“It’s impossible to say,” Mr. Fitzgibbon replied.  “It seems to me that we have been going straight, but when one can’t see a yard before one one may have turned any direction.”

“How long do you think that this rascally fog is likely to last?”

“It may clear up as the sun gets high, sir, but I must acknowledge that it may last for days.  There is never any saying among these hills.”

“Well, at any rate you must give up all idea of making a raid on this still, Mr. Fitzgibbon.  That has become a secondary object altogether now.  What we have to do is to find our way out of this.  Hitherto I have tried what we could do in silence.  Now I shall give that up.  Now, sergeant, get the men together again.  I will go ahead, and shall, if I can, keep on descending.  If one does that one must get out of these hills at last.  When I get about fifty yards I will shout.  Then you send a man on to me.  When he reaches me I will shout again and go on another fifty yards.  When I shout send another man forward.  When he gets to the first man the first man is to shout and then come on to me, and you send off another.  In that way we shall make a regular line fifty yards apart, and I don’t think any one can get lost.  Should any one get confused and stray, which he can’t do if he keeps his head, he must shout till he hears his shouts answered.  After a time if he doesn’t hear any answer he must fire his gun, and we must answer till he rejoins us.  But if my orders are observed I do not see how any one can miss their way, as there will be posts stationed every fifty yards.  You remain till the last and see them all before you.  You quite understand?  When each man comes up to the one in front of him he is to stop until the next man joins him, and then move on to the man ahead.”

“I understand, sir.”

“They must not be in a hurry, sergeant; because moving ahead as I shall, I shall have to move to the right or left sometimes so as to make as sure as I can that I am still going down.  Now, Mr. Fitzgibbon, if you keep with me, between us we ought to find the road.”

The plan seemed a good one, but it was difficult to follow.  The fall of the ground was so slight that Ralph and the officer often differed as to whether they were going up or down, and it was only by separating and taking short runs right and left, forward or backward, that they arrived at any conclusion, and even then often doubted whether they were right.  The shouting as the long line proceeded was prodigious, and must have astonished any stray animals that might have been grazing among the hills.  So bewildering was the fog that the men sometimes went back to the men behind them instead of forward to the men in front, and long pauses were necessitated before they got right again.  Ralph, finding the cause of the delays, passed the word down for the first man to keep on shouting “number one,” the second “number two,” and so on, and this facilitated matters.  The line of shouting men had at least the advantage that it enabled Ralph to keep a fairly straight course, as the sound of voices told him if he was deviating much to the right or left.