eye to keep from bursting into a fit
of laughter. Then a sudden thought struck him.

"When did you say you came here?"

"Last--night?"

"What time?"

"No watch," said the man. "Quite dark."

"But what did you come for?"

The man pointed to the ponies, and Mark gazed at his cousin and
whispered, "I say, I think I have seen this fellow before."

"Hanging about that dealer's yard?"

"Yes."

"I am sure I did," whispered Dean, as the man turned from them to check
the wandering of another of the ponies.

"Dean," said Mark, "I have got an idea."

"Let's have it."

"That chap has come to steal our ponies."

"Bother!" cried Dean contemptuously. "When did you say you came?"

"Last--night," said the man.

"Here, I say, you, sir," cried Mark. "Did you say you came here last
night to look after our ponies?"

"Yes," said the man, and they saw that he was working with his left hand
now, snipping at the stubbly beard with the scissors, while with the
other he held his moustache back to keep it from being cut.

"Look here," said Mark; "was it you who came close up to me in the dark
when I was on the watch?"

"Yes," said the man sadly. "Thought you was asleep."

"It was lucky for you that I did not shoot you."

"Yes," said the man dismally, as he slowly took off his hat and poked
one long thin finger through a hole that the boys had not previously
noticed, shook his head at it sadly, put his hat on again, and went on
snipping as before.

"There, Dean! Now, then, was it a false alarm?"

"Well, no; but I should never have taken this chap for a lion," replied
his cousin. "Here, I say, you, sir, why do you speak as if you were
sorry that my cousin did not hit you?"

"Wasn't," said the man, mournfully snipping away.

"Well, what do you want?"

"Breakfast," said the man. "Had none since you come away."

"That's cool," said Mark, as he looked at the man suspiciously. "Oh,
here come Buck Denham and Dan. They have smelt that something's wrong
about the ponies. Here," he continued, turning to the two fresh
arrivals, "what are you two laughing at?"

"At 'im, sir," whispered Dan, as the oddity moved away after a pony.

"Yes, he's rather a rum 'un to look at, gen'lemen," said Buck, in the
same low tone. "I have seen him before. Sort of hang-about as has to
do with him as sold you those ponies. I think he's a bit touched in his
head--dotty, you know."

"That's what I think too, gentlemen," whispere