eaks mingled with the clouds. Just
then the sun disappeared, black shadows crept rapidly over the
mountain-tops, the whole landscape appeared dark, gloomy, and frowning.
Nowhere all around was a sight of any living thing, except a few sheep
perched far up on a steep crag. Presently masses of vapour gathered over
the hills, and began to roll down their sides, hiding first one and then
another. Elsie turned away with a shudder. The cows feeding on the
smooth grass below, the very sight of the road, lonely and deserted
though it was, seemed cheerful indeed, compared with the awful
loneliness of those grim, endless hills.

"It's no use going this way," she said, with a little shiver. "The sea
is farther off than I thought. We should lose ourselves among the hills;
and it's so cold up here, and not a soul to tell us the way, not even a
shepherd. Let's go back."

They began to descend by a circuitous route, for the side was steep
enough to make it a matter for care, and in places the soil was boggy,
and in others the rocky ground had broken and crumbled away, leaving
sharp precipitous edges.

When at last they reached the even space, there was no sign of a road to
be seen. "It must be just over there," Elsie said, in some bewilderment.
"Perhaps there's a bank at the side hiding it."

"We've come down quite a different place to where we went up," said
Duncan, slowly. "D'you think we're lost, Elsie?"

"No, of course not," Elsie replied, confidently. "Come on, Duncan; the
road can't be far off."

Duncan followed without a word. He was beginning to feel a bit tired,
and somehow he could not help giving a thought to the snug kitchen at
home, with the little wooden arm-chair in which he was accustomed to sit
when he was done up with running about. The sight of the cottage would
have been far more welcome to him even than that of the unknown father
they were seeking. But he kept his thoughts to himself.

They found a roadway after a goodish bit of running hither and thither.
Elsie had been wise enough to avoid the hills, for the day had clouded
over and a chill breeze had sprung up. It was dull enough even here, far
worse away among the steeps and hollows.

"I don't think we shall get to London very soon," Duncan ventured to
say, after a while. "There isn't any one to ask the way. Do you think
we've got near the end of Scotland yet?"

"We shan't get to London to-night," Elsie said, with the air of one who
knew all about i