Every word of this harangue had been heard by the robber chief, who was returning from his expedition, but whose footsteps were so noiseless that they could not be heard.
CHAPTER XI.
SCENES LEADING TO THE CLIMAX.
The robbers soon dispersed and left our hero alone by the bole of a fallen pine. Nancy appeared in a moment, and, as she passed our hero on her way to gather branches for fire kindling, she said:
'They are all afraid. Are holding a consultation now. They will give you the old woman's room.'
Then Nancy was gone. Everything was as still as the solitude of the tomb; and Roland could hear the partridge 'drumming' among the silent aisles of the wood.
He sat upon the tree-bole meditating, and the words of Nancy somehow gave him courage. Presently he heard a rustle in the dry bushes beside him, and, looking he saw a fallow doe making her way with quick but dainty tread towards the lake. He saw that she had not seen him, and that she was coming for the very spot where he sat. So he laid himself noiselessly down in the shelter of the huge trunk, and drawing his heavy pistol awaited.
In a few seconds the unsuspecting animal was within half a dozen paces of him, when, rising, he fired, one, two shots, and the pretty creature fell over, headlong, dead.
Running over he opened the jugular artery so that the blood might run out of the meat, and cause it to be white,—although some of the connoisseurs of game prefer the retention of the blood, as the meat, they affirm, becomes 'gamey' in a shorter period.
The pistol report brought the robbers instantly from the lair with alarm in their faces.