CHAPTER VI

ON THE EDINBURGH HIGHWAY The moon was up, whitening the long highway to the north, as Francis sped gaily on. It was still early night; lengthy hours were to come before the dawn; and Leidburn inn was no more than a dozen miles. But the exhilaration of escape, of new hope, drove him with eager legs, and he watched the trees fall away and the barer hills draw together with pride in his fleet strength. At the watershed the moors stretched dim and yellow on either hand in a melancholy desolation. A curlew piped on the …