y would take some finding.

This hold-up had wasted time. By now it was getting very dark, and we
hadn't ridden a mile before it was black night. It was an annoying
predicament, for I had completely lost my bearings and at the best I
had only a foggy notion of the lie of the land. The best plan seemed
to be to try and get to the top of a rise in the hope of seeing the
lights of the city, but all the countryside was so pockety that it was
hard to strike the right kind of rise.

We had to trust to Peter's instinct. I asked him where our line lay,
and he sat very still for a minute sniffing the air. Then he pointed
the direction. It wasn't what I would have taken myself, but on a
point like that he was pretty near infallible.

Presently we came to a long slope which cheered me. But at the top
there was no light visible anywhere--only a black void like the inside
of a shell. As I stared into the gloom it seemed to me that there were
patches of deeper darkness that might be woods.

'There is a house half-left in front of us,' said Peter.

I peered till my eyes ached and saw nothing.

'Well, for heaven's sake, guide me to it,' I said, and with Peter in
front we set off down the hill.

It was a wild journey, for darkness clung as close to us as a vest.
Twice we stepped into patches of bog, and once my horse saved himself
by a hair from going head forward into a gravel pit. We got tangled up
in strands of wire, and often found ourselves rubbing our noses against
tree trunks. Several times I had to get down and make a gap in
barricades of loose stones. But after a ridiculous amount of slipping
and stumbling we finally struck what seemed the level of a road, and a
piece of special darkness in front which turned out to be a high wall.

I argued that all mortal walls had doors, so we set to groping along
it, and presently found a gap. There was an old iron gate on broken
hinges, which we easily pushed open, and found ourselves on a back path
to some house. It was clearly disused, for masses of rotting leaves
covered it, and by the feel of it underfoot it was grass-grown.

We dismounted now, leading our horses, and after about fifty yards the
path ceased and came out on a well-made carriage drive. So, at least,
we guessed, for the place was as black as pitch. Evidently the house
couldn't be far off, but in which direction I hadn't a notion.

Now, I didn't want to be paying calls on any Turk at that time of day