Conn's eyes stained through the darkness, to the powerful sides of the hills around him. They looked as though they could easily walk towards each other and crush the puny bones of a man caught between them. He could almost hear the silence, broken every few seconds by the hush of a foot through the heather or the slap of a hand on to a biting gnat.
They went like ghosts. The chief men rode on their short, dun- coloured horses. Boys and young men walked on foot. In front of them. as if enchanted, streamed the cattle. And behind everyone, Conn dodged unseen.