They awoke at seven o’clock, and he passed to the opening. As it had happened, seven o’clock was not a minute too early for them to have awakened. A fresh morning breeze stirred, and the ridge they had passed showed through a sunny haze, shot with gold and grey and tender purple. Down the hillside moved slowly a party of redcoats, and, their heads visible from time to time and again hidden in the heather, four dogs tugged at their leashes. “Why don’t the fools loose ’em?” Monjoy muttered grimly. “Ay, they’re town-bred.--Come, Cis, we’ll not stay for breakfast.” He patted his pockets as if to make sure of something, and then looked to the priming of a pair of pistols that Cicely did not know he carried. CHAPTER XVI. COVER. “Cis,” he said, anxiously, his hand at the screen of heather that closed the mouth of their retreat, “you’ve got to get over Soyland alone, and unseen. I’m going to show you a crack that will take you nearly to the top. Except at the very top, there are stones enough and heather enough to cover you, but you may have to creep. You’ll have to watch both behind and ahead, for you mustn’t be seen and you mustn’t walk into the arms of a sentry. They’re a good quarter of a mile apart--they can’t cover a hundred miles of country--you can get through easily. I’m going south a little way: listen where you’re to wait for me. You’ll cross Soyland, sighting by a large cairn you’ll see on Brotherton Head. Under it, among the heather, there’s an old square stone shaft and some birches. I’ll be there in an hour. I’ll take Jimmy with me.--Now repeat that after me.” He could scarce hear her faint reply, and he shook her gently. “Come now; I know you can be a brave and clever girl. I’ll tell you again....” She repeated the instructions after him, and then he said, “Quick, a kiss ... now out you go!” He helped her through the opening and saw her immediately and swiftly take the shelter of a large boulder. “Yes, that’s the way,” he said approvingly; “yonder’s the foot of the nick. Go quickly up it--take the risk--and then forward. Now....” He dropped on his knees, marked the position of the bloodhounds across the valley, noted their pace, and was off.