During the disappearance the vehicle was occupied in cautiously going down one steep slope and slowly ascending the other.

It then seemed to rapidly come nearer till another hollow intervened, and it was abruptly checked.

The people who were driving could observe each other from a long distance, and might naturally think that they should pass directly, instead of which they did not seem to get much nearer.

Some miles away, where the same road crossed the Downs, it looked from afar like a white line drawn perpendicularly up the hill.
The road itself was narrow, hardly wider than a lane, but on either side was a broad strip of turf, each strip quite twice the width of the metalled portion.

On the verge of the dust the red pimpernel opened its flowers to the bright blue cloudless sky, and the lowly convolvulus grew thickly among the tall dusty bennets.