After twenty minutes of this rough going, Tom Stook stopped abruptly, and stood listening. Jasper paused close to him. There was no wind, and no stirring of the furze in the clear sheen of the moonlight.
"T' quarry be yonder, sir."
"Where?"
"Just down over t' bank."
They spoke in whispers, bending forward and looking across the moor.
"Can you hear anything, Tom?"
"Not me."
He put the lantern down, and scratched his chin.
"I reckon I'll go on, Master Jasper, and take a look into t' quarry."
He went down on all-fours, and Jasper saw his long, loosely knit body go crawling along the path like some big beast of prey. He disappeared with nothing more than a faint rustling of the furze, and Stonehanger Common seemed as still and as empty as a becalmed sea at midnight. Tom Stook was away twenty minutes. He came back, walking, his holly-stick over his shoulder.