At last Harry reached the meadow where White Star was grazing and where some thirty sheep were sharing the pasture. He went up to examine the gentle creature, and she knew well enough the young master’s voice and touch, so that she hardly stopped chewing the cud to give him a kindly stare. ’White Star seems not so bad,’ thought Harry. ’I’ll tell father to give her another day in the meadow, she is not too ill to enjoy this sweet grass.’ Harry had been so much engaged in attending to White Star that he did not hear the soft splash of some oars at the bottom of the meadow he was in, nor did he see that four strong, rough-looking men in seafaring attire had quietly moored their long-boat to an old willow stump, and that two of them were hastily scanning the sheep and cattle that were only a few yards away. ’Zounds!’ muttered the first who stepped up the bank, ’what have we here? a lad in this very field. I’faith, I saw no one from the creek.’ ’A mere sapling,’ laughed the other, ’take no heed of him, and he will soon take to his heels at the sight of us. Now, quick’s the word, the captain is impatient to be off with the tide.’ In another instant the men had begun their work. They had come for the purpose of carrying off some sheep and cattle, and having waited till this late hour they had not expected to find a witness to their robbery. Quietly and stealthily as they had landed, however, their intentions could not be carried out without some disturbance, and Harry was first made aware of their presence by the sudden helter-skelter of the sheep and the immediate curiosity expressed by poor White Star, whose evening meal was to be so violently disturbed. In a moment more Harry had seized the situation, which indeed it was not difficult to do, as he now beheld one of his father’s sheep suddenly captured by the clever expedient of an extemporised lasso, and when the poor animal had been dragged towards its captor the robber made short work of tying his victim’s legs together, and leaving it to bleat beside him whilst he proceeded to capture another in the same manner, before dragging them to the long-boat. All the fierce courage of the hardy yeoman’s son rose to its height as he beheld this daring robbery carried on under his very eyes. Nay, when the strongest and foremost man began unconcernedly to make his way towards White Star herself, the boy’s indignation knew no bounds. ’How now?’ he cried indignantly. ’What do you mean, you rascals, by coming here? this is our field and our cattle; away at once, and unloose the sheep, or, by’r laykin! it will be worse for you. I will call for help, and you will soon be treated in such a manner as you deserve.’ This fierce speech had not, however, the desired effect. The man laughed ironically as if Harry were a mere baby, and approaching White Star he swiftly threw the lasso over the animal’s sleek head.