Silver mounted and followed.
The trail carried the dog up on to the Downs.
He pursued it at speed and unfaltering in the dusk.
Against the pale west, on the brow, the figure of a man soon came into view. Billy Bluff raced up and greeted the pedestrian effusively.
Silver, pounding up behind, found himself face to face with the vicar.
The dog, his task completed to his own entire satisfaction, sought applause and sympathy from the horseman.
"Is that you, Mr. Haggard?" called the young man in the dusk.
"Yes; I came up to have a look at the sunset."
"You haven't seen that man Joses about?"
"Our lurid friend," said the vicar absently. "No; and I don't want to see him just now. It's all so quiet."