Looking cautiously about him, as if to satisfy himself that he was unobserved, the stranger soon came fully to view, and commenced ascending the hill with a silent, cautious step. Reaching a point almost to the summit, he sank down on his hands and knees, and looked over. Watching the horsemen, who, by this time, were a third of a mile distant, for a few moments, he laid his rifle across a mound of earth, and took a long, deliberate sight.
Inwood felt very uncomfortable as he watched this operation, and he was on the point of bringing his own gun to his shoulder to prevent this murder, when the piece was discharged, and, glancing at his friends, he saw that they were not disturbed enough to cause them to look around.
“Try it again!” muttered Inwood, “that is rather too long a range for a gun like yours.”
The man, after the failure of his piece, took an upright position, and watched the horsemen with an intensity of gaze which showed that for some reason or other, he had a deep interest in their movements. Finally they rode behind the grove referred to, and the man, with a great sigh and some muttered words, turned on his heel and descended the hill.
“That man, for some reason or other, doesn’t wish any visitors in these parts,” was the reflection of Inwood, “and he has a special objection to white men. There is some connection between what I have seen and that island out in the lake.”
Having learned all that he deemed it safe to learn, he carefully made his way out of his hiding place, and soon after rejoined his friends behind the grove. Jim had had some difficulty in controlling the actions of the mule, but he had succeeded at last in bringing him to a stop by shying him against the trunk of a tree, as he swung round his circle.
“Dat’s de way to put de brakes on,” said Jim, “no danger ob de wheels slippin’--fotched him up _chock_!”
“I suppose you didn’t understand what I meant,” remarked George, as he resumed his horse, “but I discovered a man watching us, and I wanted to watch him a little.”
“Yes; but I took good care that he didn’t see me. You heard a gun fired shortly after you left. That was done by him, and he took deliberate aim at you, but the distance proved too great.”