he was awake at
all. He sat on the ground watching the stranger as he crawled towards
the road. It was quite dark, but the opening made by the highway
admitted some light from the stars. Dory thought the stranger had
something in his hand. If the man had walked right along, the boy would
have thought nothing of the fact that he was in the woods after dark;
but he was creeping like a cat, and Dory's curiosity was aroused.

He got upon his feet, and walked after the mysterious stranger. He did
not care to show himself, and he kept one of the big trees between
himself and the man all the time. Near the road a fringe of bushes had
sprung up, and in their foliage the man concealed himself. Dory had
obtained a better view of what the stranger had in his hand; and, though
he was not sure of it, he thought it was a gun. Was the man out hunting
in the dark? There were no deer so near the town, and it was hardly
likely that the person was gunning in the darkness.

Dory continued to creep from tree to tree until he could not have been
more than a couple of rods from the concealed night wanderer. If he had
not believed the man had a gun in his hand, he would have left his
concealment and gone about his business; for he had come to the
conclusion that the affair, whatever it was, did not concern him. But he
felt a little bashful about leaving, lest the gun might go off, and the
shot accidentally strike him.

The next minute he was confident that he heard footsteps in the road.
Before he had time to satisfy himself fully on this point, the gun in
the hand of the stranger went off; and its going-off proved to Dory
that it was a gun, as he had supposed, and even believed.

"Help! help!" shouted some one in the road; and the voice proved that
there was some one there.

Scarcely had the word been uttered before the man in the bushes broke
from his place of concealment, and rushed towards the road. Dory was too
much interested in the affair to remain at a distance any longer. It was
none of his business; but it was plain enough that the mysterious
stranger had fired his gun at the person who shouted for assistance from
the road. Dory reasoned, that, as he had fired the gun once, he could
not fire it again without reloading it; and he had not had time to do
this.

But there was some sort of wickedness in progress, and Dory ran with all
his might to the road; and, even if he had not run with all his might,
it would not have taken hi