considerable weight,
the presence of some living creature in the wood other than the small
things that run to and fro beneath the trees, stood revealed to all ears
that could hear.

Dunn stood instantly perfectly still, rigid as a statue, listening
intently, and he noted with satisfaction and keen relief that the
regular heavy tread of the man in front did not alter or change.

"Good," he thought to himself. "What luck, he hasn't heard it."

He moved on again, as silently as before, perhaps a little inclined to
be contemptuous of any one who could fail to notice so plain a warning,
and he supposed that the man he was following must be some townsman who
knew nothing at all of the life of the country and was, like so many of
the dwellers in cities, blind and deaf outside the range of the noises
of the streets and the clamour of passing traffic.

This thought was still in his mind when all at once the steady sound of
footsteps he had been following ceased suddenly and abruptly, cut off on
the instant as you turn off water from a tap.

Dunn paused, too, supposing that for some reason the other had stopped
for a moment and would soon walk on again.

But a minute passed and then another and there was still no sound of
the footsteps beginning again. A little puzzled, Dunn moved cautiously
forward.

He saw nothing, he found nothing, there was no sign at all of the man he
had been following.

It was as though he had vanished bodily from the face of the earth, and
yet how this had happened, or why, or what had become of him, Dunn could
not imagine, for this spot was, it seemed, in the very heart of the
wood, there was no shelter of any sort or kind anywhere near, and though
there were trees all round just the ground was fairly open.

"Well, that's jolly queer," he muttered, for indeed it had a strange and
daunting effect, this sudden disappearance in the midst of the wood of
the man he had followed so far, and the silence around seemed all the
more intense now that those regular and heavy footsteps had ceased.

"Jolly queer, as queer a thing as ever I came across," he muttered
again.

He listened and heard a faint sound from his right. He listened again
and thought he heard a rustling on his left, but was not sure and all
at once a great figure loomed up gigantic before him and the light of
lantern gleamed in his face.

"Now, my man," a voice said, "you've been following me ever since I left
Bittermeads, and I'm g