me an ye will, but I like not
the hollow sound of it."

"Nay," said Matcham, with a shiver, "it hath a doleful note. An the day
were not come"--

But just then the bell, quickening its pace, began to ring thick and
hurried, and then it gave a single hammering jangle, and was silent for a
space.

"It is as though the bearer had run for a pater-noster while, and then
leaped the river," Dick observed.

"And now beginneth he again to pace soberly forward," added Matcham.

"Nay," returned Dick--"nay, not so soberly, Jack. 'Tis a man that
walketh you right speedily. 'Tis a man in some fear of his life, or
about some hurried business. See ye not how swift the beating draweth
near?"

"It is now close by," said Matcham.

They were now on the edge of the pit; and as the pit itself was on a
certain eminence, they commanded a view over the greater proportion of
the clearing, up to the thick woods that closed it in.

The daylight, which was very clear and grey, showed them a riband of
white footpath wandering among the gorse. It passed some hundred yards
from the pit, and ran the whole length of the clearing, east and west.
By the line of its course, Dick judged it should lead more or less
directly to the Moat House.

Upon this path, stepping forth from the margin of the wood, a white
figure now appeared. It paused a little, and seemed to look about; and
then, at a slow pace, and bent almost double, it began to draw near
across the heath. At every step the bell clanked. Face, it had none; a
white hood, not even pierced with eye-holes, veiled the head; and as the
creature moved, it seemed to feel its way with the tapping of a stick.
Fear fell upon the lads, as cold as death.

"A leper!" said Dick, hoarsely.

"His touch is death," said Matcham. "Let us run."

"Not so," returned Dick. "See ye not?--he is stone blind. He guideth
him with a staff. Let us lie still; the wind bloweth towards the path,
and he will go by and hurt us not. Alas, poor soul, and we should rather
pity him!"

"I will pity him when he is by," replied Matcham.

The blind leper was now about halfway towards them, and just then the sun
rose and shone full on his veiled face. He had been a tall man before he
was bowed by his disgusting sickness, and even now he walked with a
vigorous step. The dismal beating of his bell, the pattering of the
stick, the eyeless screen before his countenance, and the knowledge that
he was not only doomed