, then my foot catching in
a tussock, I sank headlong, the horse's hoofs striking me as I fell.

I must suppose--for at that moment the moon was swallowed again by a
swirl of cloud--that in the changing light he had missed his blow, and
finding myself unhurt, I was able to gain my feet, make a double and
gain the wall's edge by the plantation before he had caught me up once
more. Just as I vaulted over a crash of stones sounded, some loose ones
at top grazing my foot as I touched the ground on the far side.

The wood, however, was pitch black, thick with unpruned trees; I bent
double and dived deeper into its gloomy belly.

'Safe now,' thinks I, as utterly outdone I sank on a noiseless bed of
pine-needles; and by the Lord Harry 'twas none too soon, for if it
hadn't been for the kindly moon dipping I'd have been in two pieces by
now. 'To Jupiter Optimus Maximus I owe an altar,' says I, in my first
recovered breath, and, 'curse that infernal reiver,' says I in my
second, 'but I'll be up ends with him yet.'

No sound came from without; all was still, save for the soughing in the
pines overhead.

A quarter of an hour passed perhaps, and I determined to creep to the
wall and see if my assailant were anywhere visible.

The wind had freshened; the clouds were unravelling to its touch, and I
could see clearly enough now across the desolate hill-top. Nothing
living showed save my mare, who was cropping the coarse grass tufts just
where I had left her.

Surmounting the wall, I approached the spot where I had seen the reiver
first. There lay red remnants that clearly told a tale. The carcase,
however, had been 'lifted,' and I could trace the direction in which my
raider had gone by the drops of blood that lay here and there by the
side of the horse's track.

As the ground in places was soft with peat or bog, by a careful
examination of the hoof marks of his horse, I was able to ascertain the
direction in which he had gone, which seemed to be nearly due
north-east, or at least east by north. The marks proved another thing,
moreover, and that is, that here was the same miscreant who had killed
the shepherd and carried off the cattle elsewhere, for 'twas an unshod
horse that had galloped over Eston Nab top that night.

'Twas sore-footed that I gained home at last, but all the way I
discussed a many plans for the discovery and punishment of my
moss-trooper.

'Tis an unpleasant remembrance to have fled; next time we met I s