hort cuts, so as to catch me up at the half circle.

"As he seemed bent upon the matter, I naturally grew obstinate also, and
he spent his whole day in trying to catch me up, while I spent mine in
trying to baffle him, and we seemed to be playing at _hide-and-seek_;
the consequences were, that when it was getting dark, I had completely
lost myself in the most deserted part of the moor. There was no cottage
near, and not even a church spire in the distance. The only land-mark,
was the hateful outline of that cursed man, about five hundred yards
off.

"Of course he had won the game! I should have to put a good face on the
matter, and allow him to join me, or rather I should have to join him
myself, if I did not wish to sleep in the open air and with an empty
stomach, and so I went up to him, and asked my way in a half-surly
manner.

"He replied very affably, that there was no inn in the neighborhood, as
the nearest village was five leagues off, but that he lived only about
an hour's walk off, and that he considered himself very fortunate in
being able to offer me hospitality.

"I was utterly done up, and how could I refuse? So we went off through
the heather and furze; I walking slowly because I was so tired, and he
went tripping along merrily with his legs like a basset hound's, which
seemed untirable.

"And yet he was an old man, and not strongly built, for I could have
knocked him over by blowing on him; but how he could walk, the beast!

"But he was not a troublesome companion, as I imagined he would have
been, and he did not at all seem to wish to enter into conversation with
me, as I feared he would. When he had given his invitation, and I had
accepted it and thanked him in a few words, he did not open his lips
again, and we walked on in silence, and only his glances worried me, for
I felt them on me, as if he wished to force me into an intimacy, which
my closed lips refused. But on the whole, his tenacious looks, which I
noticed furtively, appeared sympathetic and even admiring--yes; really
admiring!

"But I could not give him as good as he brought, for he was certainly
not handsome; his legs were short, and rather bandy and he was thin and
narrow-chested. His face was like a bit of parchment, furrowed and
wrinkled, without a hair on it to hide the folds in his skin. His hair
resembled that of an _Ignorantin_[9] brother, with its gray locks
falling onto his greasy collar; he had a nose like a ferret, and ra