. "I'll follow."

He gave me one look as much as to say, "Well done, David!" and off he
set again at his top speed.

It grew cooler, and even a little darker (but not much), with the coming
of the night. The sky was cloudless; it was still early in July, and
pretty far north; in the darkest part of that night you would have
needed pretty good eyes to read, but for all that I have often seen it
darker in a winter mid-day. Heavy dew fell and drenched the moor like
rain; and this refreshed me for a while. When we stopped to breathe, and
I had time to see all about me, the clearness and sweetness of the
night, the shapes of the hills like things asleep, and the fire
dwindling away behind us, like a bright spot in the midst of the moor,
anger would come upon me in a clap that I must still drag myself in
agony and eat the dust like a worm.

By what I have read in books, I think few that have held a pen were ever
really wearied, or they would write of it more strongly. I had no care
of my life, neither past nor future, and I scarce remembered there was
such a lad as David Balfour; I did not think of myself, but just of each
fresh step, which I was sure would be my last, with despair--and of
Alan, who was the cause of it, with hatred. Alan was in the right trade
as a soldier; this is the officer's part to make men continue to do
things, they know not wherefore, and when, if the choice was offered,
they would lie down where they were and be killed. And I daresay I would
have made a good enough private; for in these last hours it never
occurred to me that I had any choice but just to obey as long as I was
able, and die obeying.

Day began to come in, after years, I thought; and by that time we were
past the greatest danger, and could walk upon our feet like men, instead
of crawling like brutes. But, dear heart have mercy! what a pair we must
have made, going double like old grandfathers, stumbling like babes, and
as white as dead folk. Never a word passed between us; each set his
mouth and kept his eyes in front of him, and lifted up his foot and set
it down again, like people lifting weights at a country play[27]; all
the while, with the moorfowl crying "peep!" in the heather, and the
light coming slowly clearer in the east.

I say Alan did as I did. Not that ever I looked at him, for I had enough
ado to keep my feet; but because it is plain he must have been as stupid
with weariness as myself, and looked as little where we