sed,
Ericson appeared again, with his stick in his hand. They left Shargar
still asleep, and descended the stairs, thinking to leave the house
undisturbed. But Mrs. Fyvie was watching for them, and insisted on
their taking the breakfast she had prepared. They then set out on their
journey of forty miles, with half a loaf in their pockets, and money
enough to get bread and cheese, and a bottle of the poorest ale, at the
far-parted roadside inns.

When Shargar awoke, he wept in desolation, then crept into Robert's bed,
and fell fast asleep again.

CHAPTER XVI. A STRANGE NIGHT.

The youths had not left the city a mile behind, when a thick snowstorm
came on. It did not last long, however, and they fought their way
through it into a glimpse of sun. To Robert, healthy, powerful, and
except at rare times, hopeful, it added to the pleasure of the journey
to contend with the storm, and there was a certain steely indifference
about Ericson that carried him through. They trudged on steadily for
three hours along a good turnpike road, with great black masses of cloud
sweeping across the sky, which now sent them a glimmer of sunlight, and
now a sharp shower of hail. The country was very dreary--a succession of
undulations rising into bleak moorlands, and hills whose heather would
in autumn flush the land with glorious purple, but which now looked
black and cheerless, as if no sunshine could ever warm them. Now and
then the moorland would sweep down to the edge of the road, diversified
with dark holes from which peats were dug, and an occasional quarry
of gray granite. At one moment endless pools would be shining in the
sunlight, and the next the hail would be dancing a mad fantastic dance
all about them: they pulled their caps over their brows, bent their
heads, and struggled on.

At length they reached their first stage, and after a meal of bread and
cheese and an offered glass of whisky, started again on their journey.
They did not talk much, for their force was spent on their progress.

After some consultation whether to keep the road or take a certain short
cut across the moors, which would lead them into it again with a saving
of several miles, the sun shining out with a little stronger promise
than he had yet given, they resolved upon the latter. But in the middle
of the moorland the wind and the hail came on with increased violence,
and they were glad to tack from one to another of the huge stones that
lay about,