strange around me. This occurred just after I took a turning and found myself on

a road curving around the edge of a hill. I could sense the steep drop to my

left, though I could not see it due to the trees and thick foliage that lined

the roadside.

 

The feeling swept over me that I had truly left Darlington Hall behind, and I

must confess I did feel a slight sense of alarm - a sense aggravated by the

feeling that I was perhaps not on the correct road at all, but speeding off in

totally the wrong direction into a wilderness. It was only the feelings of a

moment, but it caused me to slow down. And even when I had assured myself I was

on the right road, I felt compelled to stop the car a moment to take stock, as

it were.

 

I decided to step out and stretch my legs a little and when I did so, I received

a stronger impression than ever of being perched on the side of a hill. On one

side of the road, thickets and small trees rose steeply, while on the other I

could now glimpse through the foliage the distant country-side.

 

I believe I had walked a little way along the roadside, peering through the

foliage hoping to get a better view, when I heard a voice behind me. Until this

point, of course, I had believed myself quite alone and I turned in some

surprise. A little further up the road on the opposite side, I could see the

start of a footpath, which disappeared steeply into the thickets. Sitting on the

large stone that marked this spot was a thin, white-haired man in a cloth cap,

smoking his pipe. He called to me again and though I could not quite make out