The sound was repeated in an instant, but still they
did not hear it, and then the figure of a man, melting back to a shadow,
glided away from the house and into the bushes and thence to the forest,
where it was lost.
Carlos and Juan chatted until their cigarritos were smoked out. Then they
shouldered their muskets and continued the watch that seemed to them so
easy. How could unarmed men escape through such a thickness of logs? The
shadow in the forest was lost to the sight of any possible Spaniard, but
not to the sight of another shadow that arose from the bushes and flitted
after it. The two shadows were now deep in the forest, but the second hung
close on the first, making no noise, and sinking quickly to the ground,
when the other looked back.
This second shadow, as it passed through a partially open space, also
revealed itself in the moonlight as a man, but a man ghastly and terrible
in appearance. He had a hideous, feline face, and he was naked, save a
breech-cloth at the waist. He carried but a single weapon, a knife in his
ready hand, but the eyes were those of the most utter savage expecting a
speedy prey.
The first shadow reached a little grove free from undergrowth and stopped.
He was about to lie down, rifle by his side, and seek sleep, but his ear,
attuned to the wilderness, caught a faint sound.
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