and I must find a different kind of sanctuary. I looked with more
satisfaction to the green country beyond the ridge, for there I
should find woods and stone houses.

About six in the evening I came out of the moorland to a white
ribbon of road which wound up the narrow vale of a lowland
stream. As I followed it, fields gave place to bent, the glen became
a plateau, and presently I had reached a kind of pass where a
solitary house smoked in the twilight. The road swung over a
bridge, and leaning on the parapet was a young man.

He was smoking a long clay pipe and studying the water with
spectacled eyes. In his left hand was a small book with a finger
marking the place. Slowly he repeated--

As when a Gryphon through the wilderness
With winged step, o'er hill and moory dale
Pursues the Arimaspian.

He jumped round as my step rung on the keystone, and I saw a
pleasant sunburnt boyish face.

'Good evening to you,' he said gravely. 'It's a fine night for
the road.'

The smell of peat smoke and of some savoury roast floated to me
from the house.

'Is that place an inn?' I asked.