They awoke in the grey of the morning; the birds were not yet in full song, but twittered here and there among the woods; the sun was not yet up, but the eastern sky was barred with solemn colours.

Half starved and over-weary as they were, they lay without moving, sunk in a delightful lassitude.

And as they thus lay, the clang of a bell fell suddenly upon their ears.
"A bell!" said Dick, sitting up.

"Can we be, then, so near to Holywood ?" A little after, the bell clanged again, but this time somewhat nearer hand; and from that time forth, and still drawing nearer and nearer, it continued to sound brokenly abroad in the silence of the morning.
"Nay, what should this betoken ?" said Dick, who was now broad awake.
"It is some one walking," returned Matcham, and "the bell tolleth ever as he moves." "I see that well," said Dick.

"But wherefore?
What maketh he in Tunstall Woods?
Jack," he added, "laugh at me an ye will, but I like not the hollow sound of it." "Nay," said Matcham, with a shiver, "it hath a doleful note.