In a roadside planting I cut a walking-stick of hazel, and presently
struck off the highway up a bypath which followed the glen of a
brawling stream. I reckoned that I was still far ahead of any pursuit,
and for that night might please myself. It was some hours since I
had tasted food, and I was getting very hungry when I came to a
herd's cottage set in a nook beside a waterfall. A brown-faced
woman was standing by the door, and greeted me with the kindly
shyness of moorland places. When I asked for a night's lodging she
said I was welcome to the 'bed in the loft', and very soon she set
before me a hearty meal of ham and eggs, scones, and thick sweet milk.

At the darkening her man came in from the hills, a lean giant,
who in one step covered as much ground as three paces of ordinary
mortals. They asked me no questions, for they had the perfect
breeding of all dwellers in the wilds, but I could see they set me
down as a kind of dealer, and I took some trouble to confirm their
view. I spoke a lot about cattle, of which my host knew little, and I
picked up from him a good deal about the local Galloway markets,
which I tucked away in my memory for future use. At ten I was
nodding in my chair, and the 'bed in the loft' received a weary man
who never opened his eyes till five o'clock set the little homestead
a-going once more.

They refused any payment, and by six I had breakfasted and was
striding southwards again. My notion was to return to the railway
line a station or two farther on than the place where I had alighted
yesterday and to double back. I reckoned that that was the safest
way, for the police would naturally assume that I was always making
farther from London in the direction of some western port. I
thought I had still a good bit of a start, for, as I reasoned, it would