"Oh, Theo, please don't cry like that," Jack implored in distressed accents. "I can't bear to hear you."
"Oh, Jack, I'm very wicked!" Theodore replied, striving hard to check his sobs. "I ought never to have brought you here. But I thought we should have such a grand time, and so we did until we found out we were lost. I suppose we took longer coming than we considered. I did not think it would be dark so soon. Did you?"
"No. We stopped a great many times, but that was my fault, not yours," Jack said, generously. "It's getting very dark, isn't it? Keep near me, Theo; won't you? Don't let us lose each other."
"No, no, that would be worst of all. Are you very tired, Jack?"
"I am, rather; but I'm all right. Look!"
Jack clutched Theodore excitedly by the arm. It was now nearly dark, so that distant objects were not discernible at all; but about a hundred yards from the spot where the boys stood was a twinkling light moving in the opposite direction.
"It's a man carrying a lantern!" Theodore cried joyfully. "Let us shout to him to stop."
They both shouted until they were breathless, but the light continued to move away from them. They followed as quickly as they could, hand in hand, so as not to lose each other in the gloom. Suddenly the light disappeared altogether, but the minute after it reappeared, and the boys shouted afresh.
They had now reached the bottom of the hill where the ground was much less uneven, but instead of being dry as it had been on the Tor, it was so soppy in places that their feet were soon very wet, and they shivered in the chill mist.
"Stop!" shouted Theodore, judging from the appearance of the light that it was at a greater distance from them than when they first saw it. "Oh, stop! Hi, you there! Hi! Oh, Jack, the man or whoever it is must be as deaf as a post. Oh, look out!"