THE SILVER FOX 149 



crept in between them. When it cleared 

 again the old man was crossing an open 

 space fifty yards away. Hugh noticed the 

 profound melancholy of his bent head, the 

 yellow paleness of his cheek. Even while 

 something familiar about him vexed Hugh's 

 memory, like an evil dream half- forgotten, 

 he appeared to stumble, and fell w^ith out- 

 spread arms and without a sound into some 

 unseen hollow or ditch. Hugh pressed the 

 grey horse through the briars and under the 

 branches till he reached the spot ; he pulled 

 up abruptly as he found himself at the edge 

 of a disused sandpit. There were a few 

 rocks flung about at the bottom of it, with 

 the briars growing among them ; a rabbit 

 came up out of them, and scuttled to its 

 burrow in the sand at the sound of the 

 horse's tread ; nothing else whatever was 

 there. 



Hugh put his hand to his head and won- 

 dered if he were going mad. Then, quite 

 unexpectedly, his knees began to tremble, 

 and the breath of the unknown entered into 



