The light was failing fast now and he remembered that the girls and the twins would be waiting for them at H.Q,. by the ruins of the castle. Suddenly he stopped. Ahead of him, in the dusky shadows, he saw a point of light which was not the beam of a torch but a little orange star, that flickered for a second or two and then disappeared. He waited, and then the light came again and he guessed that the man in front of him had stopped to light a pipe or cigarette. Tom crept forward and after a few more steps he was rewarded with the unmistakable smell of tobacco. He was so excited now that he quite forgot David and Jon and hurried forward until he was able to distinguish the figure of the man in front of him. He waited a few seconds while his quarry lit another match, and then hurried forward again. After a little, he heard the unmistakable sound of bleating sheep. For a moment he thought he must be dreaming, but as he stood stock-still and listened the sound came again and he knew that whatever the others were doing at this minute he would not change places with any of them.

He stood waiting and listening as the moon came up over the top of the dyke. Tom never forgot this moment and the way in which the silent, silvery light slid down the side of the great bank on his left and picked out for him a strange scene, the sight of which sent him flat on his face in the heather.

He was hiding at a turn in the track and when he raised his head cautiously he saw that round the bend the ditch itself appeared narrower, with steeper sides. About forty yards ahead of him was a patch of ground bare of heather, and beyond that it seemed as if the ditch was either filled or else turned so sharply that it was not possible to see beyond this particular point. The moonlight had already reached this miniature arena and Tom saw quite clearly a man with a pipe in his mouth, a stick in his hand and a cap on his head. A restless dog at the man's heels barked sharply as the bleating of invisible sheep increased.

Tom, of course, had no idea that the twins had already discovered this hiding-place from the other side, so he was astonished when he saw the man lean forward and throw to one side a hurdle which he afterwards knew to be camouflaged with dead bracken and gorse. The dog barked again as the man spoke to it, and suddenly the ditch seemed full of sheep as they came tumbling, in a panic, out of their shelter.