st.

It was restful and pleasant there on the soft natural couch of sand and
fir-needles, and after a time Sam's head began to bow and nod, and then,
just as he was dropping off fast asleep, the cigarette, which he had
been puffing at mechanically, dropped from his lips and fell in his lap.

In a few minutes the fume which had been rising changed its odour from
burning vegetable to smouldering animal, and Sam leaped up with a yell
of pain, to hastily clap his hands to a bright little round hole upon
the leg of his trousers, where the woollen material had caught fire and
burned through to his skin.

"Hang the stupid thing!" he grumbled, as he squeezed the cloth and put
out the tiny glowing spark. "Must have dropped off. Looked nice if I'd
slept all night in this idiotic place. Too soon yet, but I mustn't go
to sleep again."

To avoid this he began to walk up and down among the trees, but
carefully kept close to the road, for he grasped the fact that it would
be very easy to go astray in a fir-wood at night.

Now as the dark hours are those when certain animals which live in the
shade of trees choose for their rambles abroad, it so happened that one
of these creatures was awake, had left its hole, and was prowling about
on mischief bent, when the yell Sam Brandon uttered rose on the night
air.

The first effect was to cause the prowler to start off and run; the
second caused curiosity, and made the said prowler begin to crawl
cautiously toward the spot from whence the cry arose, and in and out
among the tree-trunks, till the shadowy figure of Sam could be seen
going to and fro to avoid more sleep.

Then, as the prowler lay near at hand upon his chest watching, there
came a time when Sam went down upon his knees in the densest spot near,
to shelter himself from observation while he lit a fresh cigarette.

Now it so happened that the darkest spot was close to where the prowler
lay without being able to escape, as it would have caused a noise, and
consequent betrayal.

Then after selecting a cigarette by touch, and opening his match-box,
Sam struck a little wax taper, began to light his cigarette, and
naturally held the flame so near his face that, as he knelt there, it
was well illumined for the benefit of the prowler, who crouched close
and stared hard, expecting moment by moment to be seen.

But Sam saw nothing for the glare, while the prowler recognised his
features, and lay still and waited close by the s