Most of the fugitives had made for the hills in an opposite direction to that towards which the sentinel had pointed.

I went the other way, and hid myself under a broad flat rock near the roadside, guessing that no one would ever look for lurkers there.
And in so doing I was able to discover what the others would have given something to be sure of:--that the sentinel's alarm had been a false one altogether, and that what he took for soldiers was no more than a party of revellers returning from a harvest dance in high good spirits along the road.

I even recognised some of the familiar faces I had known at Fanad in the old days, and was sorely tempted to claim acquaintance.
But prudence forbade.

As sure as daylight came no effort would be spared to hunt me down.

For had I not the secret of this society in my own hands, down to the very list of its members?
A word from me could smoke them in their holes like rats in a drain.