it up. The message contained an assignation for this very night. I
had found a point of observation, for no one was likely to come
near my cave, which was reached from the moor by such a toilsome
climb. There I should bivouac and see what the darkness brought
forth. I remember reflecting on the amazing luck which had so far
attended me. As I looked from my refuge at the blue haze of
twilight creeping over the waters, I felt my pulses quicken with a
wild anticipation.

Then I heard a sound below me, and craned my neck round the
edge of the tower. A man was climbing up the rock by the way I
had come.



CHAPTER SEVEN
I Hear of the Wild Birds


I saw an old green felt hat, and below it lean tweed-clad shoulders.
Then I saw a knapsack with a stick slung through it, as the owner
wriggled his way on to a shelf. Presently he turned his face upward
to judge the remaining distance. It was the face of a young man, a
face sallow and angular, but now a little flushed with the day's sun
and the work of climbing. It was a face that I had first seen at
Fosse Manor.

I felt suddenly sick and heartsore. I don't know why, but I had
never really associated the intellectuals of Biggleswick with a business
like this. None of them but Ivery, and he was different. They