mur of the wind in the pines, and the low, deep bass roar of
the river. It had rapidly grown dark, and the fire flickered and
flashed, and sent up curls of golden smoke; while on one side there was
a bough of a pine-tree with every needle standing out clear and bright
against the intense blackness beyond. And as I lay there listening to
the heavy breathing of my two companions, I began to think how easy it
would be for the little Chinaman to crawl silently up and rob us of our
money and valuables; then that there was nothing to prevent the Indians
from making their way round among the trees and killing us all. I had
read of Indian massacres, and a curious, hot sensation of dread came
over me as I looked nervously round, half expecting that my fancies
might not be without cause, and that my wakefulness was due to a sense
of coming danger.

But the various objects dimly seen by the firelight by degrees took
their proper form; and I saw that one which I had believed to be an
Indian's head was only a tuft of some low growth; that it was a fern and
not a crouching enemy just beyond the fire; and the group to my left, a
curious shadowy group, consisted of young pines which the falling in and
following blaze of the fire made quite plain.

I told myself that it was foolish to feel so nervous, and that I was as
safe out there in the forest as in some room at home; but myself would
not believe it, and kept on conjuring up dangers surrounding us till I
felt irritable with my two companions for sleeping so peaceably.

The time went on, and I began wondering how Mr John Dempster and those
with him were getting on; how long it would be before we should meet--if
we ever did meet; and then the end of my journey here became a great
trouble to me, as the question rose in a very portentous fashion--what
would Uncle Dan, as they familiarly called him, say when I presented
myself and said I had come?

Those hours--perhaps they only seemed to be hours--passed on very
wearily, and I turned and turned again, troubled as I was by a painful,
burning itching where I had been bitten, and never once thinking of
attributing my wakefulness to the real cause--the mosquitoes.

At last, just when I was most miserable, nervous, and low-spirited, I
suddenly saw a bright, flashing eye appear over the edge of the black
ridge on the other side of the river, and begin peering at me through
the pine boughs, so full of peace and beauty that I lay gazing