one who fled from some great danger or from some dreadful sight,
and who had no thought to spare save for flight alone--he followed
the way she had gone till it took him to a beaten public path that
almost at once led over a stile to the high road which passed in
front of Bittermeads. Along this beaten path, trodden by many,
Ella's light foot had left no perceptible mark, and Dunn made no
attempt to track her further, since it seemed certain that she had
been simply hurrying back home.

"She was badly frightened over something or another," he said to
himself. "She never stopped once, she went as straight and quick
as she could. I wonder what upset her like that?"

He went back the way he had come, and at the spot where he had seen
her enter the spinney he set to work to pick up her trail in the
direction whence she had appeared, for he thought that if he followed
it he might find out what had been the cause of her evident alarm.

The ground was much more open here, and the trail correspondingly
more difficult to follow, for often there was little but a trodden
blade of grass to show where she had passed; and sometimes, where
the ground was bare and hard, there was no visible sign left at all.

Once or twice at such places he was totally at fault, but by casting
round in a wide circle like a dog scenting his prey he was able to
pick up her tracks again.

They seemed to lead right into the depths of the wood, through lonely
spots that only the keepers knew, and where others seldom came.