"That’s true," said Sam, gratified by this testimony to his powers. "Wend along, then, Maister Dick, and holla when you come to ’em." In a few minutes Dick called to Sam to halt. The latter bent towards the road, and scrutinised its hard surface minutely, for several yards in each direction beyond the point opposite to that where Dick stood. "Neither heel nor toe mark do I see," he said at length. "The road be washed clean." He stood erect and gazed about him in a puzzled way. All at once his eyes became fixed on one portion of the hedge. Stepping towards it, he stooped and peered among the stiff rime-encrusted leaves. "Hoy!" he called. "Hush!" said Dick, hastening towards him. "Speak low; there may be some one about. What have you found?" "Look’ ee see," replied Sam in a mysterious whisper. Dick stooped; there was a patch of foliage less thick than the hedge around it; some of the leaves had apparently been shaken off, and here and there twigs were broken. "Some man, fox, or other creeping thing hev squeezed hisself through theer," said Sam. "We’ll do the same." He thrust his body against the hedge, which yielded to his pressure, and without much effort he passed through to the other side. "Dear life!" he whispered, "here be the line o’ fortune. Come through, Maister." Dick followed him. The softer earth on the seaward side of the hedge, more receptive than the highway, showed distinct traces of the passage of clumping boots. Some were recent; some appeared to be of slightly older date. Looking along the ground towards the sea, they saw that the grass was crushed over a width of two or three feet, though many more goings and comings were needed to make it a beaten path. This was a discovery indeed. "We will follow it up," said Dick. They set off side by side. Dick was surprised to find how frequently, and to all appearance erratically, the track wound to right and left. But after a few moments it became clear that the deviations were not accidental, but purposeful. The general surface of the ground was very uneven, here a bump, there a hollow; now a patch of gorse, then a stretch bare of all but grass. Of these features advantage had been taken by those whose passing had made the track. They had chosen, not the easiest route, but that on which they would be least visible from the direction of the village. Dick noticed that nowhere along the path were the towers of his home in sight, although a few yards to right or left they were completely in view. This explained how it was that Pennycomequick and Nancarrow, if they had come this way from the cliff to the road, had escaped his observation from the parapet.