We were at the top now with the open country stretching for miles around
us. But the dale beneath, through which the main road ran a mile away to
the east, was thick with trees, and I could get no inkling of how things
were going. I strained my ears to listen, but no warning sound could I
hear. The countryside was still and calm as a frozen sea, and war and its
terrors seemed so impossible that for a. moment I felt as if it was only a
dream-life that I was living and that I must wake soon and hear Joe Braggs
trolling out his morning song in honour of Jane. But Sultan craned round
his shapely head as if to ask me why I was loitering in the cold, bleak
air; so with a cheery slap on his glossy neck, I gave him the reins and
away he went, with me spitting ghostly Broctons on the sergeant's tuck.
Through the skirts of the woodland he carried me, and then up again till
on the top of Clayton Bank I pulled him up a second time for another
survey of the situation.
The little town was now in full view a mile ahead, lying on the slope and
top of some rising ground. Across the meadows to my right, and now plainly
to be seen less than half a mile away, was the main road from Stone.
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