Straight up from the stack.'
He did not demur, and we plunged at the ascent, knee-deep in
bracken and furze, sweating at every pore with our exertions, and
hearing the troop come every moment nearer on the road below.
Doubtless they knew exactly whither to go! Forced to stop and
take breath when we had scrambled up fifty yards or so, I saw
their lanthorns shining like moving glow-worms; I could even hear
the clink of steel. For all I could tell, the hut might be down
there, and we be moving from it. But it was too late to go back
now--they were close to the fern-stack; and in despair I turned
to the hill again. A dozen steps and I stumbled. I rose and
plunged on again; again stumbled. Then I found that I was
treading level earth. And--was it water I saw before me, below
me? or some mirage of the sky?
Neither; and I gripped my fellow's arm, as he came abreast of me,
and stopped him sharply. Below us in the middle of a steep
hollow, a pit in the hill-side, a light shone out through some
aperture and quivered on the mist, like the pale lamp of a
moorland hobgoblin.
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