How long I stood staring at this, I cannot say, but, all at once,
the leaves of the tree were agitated as by a breath of wind, and
rustled with a sound indescribably desolate, and from the dark
mass rose the long-drawn, mournful cry of some night bird.
Heedless of my direction, I hurried away, yet, ever when I had
left it far behind, I glanced back more than once ere its
towering branches were lost to my view.
So I walked on through the shadows, past trees that were not
trees, and hedges that were not hedges, but frightful phantoms,
rather, lifting menacing arms above my head, and reaching after
me with clutching fingers. Time and again, ashamed of such
weakness, I cursed myself for an imaginative fool, but kept well
in the middle of the road, and grasped my staff firmly,
notwithstanding.
I had gone, perhaps, some mile or so in this way, alternately
rating and reasoning with myself, when I suddenly fancied I heard
a step behind me, and swung round upon my heel, with ready stick;
but the road stretched away empty as far as I could see. Having
looked about me on all sides, I presently went on again, yet,
immediately, it seemed that the steps began also, keeping time
with my own, now slow, now fast, now slow again; but, whenever I
turned, the road behind was apparently as empty and desolate as
ever.
I can conceive of few things more nerve-racking than the
knowledge that we are being dogged by something which we can only
guess at, and that all our actions are watched by eyes which we
cannot see. Thus, with every step, I found the situation grow
more intolerable, for though I kept a close watch behind me and
upon the black gloom of the hedges, I could see nothing. At
length, however, I came upon a gap in the hedge where was a gate,
and beyond this, vaguely outlined against a glimmer of sky, I saw
a dim figure.
Hereupon, running forward, I set my hand upon the gate, and
leaping over, found myself face to face with a man who carried a
gun across his arm. If I was startled at this sudden encounter
he was no less so, and thus we stood eyeing each other as well as
we might in the half light.
"Well," I demanded, at last, "what do you mean by following me
like this?"
"I aren't follered ye," retorted the man.
"But I heard your steps behind me."
"Not mine, master. I've sat and waited 'ere 'arf a
hour, or more, for a poachin' cove--"