148 THE BILVER FOX 



dog so readily does, that human beings 

 have preoccupations in which dogs can 

 be ignored. 



It was some time before Hugh noticed 

 the fact that there was somebody near him 

 in the wood — a figure moving among the 

 trees at a little distance. The Scotch firs 

 and larch had been thinned out here for sale 

 to the contractor of the new railway line, 

 and the wood was more open. The figure 

 was that of an old man, who seemed to be 

 advancing in a direction parallel with Hugh. 

 Sometimes the misty fog blotted him out, 

 sometimes the grouping of the tree-stems 

 conspired to hide him ; he went onward as 

 if fitfully ; the moments when he was lost 

 to sight scarcely accounted for his reappear- 

 ances farther on. He shuffled like an infirm 

 man, yet his progress through the under- 

 growth was so steady that it seemed as if he 

 were walking on a path. Irritated at length 

 by the persistent espionage, Hugh called 

 to him to ask what he was doing in the 

 covert. He received no reply, and the mist 



