atural channel to carry it southward; but the gap
was narrow, it would soon be crossed.

From the desultory labor of such investigations Ralph returned again
and again to the head of the great cleft and looked out into the
distance of hills and dales. The long coat he wore fell below his
knees, and was strapped tightly with a girdle. He wore a close-fitting
cap, from beneath which his thick hair fell in short wavelets that
were tossed by the wind. His dog, Laddie, was with him.

Ralph took up a position within the shelter of a bowlder, and waited
long, his eyes fixed on the fell six miles down the dale.

The procession emerged at length. The chill and cheerless morning
seemed at once to break into a spring brightness--there at least, if
not here. Through the leaden wintry sky the sun broke down the hilltop
at that instant in a shaft of bright light. It fell like an oasis over
the solemn company walking there. Then the shaft widened and stretched
into the dale, and then the mists that rolled midway between him and
it passed away, and a blue sky was over all.

III. "Which way now?"

"Well, I reckon there be two roads; maybe you'd like--"

"Which way now? Quick, and no clatter!"

"Then gang your gate down between Dale Head and Grey Knotts as far as
Honister."

"Let's hope you're a better guide than constable, young man, or, as
that old fellow said in the road this morning, we'll fley the bird and
not grip him. Your clattering tongue had served us a scurvy trick, my
man; let your head serve us in better stead, or mayhap you'll lose
both--who knows?"

The three men rode as fast as the uncertain pathway between the
mountains would allow. Mr. Garth mumbled something beneath his breath.
He was beginning to wish himself well out of an ungracious business.
Not even revenge sweetened by profit could sustain his spirits under
the battery of the combined ridicule and contempt of the men he had
undertaken to serve.

"A fine wild-goose chase this," said one of the constables. He had not
spoken before, but had toiled along on his horse at the obvious
expenditure of much physical energy and more temper.

"Grumbling again, Jonathan; when will you be content?" The speaker was
a little man with keen eyes, a supercilious smile, a shrill sharp
voice, and peevish manners.

"Not while I'm in danger of breaking my neck every step, or being lost
on a moor nearly as trackless as an ocean, or swallowed up in mists
like the clouds