There were the tops of mountains all round -LRB- you are to remember -RRB- from whence we might be spied at any moment ; so it behoved us to keep in the hollow parts of the moor , and when these turned aside from our direction to move upon its naked face with infinite care . Sometimes , for half an hour together , we must crawl from one heather bush to another , as hunters do when they are hard upon the deer . It was a clear day again , with a blazing sun ; the water in the brandy bottle was soon gone ; and altogether , if I had guessed what it would be to crawl half the time upon my belly and to walk much of the rest stooping nearly to the knees , I should certainly have held back from such a killing enterprise . Toiling and resting and toiling again , we wore away the morning ; and about noon lay down in a thick bush of heather to sleep . Alan took the first watch ; and it seemed to me I had scarce closed my eyes before I was shaken up to take the second . We had no clock to go by ; and Alan stuck a sprig of heath in the ground to serve instead ; so that as soon as the shadow of the bush should fall so far to the east , I might know to rouse him . But I was by this time so weary that I could have slept twelve hours at a stretch ; I had the taste of sleep in my throat ; my joints slept even when my mind was waking ; the hot smell of the heather , and the drone of the wild bees , were like possets to me ; and every now and again I would give a jump and find I had been dozing . 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 , XXXXX , '' cried I , `` that will take us across the very coming of the soldiers ! ''
Alan Toiling day fall first fro horse-soldiers hours noon second