Jasper told him as much as he could tell such a man as Tom Stook.
"I'd take you up behind me, but you're such a big fellow, Tom. Leave your hoe in the hedge, and hold on to my stirrup. I'll tell you more as we go along."
And so they set out for Stonehanger.
They went by way of Bramble End, Jasper leaving Devil Dick tethered in Stook's little cow-lodge. Rogue Tom had come by a pretty shrewd notion of what Jasper Benham expected of him. He took the lead as they made their way over the common.
"No nag in t' old quarry, sir?"
"No."
"T' crossways at Dudden's Oak, that be the spot, then, Master Jasper."
"Sure?"
"Mounseer has to cross t' ridge. Let him take what track he will, he'll come to t' crossways at Dudden's Oak, unless he goes by t' woods and ditches."
Jasper agreed. Stook was a fox who knew the country.