I glanced in the direction indicated; and there, from the northern
quarter of the Sea-Wood, beheld a thin column of smoke rising
steadily against the now cloudless sky.
"Northmour," I said (we still continued to talk in whispers), "it
is not possible to endure this suspense. I prefer death fifty
times over. Stay you here to watch the pavilion; I will go forward
and make sure, if I have to walk right into their camp."
He looked once again all round him with puckered eyes, and then
nodded assentingly to my proposal.
My heart beat like a sledge-hammer as I set out walking rapidly in
the direction of the smoke; and, though up to that moment I had
felt chill and shivering, I was suddenly conscious of a glow of
heat over all my body. The ground in this direction was very
uneven; a hundred men might have lain hidden in as many square
yards about my path. But I had not practised the business in vain,
chose such routes as cut at the very root of concealment, and, by
keeping along the most convenient ridges, commanded several hollows
at a time. It was not long before I was rewarded for my caution.
Coming suddenly on to a mound somewhat more elevated than the
surrounding hummocks, I saw, not thirty yards away, a man bent
almost double, and running as fast as his attitude permitted, along
the bottom of a gully. I had dislodged one of the spies from his
ambush. As soon as I sighted him, I called loudly both in English
and Italian; and he, seeing concealment was no longer possible,
straightened himself out, leaped from the gully, and made off as
straight as an arrow for the borders of the wood.
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