Here and there in the hedges were gaps, through which a
person or an animal could pass from the road to the moor, and back
again. To Dick, who did not understand it, this was very
bewildering. Ahead of him a black shadow would flit for a moment,
dark against the dazzling white road, then it would disappear.
It moved so swiftly and so close to the ground, that if it had not
been for the scent he might have thought it was some animal dodging
about among the ditches and dry grasses. Dick could not know that
when it had slipped through a gap in the hedge it became, instead of
a shadow, a solid little dingy brown figure.

Dick was puzzled. He was sure that Huldah was on ahead of him
somewhere, and he was very sure that he wanted her, but he was not at
all sure where she was, or that she wanted him; and there are times
in the lives of caravan dogs when they are not wanted, and are made
to know it. Dick had learnt that fact, but he wanted Huldah, and he
could not help feeling that she wanted him. It was very seldom that
she did not.

So he followed along slowly, keeping at a safe distance, his eyes and
his senses all on the alert to find out if that shadow ahead of him
was really his little mistress, or what it was--and if she would be
angry if he ran after her and joined her.

For a mile, for two miles, they went on like this, then the moor
ended, and roads and fields and houses came in sight. The black
shadow, which was really a little brown girl, stood for a moment
under the shelter of the hedge and looked hurriedly about her.
"Which'll be the safest way to go?" she gasped to herself, and wished
her heart would not thump so hard, for it made her tremble so that
she could hardly stand or move. She shaded her eyes with her little
sun-burnt hand and looked about her anxiously.

"They'd be certain sure to take the van along the main road," she
said to herself; "and anyway somebody might see me, and tell _'im_.
He's sure to ask everybody if they've seen me." A sob caught in her
throat, and tears came very near her eyes. She had often and often
thought of running away, but had never before had the courage and the
opportunity at the same time, and now that she had got both, and had
seized them, she was horribly frightened.

She was not so frightened by the prospect of want and loneliness and
uncertainty which lay before her, as she was by the thought of being
caught, and taken back again. The risk of capture after