more than half an hour.

Then they looked about them again for some one to guide them, and
particularly for the Corporal; but the Corporal, as luck would have it,
though he was trying his best to find them, never came within eyesight
or earshot of them. Besides, Billy was so lame that he could not ride
him very fast, and the Corporal himself was not so sure of his way but
that he had to keep looking out sharply to remember where he was. So
seeing no help Dick and Elsie made up their minds that they must try to
find their own way home, though they had little idea in which direction
to start, for they had never been so far on the moor before. The
rolling hills and grass and heather seemed to be very much the same on
every side, and there was no road nor track to guide them. Dick did
indeed think of following the hoof-marks of their own ponies backward,
for he had heard the Corporal tell stories how lost and tired soldiers
had rejoined an army on the march by sticking to its tracks; but
unfortunately this was not very easy. Very soon they made up their
minds that the first thing to be done was to get clear of the
treacherous ground on which they stood, for the ponies floundered
terribly, and in one desperate scramble over a very soft place Dick let
his whip fall and could not find it again. Still on they went, and at
last came to a little trickle of water in a hollow, running between
what seemed to be sound green grass; but the ponies refused to cross
it; and it was well that they did so, for it was deeper and more
dangerous than any ground that they had yet traversed. So there was
nothing for it but to follow the water in the hope that the ground
would improve; and accordingly they did follow it, upward. The stream
grew smaller and smaller, and Dick hugged himself with the idea that
when it disappeared altogether they would be able to travel faster.
But, on the contrary, the ground grew worse instead of better, for
water underground makes worse foothold than water flowing honestly
above, and very soon they lost all sense of their direction in the
difficulty of keeping the ponies on their legs at all. At last after
several very unpleasant struggles they luckily found their way out of
the worst of the bog; but there seemed to be no end to the tract of
mixed grass and heather, which is always treacherous to ride over; and
the ponies were constantly in difficulties. Then to Dick's joy at last
they came upon tracks o