But a hundred times at least during his journey through that wild forest Tom started, as he thought he saw that strange skin-clad man lurking among the bushes.
What a relief it was to his feelings when he got clear at last of the weird-looking trees, whose very shadows to-night seemed to enter his soul! And, look, yonder was Brandy bounding joyfully to meet him.
“O, sah, sah, I’se so glad you come. I tink you lost. I tink I nebber, nebber see you no more. And de drefful man, sah! O, he scare poor Brandy a’most to def, sah.”
“The man, Brandy! What, you have seen him too? Then it was no apparition.”
“I dun know nuffin’, sah. I was bend down near de fire to makee he burn up more bright, den I hear a footstep. I look up plenty quick, and dere—O, it was drefful, sah, dat hairy man, all same’s one big baboon!”
“Which way did he go?”
“Round by de ruins, sah. Den I see him run to de forest, O, ebber so fast! I tink he one ghost, sah. Den I tink plaps he hab murder you, and I turn pale wid fear.”
“Come along anyhow,” said Tom, “and give me some dinner. I am famishing, and food will banish fear; though, Brandy, I think it would take a good deal to make you turn pale.”
Hardly anything else was thought about that night except the apparition; and lest he should come again at midnight, Tom loaded his rifle and kept it handy by his couch.
Days wore by, and nothing more was seen of the hairy man, and Tom began to think it must after all have been a baboon. Brandy and he went to the woods together as usual; but after this somehow neither cared to stay alone at the outlook station, and they were always at home by nightfall.