were a yard or ten or twenty away from where he
lay; but his straining ears told him that they were there, passing him
from right to left, and he felt convinced that others must be moving
slowly from all directions towards that one point, where the helmets
were placed upon the pieces of stone.

So far, then, all was right; but he felt that at any moment he might
hear others coming along behind, and those might strike the very spot
where they two were lying.

Thought after thought of this kind flashed through Bracy's brain, as he
tightened his hold of the bayonet, and held it point upward ready for
use against his first assailant, while the strange crepitation of the
frozen snow went on for what seemed like a long period, so greatly was
everything magnified by the excitement through which it was mentally
viewed.

By degrees, though, the creeping sound, which had seemed to stop more
than once, ceased entirely, and the listeners waited quite half-an-hour,
fancying twice over that they heard the faint click of stone against
stone; but they could not be sure, and they dared not communicate
otherwise than by a pressure of the hand, for there was still the
possibility of the enemy being close in front. Though as the minutes
crawled slowly by, and no fresh sound was heard, the feeling grew
stronger and stronger that they had attributed the creeping noise to the
enemy, when it was probably some inoffensive wild creature seeking for
food, while the enemy had passed the spot in the dark, and were by now
far away.

Bracy had just come to this conclusion, and had begun to think of the
wisdom of crawling off the snow, which was beginning to melt beneath him
from the warmth of his body, when his heart gave a leap as if some nerve
had received a sudden twitch. For there came low and clear from a short
distance away a peculiar sound such as might be produced by a night-bird
on the wing. Then all was still once more.

"Was that a signal?" thought Bracy; "or have we been deceived?"

He thought earnestly, and felt that, after all, the enemy would under
the circumstances act just as they were acting. There seemed to be an
excess of caution, but none too much, approaching as they would be to
surprise whoever was on the watch, and going with their lives literally
in their hands.

"Phit!"

The same low, peculiar sound again, making Bracy start into a wild fit
of excitement. Then there was a quick running as of many feet towards