Crooked Adam by D. E. Stevenson

Author:D. E. Stevenson [Stevenson, D. E.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2022-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

As Adam walked back to the bridge along the winding path he thought of all that had happened, and especially about Ebby Ford. It was odd how two brothers, so alike in feaure, should be so different in nature and character.…

He came to the bridge and scrambled up through a tangle of nettles and brambles into the road, and as he did so he noticed that there was a man on the bridge… He had propped his bicycle against the parapet and was pumping up the tyre, but as Adam passed he looked round over his shoulder and Adam saw that it was Cheller. Adam walked on. It was getting dark now for the sun had set and the sky was full of heavy cloud; on the moor there was a queer eerie half-light which made the few stunted trees look bigger than they really were and gave rock and bush a special significance. Adam’s shadow was faint but long and distorted as it went beside him along the road.

Where was Cheller going? Perhaps he was on his way to the Highland Bull, perhaps not. Adam wondered about it and then he took a sudden decision, turned off the road, crouched down behind a bush of gorse and waited patiently. After a little while he heard the crunch of footsteps on the road and Cheller went past up the hill wheeling his bicycle.

Adam left his fishing gear behind the bush and followed Cheller, keeping well behind and making use of what cover there was. He did not find it easy for he had never followed a man before and it was difficult to know the exact distance at which a man should be followed. He expected Cheller to mount his bicycle when the top of the hill was reached – and then he would be able to follow him no longer – but, instead of that, Cheller left the road and took a narrow path, a cart-track, which went off at right angles across the moor. It was even more difficult to follow him now for there was no cover at all and it was becoming so dark that Adam could hardly see his quarry unless he kept pretty close behind him, but fortunately Cheller had his work cut out pushing his bicycle along the rutty track and did not look round.

At first the track was fairly level and then it began to slope gently downhill and after about a mile Adam felt a cooler breeze with a dampness in it as if they were getting down towards the sea.… There were several gates on the track, but these were either standing open or fallen to pieces and rotting on the ground. Suddenly the path dived steeply into a wood, a dark dank wood with swathes of mist caught amongst the trees, and here Adam had to go more carefully than ever for the roots of the trees straggled across the path like snakes and between them the ground was wet and slimy.

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