Come on, then--you know the way--act as guide, and I'll tell you as we go along." Avice turned off into what appeared to be no more than a sheep-track across the heather.

Within a few minutes they were not only quite alone, but out of sight of any human habitation.

It seemed to Brereton that they were suddenly shut into a world of their own, as utterly apart from the little world they had just left as one star is from another.

But even as he thought this he saw, far away across the rising and falling of the heather-clad undulations, the moving lights of a train that was speeding southward along the coast-line from Norcaster, and presently the long scream of a whistle from its engine came on the light breeze that blew inland from the hidden sea, and the sight and sound recalled him to the stern realities of life.
"Listen, then, carefully," he began.

"And bear in mind that I'm putting what I believe to be safety of other men in your hands.