, or perhaps as if he had killed
himself. Foster, as a rule, distrusted anything that looked abnormal
or theatrical, but admitted that he might be in some danger. For all
that, he was going. There was no need for an early start, because he
did not want to arrive in daylight and the distance was not great.
Then he meant to avoid the high roads, and after a talk with Pete
picked out his route across the hills. It was eleven o'clock when they
set off, and they spent an hour sheltering behind a dyke while a
snowstorm broke upon the moor. The snow was wet and did not lie, but
the soaked grass and ling afterwards clung about their feet and made
walking laborious. The sky was gray and lowering and there was a
bitter wind, but they pushed on across the high moors, and when the
light was going saw a gap in a long ridge in front. Foster thought
this marked the way down to the Garth.

It was nearly dark when they reached the gap, through which a brown
stream flowed, and he could see nothing except dim hillsides and the
black trough of the hollow. Pete said they mus