Somewhere about two in the morning I awoke with a start. The clattering of a horse's hoofs was heard passing close to the hut, and a wild halloo rattled the loose window-pane, and echoed from the hill. To my astonishment, another halloo burst out from powerful lungs close to my ear.
"Dang it!" said Sailor Tom, "ain't that a stretcher for the windpipe. 'Ope 'ee 'eard it."
"Who?" I said.
"I'm blest! then you don't belong to them parts? That's 'Thunder-an'-Lightnin's' signal to me w'en 'ee goes by across our ford; an' I answers 'im."
"An' what for?" says I.
"As much as to say there's no bobbies aroun'; do you twig?"
"I twig," said I. "'An where's he off to now?"
"To the Dead Horse diggin's for sarten. I can 'ear 'is 'orse's 'oofs clatterin' up the track."
"Wish he hadn't wakened me out o' a sound sleep."
"I tell ye there's music in 'is voice, an' money too; beats the Hightalian Hopera to fits!"