Noughts and Crosses - Stories, Studies and Sketches by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
page 36 of 172 (20%)
page 36 of 172 (20%)
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another pool of blood. Now the jeweller must have dropped instantly
for he was shot through the heart. Yet no one doubted but that the other pool of blood was his. Fools!" With this he turned off the road at right angles, and began to strike rapidly across the moor. At first I thought he was trying to escape me, but he allowed me to catch him up readily enough, and then I knew the point for which he was making. I followed doggedly. Clouds began to gather over the moon's face, and every now and then I stumbled heavily on the uneven ground; but he moved along nimbly enough, and even cried "Shoo!" in a sprightly voice when a startled plover flew up before his feet. Presently, after we had gone about five hundred yards on the heath, the ground broke away into a little hollow, where a rough track led down to the Lime Kilns and the thinly wooded stream that washed the valley below. We followed this track for ten minutes or so, and presently the masonry of the disused kilns peered out, white in the moonlight, from between the trees. There were three of these kilns standing close together beside the path; but my companion without hesitation pulled up almost beneath the very arch of the first, peered about, examined the ground narrowly, and then motioned to me. "Dig here." "If we both know well enough what is underneath, what is the use of digging?" "I very much doubt if we do," said he. "You had better dig." |
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