Page 37 - the-thirty-nine-steps

in the stream, and you could not have found a more peaceful
sight in the world. Nevertheless I started to run. Crouching
low in the runnels of the bog, I ran till the sweat blinded my
eyes. The mood did not leave me till I had reached the rim
of mountain and flung myself panting on a ridge high above
the young waters of the brown river.
From my vantage-ground I could scan the whole moor
right away to the railway line and to the south of it where
green fields took the place of heather. I have eyes like a
hawk, but I could see nothing moving in the whole coun-
tryside. Then I looked east beyond the ridge and saw a new
kind of landscape shallow green valleys with plentiful fir
plantations and the faint lines of dust which spoke of high-
roads. Last of all I looked into the blue May sky, and there I
saw that which set my pulses racing ...
Low down in the south a monoplane was climbing into
the heavens. I was as certain as if I had been told that that
aeroplane was looking for me, and that it did not belong
to the police. For an hour or two I watched it from a pit of
heather. It flew low along the hill-tops, and then in narrow
circles over the valley up which I had come’ Then it seemed
to change its mind, rose to a great height, and flew away
back to the south.
I did not like this espionage from the air, and I began to
think less well of the countryside I had chosen for a refuge.
These heather hills were no sort of cover if my enemies were
in the sky, and I must find a different kind of sanctuary. I
looked with more satisfaction to the green country beyond
the ridge, for there I should find woods and stone houses.

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