The old woman (Margaret Crozier) who inhabited it had been found murdered. All sorts of guesses were made about who had done the deed, and suspicion seemed to centre on a small gang of three or four tramps who were going about the country robbing and threatening death to anyone who made any report of their misdeeds.

The boy heard all these things. Then he noticed some peculiar footprints in the little garden of the cottage. The nail-marks agreed with those he had seen in the boots of the man on the moor, and he naturally deduced that the man might have something to do with the murder.

Chivalry—The fact that it was a helpless old woman who had been murdered made the boy’s chivalrous feeling rise against the murderer, whoever he might be.

Pluck and Self-discipline— So, although he knew that the friends of the murderer might kill him for giving information, he cast his fears aside. He went at once to the constable and told him of the footmarks in the garden, and where he could find the man who had made them—if he went immediately.

Health and Strength—The man up on the moor had got so far from the scene of the murder, unseen, except by the boy, that he thought himself safe, and never thought of the boy being able to walk all the way to the scene of the murder and then to come back, as he did, with the police.

So he took no precautions.

But the boy was a strong, healthy hill-boy, and did the journey rapidly and well, so that they found the man and captured him without difficulty.

The man was Willie Winter, a gipsy.

He was tried, found guilty, and hanged at Newcastle. His body was then brought and hung on a gibbet near the scene of the murder, as was the custom in those days.