Dave stopped his dreamings and leaped to his feet. A noise in the brushwood back of the camp had reached his ears. Holding his musket ready for use, he strained his eyes to pierce the darkness, but he could see nothing.
“Strange,” he thought, after a pause. “I am sure I heard something. It must have been a night bird or——Ha!”
He shut his teeth hard. Something was certainly there—a dark form, moving slowly along, close to the ground. But whether it was man or beast he could not tell, until the form suddenly arose, and then he made out that it was an Indian!
CHAPTER V
PERILS OF THE FOREST
For the instant when Dave made the discovery that the form in the darkness was that of an Indian, the young soldier knew not what to do.
He raised his musket to fire, but did not pull the trigger, fearing the newcomer might be a friend.
“Halt!” he called out, a second later. “Who comes there?”
But the Indian did not halt. Instead he made a sudden movement to one side, and instantly vanished behind a neighboring tree.
“What’s the matter?” came from Silvers, who had heard the young guard’s challenge. “What did you see?”