108 By Stream and Sea. 



criminals in whom the iron of vice had been ineradicably 

 welded by the very means which in others had brought 

 forth fruits meet for repentance. Around the great central 

 building there, planted on the barrenest part of the land, a 

 small colony of necessity clustered, but there was not a 

 house that did not indirectly reflect the character of the 

 place. This was Kingsford, and no man of his own free 

 will sojourned longer within its borders than absolute 

 necessity demanded. 



This, I am well aware, ought to be a chapter recording 

 the capture of trout. But the particular day which I 

 selected for a visit to Quickmoor was a pronounced blank 

 - — a hot, bright, still day, with all the brooks low and clear. 



" Light another pipe, sir," said the old man, my guide and 

 companion. " I'll tell you a story." 



"About fishing?" I asked. 



"No, not fishing,'' he replied, "but about Quickmoor," 

 Certain qualms of conscience about introducing the legend 

 into this book I have overcome, and will re-tell it. It may 

 serve to pass "away an hour at luncheon-time for some 

 unsuccessful sportsman doomed like myself to a blank day 

 on Quickmoor. 



rf r ^V T? ^v 'TF */F 



One raw winter's morning the dull level of Kingsford life 

 was stirred to its depths. The well-known signal had gone 

 forth that a prisoner or prisoners had escaped. Warders 

 armed with carbines marched forth in twos and threes ; the 

 few inhabitants who were not in the immediate pay of the 

 Quickmoor prison aided in the hue and cry, and suspended 

 their ordinary avocations to take part in the chase. Not 

 many years before a notorious criminal had run away, and 

 barbarously murdered a shepherd for the sake of the clothes 

 without which he could never have got clear of the country. 



