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"We can do nowt but leave them to find t' ghyll," the shepherd remarked. Kit agreed. Bleatarn ghyll was beneath him, but there was another hollow and it is hard to walk straight down hill in the dark. He must trust the sheep, and, huddling close together, they refused to leave the crag. When the dogs drove them out they vanished, and since the ground was bare of snow they left no tracks.
"We had better try the fells, Tom," said Kit. The shepherd looked at the threatening sky and fading line of rugged heights. "Aw, yes. It's gan t' be a rough neet, but we'll try 't. We can rest a bit at oad mine-house this side Bleatarn ghyll." Now their route was fixed, Kit mused about something else.
For a time, driving them would be easy; but it would be different when they left the water and climbed the rise to Bleatarn ghyll. "How far are we off the mine-house, Tom?" he shouted. "I dinna ken," said the shepherd. "Mayhappen two miles. Ewes is travelling better; t'lambs is leading them." Kit agreed, and they pushed on through the snow.
She had lain awake for the most part of the night, thinking about him and the strayed Herdwicks while she listened to the gale. Now and then Lucy went to the door and looked up the dale to the glimmering line of foam that marked the spot where Bleatarn beck came down. A path followed the water-side, but she could not see men or sheep in the gloom, and if Kit did not come soon he would be too late.
At the force, where the Bleatarn beck leaps in linked falls to the valley, one could get down between the water and the rocks; on the other side, a path about a foot wide led across the face of a precipice. In daylight, if the stones were dry, a man with steady nerves could use the path, but when slab and scree were packed with snow nothing but a Herdwick could cross it safely.
Grace smiled as she got up and gave him her hand. "Well done! Have you brought them all? But of course you have!" "They're in the pen," Kit answered, with some embarrassment. Then Railton stood up, leaning awkwardly on his stick. "I've misdoubted your new-fashioned plans, and ken that I was wrang. There's nea ither lad in aw t' dale could ha' browt Herdwicks doon Bleatarn ghyll last neet.
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