is eye,
the glitter of a drawn sword which the man carried in his hand. But it
was necessary to act at once, for at any moment the fellow's suspicions
might be aroused, or the soldiers might come back, or--

Like a flash Douglas wheeled round, bringing the carbine up to his hip
as he did so, and looked the officer full in the face; while his
forefinger curled caressingly round the trigger. The captain's life
hung by a thread, and he knew it, for he had recognised Jim as an
escaped prisoner the moment that the latter showed his face.

"Ah!" gasped Garcia, his face turning ghastly white, "it is that
scoundrel of an Englishman! From whom have you stolen these clothes,
senor?" he went on, at the same time taking a fresh grip of his sword-
hilt and moving slightly nearer to Douglas.

It was a lucky thing for Jim that he had never removed his eyes from
those of Garcia, for he saw the murder that was lurking in them. Garcia
was but trying to put him off his guard by asking that question, and Jim
saw it. He had barely time to raise his carbine when the officer's
sword flashed in the air and the next second would have smote full upon
Douglas's head. But the young man caught the blow on the barrel of his
weapon, turning the blade aside, and at the same instant he pushed the
muzzle of the carbine into Garcia's face and pulled the trigger!

There was a sharp, ringing report, and the Peruvian fell backward among
the bushes, with his head blown to pieces. Jim hastily pushed the
corpse out of sight, reloaded his rifle, and then started to run as hard
as he could; for he knew that the explosion could not possibly pass
unnoticed in that echoing wood; and, indeed, he immediately heard a
chorus of excited shouting coming from somewhere away on his left. He
therefore picked up his heels and ran for his life. Luckily he came
upon another path, running at right angles to the main path, and into
this he plunged, stripping off his long military overcoat as he ran.
After running for about ten minutes, and getting thoroughly out of
breath, he stopped to listen; and, to his great relief, found that all
sounds had died away, and that the part of the wood where he found
himself was as still as the grave.

He therefore pressed on again, but not so fast as before, and in half an
hour's time he fancied that the wood was beginning to grow less dense,
and that he was therefore coming to its boundary; but it proved to be
only a large wind-g