but this time she hugged it, and was
not happy unless she could switch the wires to make certain they were
there.

It was lighter when she reached the first corner: absolute blackness had
turned to a dark yet transparent grey; it was as though the ink had been
watered; but in a little it was ink no more. Moya turned in her saddle,
and a broadening flail of bloodshot blue was sweeping the stars one by
one out of the eastern sky.

Also Moya felt the wind of her own travelling bite shrewdly through her
summer blouse; and she put a stop to the blundering, plodding canter
about half-way down the east-and-west fence whose eastern angle
contained the disused whim and hut.

It was no longer necessary to switch the wires; even the line of trees
in Blind Man's Block had taken shape behind them; and that sinister
streak soon stood for the last black finger-mark of the night.

Further down the fence a covey of crows got up suddenly with foul outry;
and Moya, remembering the merino which had fallen by the way, steeled
her body once more to the bony one's uneasy canter.

The beast now revealed itself a dapple-grey; and at last between its
unkempt ears, and against the slaty sky to westward, Moya described the
timbers of the whim.

She reined in again, her bent head puzzling over what she should say.

And again she cantered, the settled words upon her lips; but there they
were destined to remain until forgotten; for it was at this point that
Moya's adventure diverged alike from her purpose and her preconception.

In the first place the hut was empty. It took Moya some minutes to
convince herself of the fact. Again and again she called upon the
supposed occupant to come out declaring herself a friend come to warn
him, as indeed she had. At last she dismounted and entered, her whip
clutched firmly, her heart in her mouth. The hut was without partition
or inner chamber. A glance proved it as empty as it had seemed.

Moya was nonplussed: all her plans had been built upon the supposition
that she should find the runaway still skulking in the hut where she had
seen him the previous forenoon. She now perceived how groundless her
supposition had been; it seemed insane when she remembered that the
runaway had as certainly seen her--and her sudden flight at sight of
him. Unquestionably she had made a false start. Yet she did not see what
else she could have done.

She led her horse to the whim itself. Twin shafts ran deep into the