nug on board, the
sailors went to their homes and received the admiring homage of the
neighbours. One young man whose parents lived in a cottage away to the
north was very keen to get home. He had a weary stretch of moorland to
pass, and the evening was wild, with only fitful gleams of moonlight to
brighten the dark, but the young sailor would not stay. He knew the old
people would be sitting by the fireside till half-past ten or eleven,
and it delighted him to think how they would start with joy when he
rattled the latch on the door. An innkeeper warned him about the state
of the roads, but the sailor was a light-hearted fellow, and paid no
heed to the talk about "muggers," or gipsies. He had been very careful
during the voyage, so that his leather belt under his waistcoat was well
filled with sovereigns and silver. Of course he knew that the "muggers,"
(or travelling potters), were sometimes nasty customers to meet on a
dark night, but he reckoned that he could hold his own anywhere. Jack
was well-built, and very swift of foot, and he strode fast over the dark
and misty moor. The furze bushes roared as the wind went through, and
the heather made a mysterious whispering, but Jack did not mind the
noises that affect the nerves of cultured persons. A poacher bade him a
kindly good-night, and added, "Mind there'll be some queer fellows along
by the Dead Man's Trail," but Jack did not turn back, although he felt
the poacher's warning a little. Rabbits scampered past him, and an owl
beat steadily over the heather like a well-trained setter. When the dark
grew thicker the wail of the curlews as they called from overhead was
strange. The howl of a fox, that weirdest of all sounds, came sharply
from among the brown brackens, but Jack was not impressed: he was home
again, and the piercing cry of the fox was only a pleasant reminder of
good fortune.

Presently three men stopped the traveller, and asked the road to the
port from which he had just come. One of them struck a match and managed
to throw a gleam on Jack's face before the wind put the flame out. By
the same light, the sailor saw that the three men were muggers, and that
they were not pleasant-looking people. He disengaged himself and walked
swiftly north for about thirty yards. A thud of feet made him turn, and
from one brief glance he knew that the men were making a rush for him.
He gathered his energies instantly, and struck off at his best speed. He
was an excellent