wish to fight.

No wish? The thought of it was hateful to him, and yet it was not in
human nature to give in without a struggle.

But it should be all their doing. All he wanted was to be left in peace.
Every man has the right to defend his own life.

But then, again--there could be only one end to it, he knew. So why
fight?

They were coming to make an end of him. What good was it to make an end
of any of them?

Even if he should succeed in keeping them off this time, the end would
come all the same, only it would be longer of coming. Why prolong it?

The boats came bounding on like hounds at sight of the quarry. They were
well filled, four or five men in each boat, besides the oarsmen. Enough,
surely, to make an end of one lone man.

Would they attempt to land in different places and rush him, he
wondered. Or would they content themselves with lying off and attempting
to shoot him down from a distance? The last would be the safest all
round, both for them and for him--for, landing, they would, for the
moment, be more or less at his mercy; and, snapping at him from a
distance, he would have certain chances of cover in his favour.

The top of the ridge was flattened in places, there were even
depressions here and there, very slight, but quite enough to shelter any
one lying prone in them from bombardment from sea-level. He chose the
deepest he could find, and crawled into it, and lay, with his chin in
his hands, watching the oncoming boats.

If he could have managed it, he would have slipped down to the rock wall
and crept into his burrow, but it was on that side the boats were
coming, and the sharp eyes on board would inevitably see him, and so get
on the track of his hiding-place.

If the chance offered--if they left that end of the rock unspied upon
for three minutes--he would try it.

They parted at the Quette d'Amont, two going along the south side and
two along the north. He could hear their voices, their rough jests and
brief laughter, as they crept past.

It was an odd sensation, this, of lying there like a hunted hare,
knowing that it was him they were after.

He pressed still closer to the rock, and did not dare to raise his head
for a look. The voices and the sound of the oars died away, came again,
died again, as the boats slowly circled the rock, every keen eye on
board, he knew, searching every nook and cranny for sign of him.

Then a shot rang out, over there towards the south-west, and