It was more likely that he would head straight for them, and so I spurred on once more in that direction.

It was certainly the best thing that I could do, and I had not far to go before a mile of the open water was before me.

But there was nought on its banks but a row of patient herons, fishing or sleeping, and the sight of them told me that no man had passed this way for many a long hour.
I waited in that place for a few moments, to see if the deer made for the refuge of the water from some cover that as yet hid him from me, but he did not come.

It was plain to me then that the hunt had doubled back and that I was fairly thrown out, and I went no farther.

By this time Eric might be miles away, and I knew nothing of the lie of the land, save that along the crest of the Ridgeway ran the road from Tenby to Pembroke, and that once on that road I could make my way back in no long time.