“I galloped along till I reached the edge of the wild and barren heath, but then I felt faint, for I perceived another horrid sight in the distance! I was compelled to cross the heath, for it was my only way here to the Hall. Unable to guide my horse, I sat still shivering in the cold, knowing not what to do, when all of a sudden the one-legged sailor seemed to spring out of the earth close beside me. “The next moment I found him sitting on the horse beside me! “He took the reins, and the mare dashed onwards like lightning, as if neither of us were heavier than two straws. “All I remember is that as we galloped along we came up to three fires on the roadside which burned with a dark blue flame, and around them were, shrieking and dancing—the Skeleton Crew! “I fainted. When I came to my senses again we were at the Lodge gate.” Sir Richard, Ned, the footman, and other members of the household, who had now gathered around, listened to Tim’s story with bated breath. The footman looked terror-stricken, and trembled so, that, during the groom’s story, his pig-tail (the fashion in those days) gradually rose, until at last it stood stiff and erect above his head, a powdered pillar of horror. “Is the lad dreaming, or is he turned crazy?” said Sir Richard. “No; the lad is right, sir,” said the one-legged sailor, making bold to speak. “My name is Ralph Spray, your honour, late of the king’s navy; and, if so be as how I’m not intruding, I will tell you all about it. This ’ere good-natur’d lad, the groom, is almost turned grey wi’ only havin’ a peep at some on ’em, but how must it be wi’ me, who has fought with the Skeleton Crew?” “Is it true, then, that there _is_ such a crew?” asked the knight, in surprise. “Aye, true, sir, as I sits here, for I lost my other leg among ’em. I ought not to forget ’em, for they have given me plenty o’ reason to remember ’em by.” [Illustration: WILDFIRE NED VISITS THE RED MAN ON THE HEATH.—See No. 3.] “Do you say, then, that you believe there _is_ such a thing as a Skeleton Crew?” asked the knight, very slowly, and looking very hard at Ned’s interested face. “Do I? why, in course I do,” said the one-legged stranger, in a huffish manner, “for I’m one on ’em my——” “What!” gasped every one, rising to their feet. “I’m one on ’em myself—as suffered by ’em.” “O-h-h-h!” said one and all, very much relieved, for they thought that the cripple was going to say that _he_ was one of the Skeleton Crew. “Well, as I were about to say, gentlemen,” Ralph Spray continued, “I served as an able seaman on board His Majesty’s sloop of war ‘Dolphin,’ and we lay in the Sound. We hadn’t been there long afore the news reached us about the wild doings of the Skeleton Crew. At first we didn’t believe any o’ the strange tales, but at last we were ordered off to cruise after the Phantom Ship and Skeleton Crew.” “And did you ever overhaul them?” asked Ned, impatiently.