bones were scattered by ravens, and Will used the bleached
skull as a stepping stone. Presently he thought of the flame-tongues
that here were wont to dance through warm summer nights. This memory
recalled his own nickname in Chagford--"Jack-o'-Lantern"--and, for the
first time in his life, he began to appreciate its significance. Then,
being a hundred yards from his starting-place in the hut-circle, he
heard the hidden voice again. Clear and low, it stole over the
intervening wilderness, and between two utterances was an interval of
some seconds.

"Will! Will!"

For one instant the crepitation of fear passed over Blanchard's scalp
and skin. He made an involuntary stride away from the voice; then he
shook himself free of all alarm, and, not desirous to lose more
self-respect that day, turned resolutely and shouted back,--

"I hear 'e. What's the business? I be comin' to 'e if you'll bide wheer
you be."

That some eyes were watching him out of the gathering darkness he did
not doubt, and soon pushing back, he stood once more in the ruined
citadel of old stones, mounted one, steadied himself by a young ash that
rose beside it, and raised his voice again,--

"Now, then! I be here. What's to do? Who's callin' me?"

An answer came, but of a sort widely different from what he expected.
There arose, within twenty yards of him, a sound that might have been
the cry of a child or the scream of a trapped animal. Assuming it to be
the latter, Will again hesitated. Often enough he had laughed at the
folk-tales of witch hares as among the most fantastic fables of the old;
yet at this present moment mystic legends won point from the
circumstances in which he found himself. He hurried forward to the edge
of a circle from which the sound proceeded. Then, looking before him, he
started violently, sank to his knees behind a rock, and so remained,
glaring into the ring of stones.

* * * * *

In less than half an hour Blanchard, with his coat wrapped round some
object that he carried, returned to Newtake and summoned assistance with
a loud voice.

Presently his wife and mother entered the kitchen, whereupon Will
discovered his burden and revealed a young child. Phoebe fainted dead
away at sight of it, and while her husband looked to her Mrs. Blanchard
tended the baby, which was hungry but by no means alarmed. As for Will,
his altered voice and most unusual excitement of manner indicated
something o