The steps got nearer; he heard somebody breathing hard, and a figure appeared in the gloom.  Then Foster thrust the pistol into his pocket, for the man who came into the moonlight was Gordon, whom he had met at the Edinburgh hotel.

“Mr. Foster!” he exclaimed breathlessly, but Foster thought he was not surprised, and sitting on the fence took out a cigarette as calmly as he could.  He had Graham’s checks and must be careful.

“Yes,” he said.  “I didn’t expect to see you.”

“I imagine it’s lucky that you knew me,” Gordon remarked, rather dryly.  “Well, perhaps we ought to have stopped you at the other end of the wood.”

“You were watching it then?”

“Both ends.  It’s obvious now that we should have watched the middle.”

“Ah,” said Foster thoughtfully; “then you knew somebody was hiding among the trees?”

“We thought it very possible.”

“Well, you know I was shot at, but I imagine the fellow got away.  Do you mean to let him go?”

Gordon laughed.  “My friends tell me I’m getting fat, and I’m certainly not so vigorous as I was.  Besides, it’s not my part of the business to chase a suspected person across the hills, and I have men able to do it better than I can.  But you stopped as you entered the wood.  Did you expect to be shot at?”

“I thought it very possible,” Foster answered dryly.

“A fair retort!  You were shot at.  Were you nearly hit?”

“I believe the fellow would have got me if he’d used a gun instead of a pistol; but the former would, of course, have been a conspicuous thing to carry about.”

“That’s true,” Gordon agreed.  “But, after escaping, why did you stop here and run the risk again?”

Foster pondered.  There was no sign of Pete, but he thought the latter could be trusted to elude the police, and did not want to let Gordon know he had felt it necessary to provide himself with a bodyguard.  Something of this kind would be obvious if he stated that he was waiting for a companion.

“Well,” he said, “it’s annoying to be shot at, and when I heard somebody running I thought I might catch the fellow off his guard.  You see, I had already gone into the wood to look for him.”

“But you must have known that it would have been very rash for the man who fired the shot to run noisily down the middle of the road.”

“I suppose I was rather excited and didn’t remember that,” Foster replied.

Gordon said nothing for a few moments and Foster saw that he had been fencing with him.  He had admitted that he had partly expected to be attacked, and the other knew of the danger to which he had been exposed.  This was puzzling; but it was lucky the man had not asked his reasons for fearing an attack.  Foster believed he had not omitted to do so from carelessness.

Then Gordon said, “I must try to find out what my men are doing.  Where are you going to stop tonight?”