Then the crackling of undergrowth commenced again, and Devine fancied that he could distinguish the movements of four men. He heard the fern rustle close behind him, and saw that his companion had raised himself a trifle. The latter appeared to be gazing into the bush, and looking around sharply the surveyor started as a figure materialized out of the gloom where the moonlight streamed down between the trees not far away. The man stood amidst the silvery radiance, and Devine was relieved to notice that he had nothing in his hand. Then he turned partly around, and his voice reached the pair who watched him.
“Have you struck it yet?” he asked.
An invisible man replied that he had not yet found whatever he was searching for; and in another moment a sharp snapping suggested that a third stranger was floundering through the bush. He came into sight close by the first and stopped.
“I can’t strike that post,” he said. “The bush down that way is black as pitch. Guess I’ll have to look for a pine-knot and get a light.”
“They’d hear you chopping,” said the man who had appeared first. “The tent’s just back there among the firs. We have got to have that post shifted before they know we are about.”
There was no doubt as to who it was that he referred to, and Devine saw Saunders hitch himself forward a little.
“If I’d only three or four ca’tridges!” he said half aloud.
Devine sympathized with him. His comrade was a very indifferent shot, but it would have been a relief to feel that they had something besides the ax to fall back on as a last resort. Firearms, as he was aware, are seldom made use of in a dispute in British Columbia, but, for all that, men have now and then been rather badly injured during an altercation over a mineral claim. At close quarters a shovel or a big hammer is apt to prove an effective weapon.
Then, and neither was afterward quite sure how it happened, Saunders lost his balance and fell forward amidst the fern. He did not do it noiselessly, and one of the two jumpers sprang backward a pace.
“Somebody in that clump of fern,” he said, and then apparently recovered a little from his alarm. “It’s that blame fool Charley.”