was failing, and I seemed to hear those horrid steps at my
heels. My heart was in my mouth as, careless of my best
clothes, I tore through the hawthorn bushes. Then I struck
the path and, to my relief, came on Archie and Tam, who
were running slowly in desperate anxiety about my fate. We
then took hands and soon reached the top of the gully.

For a second we looked back. The pursuit had ceased, and
far down the burn we could hear the sounds as of some one
going back to the sands.

'Your face is bleeding, Davie. Did he get near enough to hit
you?' Archie asked.

'He hit me with a stone. But I gave him better. He's got a
bleeding nose to remember this night by.'

We did not dare take the road by the links, but made for
the nearest human habitation. This was a farm about half a
mile inland, and when we reached it we lay down by the stack-
yard gate and panted.

'I've lost my lantern,' said Tam. 'The big black brute! See if
I don't tell my father.'

'Ye'll do nothing of the kind,' said Archie fiercely. 'He knows
nothing about us and can't do us any harm. But if the story
got out and he found out who we were, he'd murder the lot of US.'

He made us swear secrecy, which we were willing enough to