Some of the croppers were drilling on the moor, and the boy had been placed as sentry.

It wasn't a pleasant business to go up to men so engaged, especially with the news that he had seriously injured the boy they had placed on watch.

But Ned did not hesitate a moment.
"You stop here, Tompkins, with him," he said quietly, "I will go and fetch help.

It is a risk, of course, but we can't let him lie here." So saying, Ned mounted the rock to get a view over the moor.

No sooner had he gained the position than he saw some thirty or forty men walking in groups across the moor at a distance of about half a mile.