Then there was a whisper, and directly after he knew that a number of people were coming quickly toward him.
A moment or two later he heard a rattling noise, which he recognised as that made by a horse shaking his harness, and once more Archy's heart beat high.
There had not been time for them--if those people coming were the smugglers--to fetch the cargo, and they must be coming in his direction.
"What shall I do ?" thought the watcher; "lie down and let them pass, or go on ?" He decided on the latter course, and finding that he was in a lane bounded by stone walls, he went on, pausing from time to time to make sure that he was being followed.
This proved to be the case, the people getting nearer and nearer, and it was a curious experience to hear the whispering of voices and trampling of feet coming out of the darkness.
"Walking on the side turf," said Archy to himself, as he kept on, to find after a few minutes that the stone wall on his left had ceased, but he could feel that the road went on, and heard the people coming.
A minute or two later he realised that he was going up hill; then the slope grew steeper, and he paused again to listen.
He was quite right.

They were coming on steadily, and he knew that there must be twenty or thirty people; but he could hear no horses now.
"They've stopped at the foot of this steep place," he thought, as he went on and on, the people still advancing fast, and all at once, as he went on, a sudden thought ran through him like a stab.

For he had guessed at least the direction in which he was going in the black darkness; he was once more ascending the slope toward the patch of woodland high up the hill, and the place of deposit of the smuggled goods must be the Hoze..