pal features of the
scene, hurried back to his companions.

"We can do no better, girls, than to lie down together, two hundred
yards away. Pick your way through the bushes where they are thinnest,
so as not to disturb them. Please be off at once, and choose a spot
close to where the ground falls away, on the other side. Roger and I
must tumble this shelter down, and scatter the sticks; for if anyone
searching the hillside came along, he would guess that we had slept
here, and there would be a hue and cry at once."

The man had left, sometime before, for the valley; having gone off as
soon as he had spoken to the girls. Oswald and Roger ran down to the
shelter, speedily threw the stones into a heap, and scattered the
sticks; then, after glancing round to see that nothing had been left,
they collected the blankets, provisions, and water skin; and, taking up
these and Oswald's armour, ran in the direction that Oswald had pointed
out to the girls.

The ground was thickly covered with heather, and they had to step
carefully to avoid pressing it down. They reached the edge of the
plateau without seeing the girls and, after looking round for a minute
or two, Oswald called aloud.

He was answered by a merry laugh, and Jessie's head rose above the
heather. They had, indeed, passed within five or six yards of the
girls.

"That is good, indeed," Oswald said, as he lay down beside them. "If I
could not see you, when I was sure that you were quite near, there is
no fear of any searchers lighting upon you.

"The sun has just risen, and a mist still hangs on the top of the
hills," he went on; "and I am convinced that we cannot have been seen,
for men placed on the watch are sure to be high up on the hills, and it
will be some time yet before the sun rises high enough to drive away
the mist."

Although it was freezing sharply, they felt by no means cold as they
lay, wrapped in their blankets, with the heather rising well above
them, and sheltering them from a light breeze that had sprung up at
sunrise. After chatting with the girls for a time, Roger and Oswald
left them and, crawling along on their stomachs, got to the edge of the
descent.

By this time the sun was well above the hills, the mist had cleared
off, and they had an extensive view. From time to time they caught
sight of groups of three or four mounted men moving about, searching
the valleys; while single men, on foot, rambled over the hills.

"They are keeping