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Taz for a moment. Perhaps responding to his fear, the dog growled deep in his throat, but quieted when Daniel put a hand on his head.
    â€˜Thanks.’ Daniel took the woollen mitten and paused, looking the two men up and down. They were dark-haired, olive-skinned and looked to be in their late thirties. Both wore jeans and designer trainers, but where Reynolds had a jumper and leather coat, his taller companion sported a red hooded sweatshirt and some sort of canvas baseball jacket.
    They were both woefully unprepared for a trek into the wilderness of Dartmoor, and Daniel viewed the whole rescue mission with growing misgivings.
    â€˜OK,’ he said briskly. ‘When we get started, I need you to stay directly behind me. Keep as quiet as you can, and whatever you do, don’t crowd me or the dog. Now, show me where you last saw the girls.’
    â€˜This way.’ Beckoning, Reynolds left the car park and walked 20 or 30 feet back down the road. Crossing the narrow stone bridge that gave the beauty spot its name, he stopped at the point where a narrow sheep path wound uphill through the heather on to the moor.
    â€˜I assumed they’d started from the car park,’ Daniel commented, catching up.
    â€˜No, they came this way until they saw me coming after them, and then they took off up there,’ Reynolds said.
    Daniel regarded the steep, wet slope without joy. At the top of the rise, it almost looked as though the rain-laden clouds were touching the dark-brown tips of the heather. With an inner sigh he switched his mind to the matter in hand and, taking Taz to the edge of the narrow road, told him to sit. Then, straddling the dog, he bent down and held the red mitten over his long, black muzzle.
    He gave no command. The dog knew exactly what he had to do and immediately began drawing in deep breaths through the fabric, familiarizing himself with the girl’s unique smell. After four or five breaths, he started to fidget and Daniel waited just a few more seconds before slipping the glove into his pocket and telling the dog, ‘Go seek!’
    Instantly Taz’s head went down and within moments he had the scent and was away, Daniel hurrying in his wake, paying out the line so as not to hinder him.
    What ensued was a gruelling test of fitness for the three men following the dog. In the rapidly failing light the uneven ground was treacherous and Daniel thought grimly that it would be a miracle if one of them didn’t suffer an ankle sprain or worse before they got anywhere near their quarry.
    By the time they gained the top of the first rise, Daniel was breathing deeply and could hear the other two men labouring behind him. His trouser legs were saturated with water from the 18 inches or so of dank vegetation that crowded the path, and his face and hair were wet with the fine, misty drizzle. Of all of them, the dog alone was enjoying himself, powering forward at the end of the canvas line, unaffected by either anxiety or the unpleasant conditions.
    Alternating between a jog and a fast walk, the three men made good progress for ten minutes or so before the path forked and the dog paused to cast around. The moor stretched away on all sides, a wilderness of rocks, grass, heather and the occasional stunted tree. Presumably the two girls had been unsure which way to go. Daniel waited, giving the shepherd plenty of line while he worked, and finally, after a false start up one trail, Taz set off with renewed confidence on the other.
    The original track had been twisting and turning, gaining height almost imperceptibly, but this new, narrower track immediately began to climb quite sharply, heading deeper into the moor and, it seemed to Daniel, towards a rocky outcrop on the far horizon.
    Did they hope to find shelter? he wondered. What manner of family argument sent two young girls into such desperate flight? He could only imagine that they had never meant to come this far but had lost all sense of