"Here's a compost heap; they are perhaps in the middle of that. Is it worth looking at?"
"Not exactly. Come on."
The man retired to the road again and mounted, and in the course of a few moments the two parties rode back again upon the way that they had come.
"Todd?" said Lupin, "Todd?"
"Oh!" groaned Todd.
"Todd, I say, get up. Are you out of your mind? The danger is past now. They are gone."
"Gone!" said Todd, looking up. "You don't say so? Didn't I hear one of them say that he would look in this very place?"
"Yes; but that was only a joke."
"A joke?" said Todd with a deep groan. "A joke was it? Oh, how very careful people should be when they make jokes, when other people are hiding from their enemies. It might be very funny to him, but it was quite the reverse to me."
"That's true enough; but get up now, and in the name of everything that's safe and comfortable, let us get to the wood. These fellows are evidently patrolling the road, and they will be back again in a little while, and still come across us if we don't manage to get out of their way before that time.—Come along. We can get to the wood now quickly."