CHAPTER VIII.

SPRING-HEELED JACK.”

"WHY, it's some one's hat!" exclaimed Mat, running forward to meet Hero; and taking it from the dog's mouth, he began to pull it into shape, whilst Hero stood calmly looking on, with an expressive wag of the tail, and a proud look in his eyes, which said quite plainly, "I found that; ain't I clever?"

"It's mine!" cried the Scamp, putting his hand up suddenly to his head; "I'm blessed if I hadn't forgotten all about my hat in the general excitement,-it's a wonder I haven't lost my head as well!"

We all laughed heartily; and Harry wondered how far we should have gone before any one would have noticed so obvious an omission in the Scamp's attire.

"I noticed once that you hadn't got it on your head, but I supposed you were drying it somewhere," said Mat; "then something else drove it out of my head, and I forgot to say anything again."

"Well, thanks to Hero, it's all safe now," replied Sam, patting the dog affectionately, and then adding, ruefully, as he surveyed its dirty condition, "There'll be something to do to get that clean and tidy enough to pass muster, without being found out."

"But you will tell Mrs. Royce all about it, won't you?" I asked, in great surprise.

"Not I! I ain't so green. And don't you go blabbing either, youngster. She's pretty safe to worm it all out of us, but don't you help her,mind that."

"Very well," I replied, in a low voice. To me it was a new idea to keep back any of the incidents of my day's adventures, whether they were good, bad, or indifferent.

But, as in the case of the popular language, I was soon a quick adept at profiting by the precepts of my elders, and, before long, was as good a hand as any one at concealing my failings from the knowledge of the authorities bearing rule over us.

Sam was too open and honest a boy to plan any systematic string of falsehoods to screen himself with; though he did not consider himself in honour bound to help the enemy to discover his faults, by an open proclamation of the truth, he would never shrink from giving a direct answer to a plain question, however much it might compromise himself. This was the principle which he laid down for our guidance, to-night;-beyond which, he assured us, it was unnecessary, on the one hand, and on the other dishonourable, for any of us to go. Whether such an opinion were strictly sound, I rather doubt; but whether one can expect a higher standard of morality from the ordinary, easygoing schoolboy is a question not quite so easily answered.

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"Do come on!" cried Mat, impatiently, as soon as Sam had wrung most of the water out of his Scotch cap. I declare it's beginning to get dark already."

"It'll be pitch dark by half-past seven," said the Scamp, indifferently.

"And it must be past seven by now," remarked Harry, with a faint tone of alarm in his voice.

"And it will take us half-an-hour to walk home," I added. "More," shortly rejoined the Scamp.

"Then we must cut like billywinks," cried Harry, who delighted to indulge in slang as much as any of the bigger boys.

So at last we set off full swing along the level, running at a

gentle trot half way up the hill, for the road soon began to rise again.

"I say," said Harry, taking my arm, and whispering into my ear, as soon as we had subsided into a brisk, steady walk, “are you afraid of the dark ?-I am-horribly."

"Yes, I am, dreadfully," I replied, in a low tone, glad to find some one to confide in, who not only sympathized with, but also shared in, my special weakness.

"Well, don't you let the Scamp know; he'd laugh at us no end."

"Would he? Doesn't he mind, then?" I asked, incredulously.

"Not he!"

Presently Harry commenced speaking afresh :

"You know that lonely part of the road that we're coming to, between the top of this hill and the sweet-shop, where we buy those whapping big 'bulls'-eyes'? Well, it is somewhere there where 'Springall Jack' frightens people so."

"Let's keep up with the others," I interposed, hurrying on. "He scared Old Betsy half out of her skin," continued Harry, his voice sinking into a low, awed whisper. "I heard Miss Royce telling Mrs. What's-her-name."

"Mrs. Hughes, do you mean?"

"Yes; they were talking about him ever so long. When we were playing 'I spy,' I was hiding just behind that summerhouse that's been made in the big yew-tree close by the edge of the lawn, where they were sitting together talking; so I couldn't help overhearing all that they said."

"You didn't try, I suppose?"

"Rather not! I listened with all my might; it was quite exciting. You've heard about 'Springall Jack,' haven't you? 'Spring-heeled Jack' he used to be called at first, because he is supposed to wear boots with such enormous springs in them that he can clear a six-foot wall at a single bound. So he goes

about in the lonely parts of the country, scaring people awfully, by suddenly jumping over a gate or a hedge, right in their very faces, just when they are walking quietly along, never dreaming of any one being near them, and before they can say 'Jack Robinson,' he has sprung over the opposite wall, and has disappeared from their sight, uttering a yell that makes their blood run cold. But now the name for him has got corrupted into 'Springall Jack,' because it's shorter, as well as more expressive, don't you see? Some of the people have shortened it still more by calling him 'Springle Jack;' you'll hear all the boys speak of him so, down in Brookford; but I like to see it spelt 'Springall' best, even if you do pronounce it like 'Springle,' as most people do. Sometimes he lies by a heap of stones, till his victims come close up to him; then he jumps up suddenly, flings up his arms, and, with an unearthly shout, springs past them, and disappears over the wall, or hedge. He has half killed some people from sheer fright, and the bobbies are after him, to try and catch him. Only they don't know who he is at all, and he don't give them much chance to find out either!"

"Oh dear! oh dear! I wish we hadn't stopped by the stream; we should have been at home by now."

"What's all that about?" demanded the Scamp, overhearing the last few remarks, as we came up with him and Mat.

At the end of the recital, which Harry willingly repeated for their benefit, the Scamp tried to reassure us, by remarking cheerfully, "Oh, you needn't be scared; he's safe not to be in the same place again to-night. It wouldn't pay, don't you see? He would be caught, sure enough, if he tried that on."

"But, you see, he watches for people who are certain to be dreadfully frightened, and who can't do anything. If he saw, or heard, the bobbies coming, he'd be off like a shot, and they would never see him at all."

"Besides, he's sure to go where he's least expected; and if

he thought people would think that he wouldn't be two nights running in the same place, he would be sure to come; do you see what I mean?

"But isn't it too early, to-night?" I suggested, anxiously.

be sure;

"It was no later than this, last night, you may Betsy wouldn't be out alone long after dark, I'll bet.” "Why didn't she give the alarm?"

Old

"'Cause there's no house anywhere nearer than that 'tuck'shop, and she was too scared to know anything, except that she was being followed by a great tall figure, with a long cloak over his shoulders. He wasn't the least like any one she had

ever seen, she said.

She began to scream, and cut for it like

old boots, and never stopped until she got safe home. chased her ever so far along the road."

He

"It is very lucky that we have Hero with us," said the Scamp, gravely. "I'll tell you what; we will all hitch up together. You go the other side, Mat, and we'll have the youngsters between us. I will lead old Hero."

"No, no! Hero shall stop by me!" cried Mat, earnestly. "All right! I don't care. Only you had better lead him, so that you can keep him close by us. You needn't get scared, youngsters. Even if it is all true--which I doubt the fellow is hardly likely to be here again, to-night.”

"No, no. Of course he wouldn't," echoed Mat, as though anxious to convince himself that the pleasantest view of the case must necessarily be also the most correct.

Nevertheless, even the Scamp dropped his voice when he spoke, and clearly none of us felt very comfortable.

As for me, my eyes were already on the brink of an overflow from the effects of Harry's recital, and in my desire to catch any suspicious sound that might warn us of our danger, I strained my ears till the drums seemed ready to crack, from the undue amount of tension to which they were subjected.

For some minutes we walked arm-in-arm in absolute silence,