we know, and can hit a
lark if you see it: but he may not come until after dark, and we cannot
be too nigh to him. This holly hedge is too far away. He crosses down
here from Slocomslade, not from Tibbacot, I tell you; but along that
track to the left there, and so by the foreland to Glenthorne, where his
boat is in the cove. Do you think I have tracked him so many evenings,
without knowing his line to a hair? Will you fool away all my trouble?'

'Come then, lad, we will follow thy lead. Thy life for his, if we fail
of it.'

'After me then, right into the hollow; thy legs are growing stiff,
captain.'

'So shall thy body be, young man, if thou leadest me astray in this.'

I heard them stumbling down the hill, which was steep and rocky in that
part; and peering through the hedge, I saw them enter a covert, by the
side of the track which Master Stickles followed, almost every evening,
when he left our house upon business. And then I knew who it was they
were come on purpose to murder--a thing which I might have guessed long
before, but for terror and cold stupidity.

'Oh that God,' I thought for a moment, waiting for my blood to flow; 'Oh
that God had given me brains, to meet such cruel dastards according to
their villainy! The power to lie, and the love of it; the stealth to
spy, and the glory in it; above all, the quiet relish for blood, and joy
in the death of an enemy--these are what any man must have, to contend
with the Doones upon even terms. And yet, I thank God that I have not
any of these.'

It was no time to dwell upon that, only to try, if might be, to prevent
the crime they were bound upon. To follow the armed men down the hill
would have been certain death to me, because there was no covert there,
and the last light hung upon it. It seemed to me that my only chance to
stop the mischief pending was to compass the round of the hill, as fast
as feet could be laid to ground; only keeping out of sight from the
valley, and then down the rocks, and across the brook, to the track from
Slocombslade: so as to stop the King's messenger from travelling any
farther, if only I could catch him there.

And this was exactly what I did; and a terrible run I had for it,
fearing at every step to hear the echo of shots in the valley, and
dropping down the scrubby rocks with tearing and violent scratching.
Then I crossed Bagworthy stream, not far below Doone-valley, and
breasted the hill towards Slocombslade, with my hear