re can
we find him?' and she said, 'I am awake to his motions; three weeks from
hence, the night before the full moon, at such and such an hour, he will
pass down such a lane with such a man.'"

"Well," said I, "and what did the Poknees do?"

"Do, brother, sent for a plastramengro from Bow Street, quite secretly,
and told him what the woman had said; and the night before the full moon,
the plastramengro went to the place which the juwa had pointed out, all
alone, brother; and, in order that he might not be too late, he went two
hours before his time. I know the place well, brother, where the
plastramengro placed himself behind a thick holly-tree, at the end of a
lane, where a gate leads into various fields, through which there is a
path for carts and horses. The lane is called the dark lane by the
Gorgios, being much shaded by trees; so the plastramengro placed himself
in the dark lane behind the holly tree; it was a cold February night,
dreary, though; the wind blew in gusts, and the moon had not yet risen,
and the plastramengro waited behind the tree till he was tired, and
thought he might as well sit down; so he sat down, and was not long in
falling to sleep, and there he slept for some hours; and when he awoke,
the moon had risen, and was shining bright, so that there was a kind of
moonlight even in the dark lane; and the plastramengro pulled out his
watch, and contrived to make out that it was just two hours beyond the
time when the men should have passed by. Brother, I do not know what the
plastramengro thought of himself, but I know, brother, what I should have
thought of myself in his situation. I should have thought, brother, that
I was a drowsy scoppelo, and that I had let the fellow pass by whilst I
was sleeping behind a bush. As it turned out, however, his going to
sleep did no harm, but quite the contrary: just as he was going away, he
heard a gate slam in the direction of the fields, and then he heard the
low stumping of horses, as if on soft ground, for the path in those
fields is generally soft, and at that time it had been lately ploughed
up. Well, brother, presently he saw two men on horseback coming towards
the lane through the field behind the gate; the man who rode foremost was
a tall big fellow, the very man he was in quest of; the other was a
smaller chap, not so small either, but a light, wiry fellow, and a proper
master of his hands when he sees occasion for using them. Well, brother,
th