“Hear anything, Nat?” he said.
“Not now, uncle. I did a little while ago, and took my gun and went out.”
“Ah! What was it?”
“Some kind of deer, and it bounded away.”
“It was no deer that I heard, my boy,” he whispered, “but something big and heavy. Whatever it was trod upon a stick or a shell, and it snapped loudly and woke me up. There it is again.”
I heard the sound quite plainly in the darkness, and it was exactly as Uncle Dick described, but I leaned towards its being a fragile shell trodden on by some big animal or a man.
“Couldn’t be one of the great cats?” I whispered.
“Oh, no! they tread like velvet.”
“Could it be a tapir?”
“Not a likely place for one. Hist!”