When the ploughboy was walking home he was frightened out of his wits by a horned figure that jumped out at him, without thinking he lashed out at it with his plough blades and ran home. The butcher's boy was never seen again although a bull's hide with a gash through it was later discovered. It is said that the boy haunts the lane and was taken by the real Devil of Croydon Hill, to be pursued across the hill on stormy nights