“He will expect you to pay all the same.”
“We’ll see about that. We’d better do what he says, anyway.”
They began to walk.
Except for the chirruping of cicadas and the grating of their own footsteps, there was no sound on the road. Once they heard the faint tinkle of a distant sheep bell, but that was all. They had been walking steadily and in silence for some minutes when Miss Kolin spoke quietly.
“There is someone on the road ahead.”
“Where? I can’t see anyone.”
“By those bushes we are coming to. He moved out of the shadow for a moment and I saw the moonlight on his face.”
George felt his calves tightening as they walked on. He kept his eyes fixed on the bushes. Then he saw a movement in the shadows and a man stepped out into the road.
It was Arthur; but a rather different Arthur from the one George had talked to in the hotel. He wore breeches, a bush-shirt open at the neck, and a peaked cap. The thin pointed shoes had been replaced by heavy ankle boots. There was a pistol holster on the broad leather belt round his waist.
“Evening, chum,” he said as they came up to him.