lanes winding in every
direction; from the eastern bank the heath stretched away with scarce a
road or house to be seen for a great distance.

'We must get on, Chippy,' said Dick, starting to fold up the map, 'or
we shall get clean out of touch with the other fellows. We've been
studying this thing quite a while.'

'Oh, we'll soon drop across 'em,' replied Chippy; 'they ain't found
anythin', or they'd be a-hootin' like mad.'

He rose to his feet and strolled slowly forward, while Dick put the
map-case back into the haversack. The latter was adjusted, and Dick
was just rising in turn, when something moving caught his eye. Seventy
yards away a rabbit flashed at full speed across an open strip of turf,
and dived full into its burrow, and vanished with a flick of white scut.

'Down, Chippy!' hissed Dick; and the Raven fell flat on his face behind
a gorse-bush, and Dick crouched lower and watched.

'Someone has disturbed that rabbit,' thought Dick, and he waited to
discover who that someone was. Dick knew the ways of wild rabbits
perfectly well. If a rabbit feels certain that no one is near, he
ambles about in the most unconcerned fashion; but scent, sight, or
sound of man, dog, or other enemy sends him to his hole at treble-quick
speed.

Three minutes passed, and no one appeared. Four, five, and Dick began
to think it was a stoat or weasel from which the rabbit had fled. Then
he knew it was not; it was a man, for there was a movement in the clump
of bushes from which the rabbit had darted, and Dick saw a tall figure
moving very slowly. He waited for it to come into the open, but it did
not. It bent down and disappeared.

'Why,' thought Dick, 'he's going to work just like a scout. Is he
slipping off under cover of those low blackthorns?'

The boy watched the line of dwarf bushes, and was soon certain that the
stranger was doing this. He caught a glimpse of the man's form through
a thin patch, then lost it as the hidden figure crept on.

Dick dropped flat on the ground, and slid along to the spot where
Chippy lay behind the gorse-bush, and told his companion what he had
seen.

'Rum go, that!' murmured Chippy, who from his post had been unable to
catch any glimpse of the stranger. 'Yer sure that it warn't Mr.
Elliott!'

'Oh no; it wasn't my uncle!' whispered Dick. 'I didn't see the man
clearly, but I should have known at once if it had been my uncle.'

'How about the sergeant?' said Chippy. 'P'raps