Food was what I needed most; after that, sleep; and after that, safety.

It seemed as if I was to sup off the last, which was poor comfort to an empty stomach.

I felt my way as quietly as I could up the track which led from the creek, and found myself presently on the cliff above, close to my dear mother's grave.

I might as well sleep here as anywhere else, and when they found me dead in the morning they would not have far to carry me.
Was I turning coward all of a sudden--I, who had looked down the barrel of a gun a week ago and not quailed?
The gleam of the white cross on the Gormans' tomb made me start and shiver.

I seemed to hear footsteps in the long grass, and detect phantom lights away where the house was.
Presently I felt so sure that I heard steps that I could stay where I was no longer, and hurried back by the way I had come towards the boat.
Then gathering myself angrily together, and equally sure I had heard amiss, I turned back again and marched boldly up towards Kilgorman House.
Whether it was desperation or some inward calling, I know not, but my courage rose the nearer I came.