and off he set again at his top speed . It grew cooler and even a little darker -LRB- but not much -RRB- with the coming of the night . The sky was cloudless ; it was still early in July , and pretty far north ; in the darkest part of that night , you would have needed pretty good eyes to read , but for all that , I have often seen it darker in a winter mid-day . Heavy dew fell and drenched the moor like rain ; and this refreshed me for a while . When we stopped to breathe , and I had time to see all about me , the clearness and sweetness of the night , the shapes of the hills like things asleep , and the fire dwindling away behind us , like a bright spot in the midst of the moor , anger would come upon me in a clap that I must still drag myself in agony and eat the dust like a worm . By what I have read in books , I think few that have held a pen were ever really wearied , or they would write of it more strongly . I had no care of my life , neither past nor future , and I scarce remembered there was such a lad as David Balfour . I did not think of myself , but just of each fresh step which I was sure would be my last , with despair -- and of Alan , who was the cause of it , with hatred . Alan was in the right trade as a soldier ; this is the officer 's part to make men continue to do things , they know not wherefore , and when , if the choice was offered , they would lie down where they were and be killed . And I dare say I would have made a good enough private ; for in these last hours it never occurred to me that I had any choice but just to obey as long as I was able , and die obeying . Day began to come in , after years , I thought ; and by that time we were past the greatest danger , and could walk upon our feet like men , instead of crawling like brutes . But , dear heart have mercy ! what a pair we must have made , going double like old grandfathers , stumbling like babes , and as white as dead folk . Never a word passed between us ; each set his mouth and kept his eyes in front of him , and lifted up his foot and set it down again , like people lifting weights at a country play ; * all the while , with the moorfowl crying `` peep ! '' in the heather , and the light coming slowly clearer in the east . * Village fair . I say Alan did as I did . Not that ever I looked at him , for I had enough ado to keep my feet ; but because it is plain he must have been as stupid with weariness as myself , and looked as little where we were going , or we should not have walked into an ambush like blind men . It fell in this way . We were going down a heathery brae , Alan leading and I following a pace or two behind , like a fiddler and his wife ; when upon a sudden the heather gave a rustle , three or four ragged men leaped out , and the next moment we were lying on our backs , each with a dirk at his throat .
I do n't think I cared ; the pain of this rough handling was quite swallowed up by the pains of which I was already full ; and I was too glad to have stopped walking to mind about a XXXXX .
Alan brutes dirk fiddler fire mid-day moor moorfowl night right