Holmes stamped his feet in his impatience, declaring that in half an
hour we wouldn't be able to see our hands in front of us. We fell back
to higher ground until we were half a mile from the house, but Holmes
was anxious that we would be too far to intervene in time. Then he
dropped suddenly on his knees, put his ear to the ground, and said he
heard someone coming. 
A sound of quick steps broke the silence. Crouching among the stones,
we stared intently. The steps grew louder, and through the fog, as 
through a curtain, there stepped a figure, emerging into the clear, 
looking round in surprise at the starlit night, then coming swiftly 
along the path, passing close to where we lay, and going on up the long
slope behind us, glancing continually over either shoulder, like one 
who is ill at ease.
