There followed, with a yard or two between, more and more traces of “sign”--a tiny bit of paper crumpled up, which proved to be half of an envelope addressed to Lilian; a tiny scrap of patrol ribbon; more footprints; a lock of Eve’s hair! On and on went the practice. Suddenly, just as the top of the second ridge was reached, Mona, who was a pace ahead, gave a little shout. “Rene, I say.” “What is it?” called Gerry. But the others were whispering eagerly. They were bending down and didn’t answer. “It’s a _patrin_. It must be a real one. A bundle of sticks pointing this way,” said Mona at last. “Rene says she is sure she saw more of it farther back, but she thought it was some of Eve’s ‘sign.’ Well, _this_ can’t be, I’m certain. It must be the _patrin_ of some gipsies on the moor.” Gerry and Betty hung eagerly over the “sign.” There was no doubt of it. A little bundle of rushes still fresh and green lay there. “And close to the moor path,” shouted Mona. “It was flung here from a passing caravan. There are marks of the wheels too, and the horse’s feet.” “I say,” Gerry called after them, “you’re leaving the ridge.” But the excitement was by this time intense. Mona and Rene were wild with eagerness. “We’ll have to. We’re going to follow. Suppose they’ve got the Cup! Sybil said to come back in an hour, and it’s not half an hour yet. If you’ll come along we can all go together, and be back by the time the others do. If we run back to ask leave, she’ll probably not be there; and we shall never catch up with the caravan.” “But what are you going to do? And why should they have the Cup?” demanded Gerry. “And besides, it’s a practice; and we’ve got Eve’s ‘sign’ to follow.” “‘_Why?_’ It’s more than likely that they’ve got it,” almost stamped Mona. “And if you don’t care about the Cup, Rene and I _do_! I must say, after last night, any one would think that you two----” Mona was off. “I’m not going,” said Gerry, sitting down on the ridge. “Betty, you’re not to either. We might go back to Sybil and ask; but she’s given us the orders, and----” The couples parted company. But there was little enjoyment in searching after “sign” when Mona and Rene had gone. The others heard several shouts of excitement as two more bunches of the _patrin_ were picked up; then the adventurous pair disappeared from view. “I’m perfectly sure,” said Gerry, after almost half an hour more had gone, as she and Betty were just preparing to slip over the ridge, “that they ought not to have gone. But----” They had been seated for a while on the topmost ridge, counting up their “sign” discoveries in preparation for their return. It was just as they had finished that they heard the sound of a step behind them. “Oh, you’s the other two young ladies, is yer?” said a voice. Betty and Gerry turned. “Well, an’ I’ll trouble you to come along.”