The last time I woke I seemed to come back from farther away , and thought the sun had taken a great start in the heavens . I looked at the sprig of heath , and at that I could have cried aloud : for I saw I had betrayed my trust . My head was nearly turned with fear and shame ; and at what I saw , when I looked out around me on the moor , my heart was like dying in my body . For sure enough , a body of horse-soldiers had come down during my sleep , and were drawing near to us from the south-east , spread out in the shape of a fan and riding their horses to and fro in the deep parts of the heather . When I waked Alan , he glanced first at the soldiers , then at the mark and the position of the sun , and knitted his brows with a sudden , quick look , both ugly and anxious , which was all the reproach I had of him . `` What are we to do now ? '' I asked . `` We 'll have to play at being hares , '' said he . `` Do ye see yon mountain ? '' pointing to one on the north-eastern sky . `` Ay , '' said I. `` Well , then , '' says he , `` let us strike for that . Its name is Ben Alder . it is a wild , desert mountain full of hills and hollows , and if we can win to it before the morn , we may do yet . '' `` But , Alan , '' cried I , `` that will take us across the very coming of the soldiers ! '' `` I ken that fine , '' said he ; `` but if we are driven back on Appin , we are two dead men . So now , David man , be brisk ! '' With that he began to run forward on his hands and knees with an incredible quickness , as though it were his natural way of going . All the time , too , he kept winding in and out in the lower parts of the moorland where we were the best concealed . Some of these had been burned or at least scathed with fire ; and there rose in our faces -LRB- which were close to the ground -RRB- a blinding , choking dust as fine as smoke . The water was long out ; and this posture of running on the hands and knees brings an overmastering weakness and weariness , so that the joints ache and the wrists faint under your weight .
Now and then , indeed , where was a big bush of heather , we lay awhile , and panted , and putting aside the leaves , XXXXX back at the dragoons .
asked burned come driven dying looked riding saw scathed see