He picked it up hastily and
put it in his pocket. On a white stone just by it there were some
red-brown spots. He pushed it with his foot to the side of the road and
was down into the cutting before the heavy-footed neighbours came up.
Julie was ranging up and down the narrow pathway, searching the depths
with a face like a hawk, hanging on to the rough sides of the pinnacles,
and bending over in a way that elicited warning cries from the others as
they came streaming down.
But keenest search of the western slope revealed nothing amid its tangle
of gorse and blackberry bushes, and the eastern cliff fell so sheer, and
had so many projecting lumps and underfalls, that it was impossible to
see close in to the foot.
And then one, nimbler witted than the rest, climbed out along the common
above the northern cliff, whereby, when he had come to the great slope,
he took the Coupee cliff in flank, and could spy along its base.
And suddenly he stopped, and stiffened like a pointer sighting his bird,
peered intently for a moment, and gave tongue.
The chase was ended.
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