Quarter of an hour later , Alan stopped , clapped down flat in the heather , and turned to me . `` Now , '' said he , `` it 's earnest . Do as I do , for your life . '' And at the same speed , but now with infinitely more precaution , we traced back again across the mountain-side by the same way that we had come , only perhaps higher ; till at last Alan threw himself down in the upper wood of Lettermore , where I had found him at the first , and lay , with his face in the bracken , panting like a dog . My own sides so ached , my head so swam , my tongue so hung out of my mouth with heat and dryness , that I lay beside him like one dead . CHAPTER XVIII I TALK WITH ALAN IN THE WOOD OF LETTERMORE Alan was the first to come round . He rose , went to the border of the wood , peered out a little , and then returned and sat down . `` Well , '' said he , `` yon was a hot burst , David . '' I said nothing , nor so much as lifted my face . I had seen murder done , and a great , ruddy , jovial gentleman struck out of life in a moment ; the pity of that sight was still sore within me , and yet that was but a part of my concern . Here was murder done upon the man Alan hated ; here was Alan skulking in the trees and running from the troops ; and whether his was the hand that fired or only the head that ordered , signified but little . By my way of it , my only friend in that wild country was blood-guilty in the first degree ; I held him in horror ; I could not look upon his face ; I would have rather lain alone in the rain on my cold isle , than in that warm wood beside a murderer . `` Are ye still wearied ? '' he asked again . `` No , '' said I , still with my face in the bracken ; `` no , I am not wearied now , and I can speak . You and me must twine , '' * I said . `` I liked you very well , Alan , but your ways are not mine , and they 're not God 's : and the short and the long of it is just that we must twine . '' * Part . `` I will hardly twine from ye , David , without some kind of reason for the same , '' said Alan , mighty gravely . `` If ye ken anything against my reputation , it 's the least thing that ye should do , for old acquaintance ' sake , to let me hear the name of it ; and if ye have only taken a distaste to my society , it will be proper for me to judge if I 'm insulted . ''
`` XXXXX , '' said I , `` what is the sense of this ?
Alan David Lettermore XVIII acquaintance burst first head mountain-side murder