decanter with him and I resisted his offer to accompany me home. I
kept the road as long as his eye was on me, and then I struck off
across the moor and made for the stony hill over which the boy had
disappeared, I did not intend to miss this chance which fortune had
thrown in my way.
The sun was already sinking when I reached the summit of the hill.
A haze lay low upon the farthest sky-line, out of which jutted the
fantastic shapes of Belliver & Vixen Tor.  The barren scene, the sense of
lonliness, the mystery & urgency of my task all struck a chill into my
heart.  The boy was nowhere to be seen.  But down beneath me in a cleft of
the hills there was a circle of the old stone huts, and in the middle of
them was one which retained sufficient roof to act as a screen against
the weather.  I guessed this was the burrow where the stranger lurked.
