eBooks Base 2000

It proved that they had been made
by some moving object, and not by the boughs and bushes still there.
Robert examined the lake, his eyes following the line where the far bank
met the water, but he saw no trace of anything moving, and his attention
came back to the woods in which he stood. Presently, he crouched in
dense bush, and concentrated all his powers of hearing, knowing that he
must rely upon ear rather than eye. He could not say that he had really
seen or heard, but he had felt that something was moving in the forest,
something that threatened him.
His first impulse was to go back to the little hollow and awaken his
comrades, but his second told him to stay where he was until the danger
came or should pass, and he crouched lower in the undergrowth with his
hand on the hammer and trigger of his rifle. He did not stir or make any
noise for a long time. The forest, too, was silent. The wind that had
ruffled the surface of the lake ceased, and the leaves over his head
were still.
But he understood too well the ways of the wilderness to move yet.


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