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The Bittermeads Mystery by E. R. (Ernest Robertson) Punshon
page 12 of 260 (04%)

An old labourer going home late bade the big man a friendly good
night and passed on without seeing or hearing Dunn following close
behind, and a solitary woman, watching at her cottage door, saw
plainly the big man's tall form and heard his firm and heavy steps
and would have been ready to swear no other passed that way at that
time, though Dunn was not five yards behind, slipping silently and
swiftly by in the shelter of the trees lining the road.

A little further beyond this cottage a path, reached by climbing a
stile, led from the high road first across an open field and then
through the heart of a wood that seemed to be of considerable extent.

The man Dunn was following crossed this stile and when he had gone
a yard or two along the path he halted abruptly, as though all at
once grown uneasy, and looked behind.

From where he stood any one following him across the stile must have
shown plainly visible against the sky line, but though he lingered
for a moment or two, and even, when he walked on, still looked back
very frequently, he saw nothing.

Yet Dunn, when his quarry paused and looked back like this, was only
a little distance behind, and when the other moved on Dunn was still
very near.

But he had not crossed the stile, for when he came to it he realised
that in climbing it his form would be plainly visible in outline for
some distance, and so instead, he had found and crawled through a gap
in the hedge not far away.
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