at's campin' in the Dean. If they're still in their camp we can get
by easy enough, but they're maybe wanderin' about the wud after
rabbits.... Then we maun ford the water, for ye'll no' cross it lower
down where it's deep.... Our road is on the Hoose side o' the Dean, and
it's awfu' public if there's onybody on the other side, though it's hid
well enough from folk up in the policies.... Ye maun do exactly what I
tell ye. When we get near danger I'll scout on ahead, and I daur ye to
move a hair o' your heid till I give the word."

Presently, when they were at the edge of the water, Dougal announced
his intention of crossing. Three boulders in the stream made a bridge
for an active man, and Heritage hopped lightly over. Not so Dickson,
who stuck fast on the second stone, and would certainly have fallen in
had not Dougal plunged into the current and steadied him with a grimy
hand. The leap was at last successfully taken, and the three scrambled
up a rough scaur, all reddened with iron springs, till they struck a
slender track running down the Dean on its northern side. Here the
undergrowth was very thick, and they had gone the better part of half a
mile before the covert thinned sufficiently to show them the stream
beneath. Then Dougal halted them with a finger on his lips, and crept
forward alone.

He returned in three minutes. "Coast's clear," he whispered. "The
tinklers are eatin' their breakfast. They're late at their meat though
they're up early seekin' it."

Progress was now very slow and secret, and mainly on all fours. At one
point Dougal nodded downward, and the other two saw on a patch of turf,
where the Garple began to widen into its estuary, a group of figures
round a small fire. There were four of them, all men, and Dickson
thought he had never seen such ruffianly-looking customers. After that
they moved high up the slope, in a shallow glade of a tributary burn,
till they came out of the trees and found themselves looking seaward.

On one side was the House, a hundred yards or so back from the edge,
the roof showing above the precipitous scarp. Half-way down the slope
became easier, a jumble of boulders and boiler-plates, till it reached
the waters of the small haven, which lay calm as a mill-pond in the
windless forenoon. The haven broadened out at its foot and revealed a
segment of blue sea. The opposite shore was flatter, and showed what
looked like an old wharf and the ruins of buildings