CHAPTER XIX
The Affair at the Barn
As the day grew older and a blazing sun climbed up behind me the heat upon my back became wellnigh unbearable, and a decorous walk was all that Kitty made of it, nor did I wish for more. I was well ahead of Monmouth--therefore of friend Ferguson--and could bide my time.
As I passed along the shady lanes thus leisurely, you may be sure I had continual thought for Tubal Ammon, and when the sound of beast or bird disturbed the leafy silence, my eyes and ears were swiftly turned in that direction. But no harm came of it, and beyond some honest farm hands, who, too wise to change scythe for sword, were laying low the tall, rich grass with measured swing and swish, I chanced on no one. Doubtless the chief reason of this was that, both for purposes of shade and solitude, I kept to bypaths and eschewed the highway. Also, I strove to keep as near the sea as possible, in order that what little breeze there was therefrom might make things more endurable.
But such slow, winding methods take much time, and so, what with that and many stoppages for Kitty's sake, 'twas close on noon ere we had put, maybe, twenty miles behind us, which, reckoning for byways, was little more than half the distance to be covered.
The sun was now at its meridian, and beating down upon us with a fiery heat which threatened danger to my mare, if not to me, for we had now drawn clear of sheltering lanes and come out on a stretch of treeless moorland which ran for miles along the coast. Here the hot air fairly danced above the scorched-up grass and bushes, and naught was to be heard except the languid hum of bees among the gorse. The very sea seemed hushed to languorous silence.
To press on in such a state were cruelty to man and beast, therefore I called a halt and looked about me for some shady place in which to rest. But this was easier sought than found. As far as eye could reach, the barren moor rolled on beneath the shimmering heat, with nothing taller than a stunted thorn bush visible.
As I sat gazing wearily upon this arid sight, while Kitty pawed the turf impatiently and cursed distracting flies (so far as horse was able) with her ears and tail, I saw, far off, a man dart straight across the track and disappear as though the earth had swallowed him, upon the other side.
So quickly had he vanished in a place thus bare of cover that I watched the spot expectantly with shaded eyes, feeling certain he must come to view again. But nothing came of it; indeed, it might have been a rabbit which had gone to earth for any more I saw of him.
This was strange and puzzling beyond measure, and, sun or no sun, must be enquired into. So, marking down the spot, I urged Kitty to a canter and soon reached it. Then that which from a distance had been so mysterious was instantly made plain. A high bank on the left was here divided by a deeply-rutted, and, by the look of it, now unused lane which wound down through a maze of bushes to the sea; and doubtless it was this which had thus swallowed up the flitting figure.