“That’s so,” replied the other. “Along the bank in the scrub ’ere’s as good as anywhere. We don’t want to go too far in. We’ll leave the boat just as we found her.”
The foreigner carried the bag, and the other man went ahead with the lantern.
“It ain’t good to hang round any longer than we can help,” he said, presently. “Somebody might see the light. There’s a myrtle with a hollow butt about here somewhere. Let’s see! Yes, here it is. This is good enough for now.”
“_Oui_, zat vill do,” agreed the Frenchman.
Tom and Dave, looking through the bushes, saw two shadowy figures apparently scraping at the foot of a tree!
“They’re hidin’ the money there,” whispered Tom in Dave’s ear.
Dave was trembling like a top-heavy jelly in the hands of a hurrying waiter.
“What will we do if they see us?” he asked.
“Run,” replied Tom. “Them coves wouldn’t think twice about cuttin’ our throats. The German cove’s got a knife in ’is belt. Keep quiet!”
The admonition was unnecessary. Dave was devoting all his energies to keeping quiet. His whole soul was in it.
The robbers took some time to hide their booty. Tom and Dave could see that the foreigner was holding the lantern against the trunk of the tree, shading it with his body on one side and concentrating the light as much as possible on his companion, who knelt down, and was carefully covering the bag over with loose soil and leaves.
Suddenly they saw the Frenchman, acting, perhaps, on some swift murderous impulse, draw his knife and plunge it to the hilt in his accomplice’s back!
The latter, uttering a choking cry, fell forward. The light went out. The bush was in darkness. The boys clung to each other in a convulsion of fear and horror!
A murder had been committed right before their eyes! A human being had been stricken down, knifed, killed, almost at their feet.
Either boy felt that he could have screamed aloud, but the icy hand of fear was on the heart of each.
They dared not utter a word, but held one another, trembling, palpitating, sick with dread.
Then they heard other sounds. A groan, as if a dying man in agony, a muffled voice—which Tom described after as if someone had thrust a knife into cold meat—the noise of somebody dragging a heavy body along the ground, and then an ominous splash in the water, which sent their blood cold.