‘There are men beneath us, not a couple of hundred yards away,’ I whispered.

I took the rifle for which we had struggled and filled the magazine examining each shell as I handled it. She stood by without attempting to hinder me.

‘What sort of men?’ she breathed.

‘I’m going to see,’ I answered. ‘Stay here and don’t move. Reach me over that telescope—have you a dry rag?’

I opened the glass and wiped the lenses.

‘Don’t! don’t go out!’ Terry implored. ‘If they’re so near—they’ll see you.’

I shook my head.

‘They’ll never catch sight of me,’ I assured her. ‘I must see, we must know, we can’t stay closed up here like blind moles starting at every sound in ignorance.’

I heard her whisper ‘Oh, be careful, Hugh!’ as I got down on the floor to crawl from the cave. First behind boulders, then with a heathery ridge to screen me, I squirmed and crept until I reached a coign of vantage from which I could see all ways without being seen. When I looked at the men in the gorge I saw them through a narrow slit between two stones, and their gaze, even if it directed itself straight at the place where I lay, could not possibly distinguish me between the contiguous rocks that made a loophole for my rifle and my eyes. The bulging cliff hid me from above, and the east was empty until the sheep, still far away, warned me of danger; so from the east I could not be seen unless I let an enemy come close; I gripped the rifle when that thought struck me; we dared not let men discover our place. But the east was vacant except for the distant sheep, and I turned to look straight down at the men in the ravine. I laid the telescope open beside me. I could distinguish the strangers only too plainly without its aid. There were two of them and they advanced until they were a short distance west of the cave, and there they halted. One of them began to sweep the country with binoculars. In spite of the security of my hiding-place I huddled down when he turned his attention to the hill-side where I crouched, and the cliff above me. A hundred things that might betray us presented themselves to my mind. I saw our manifold traces everywhere about us; it seemed impossible that he could avoid seeing what was so patent to my own imagination. With the open sky over me and the rock looming above I felt as if I was lying in plain view. I could not forbear casting my eyes to the east whence the noise of bleating sheep came with increased force.