These two “ifs” struck him at that moment as the tallest pair of ifs he had ever met.
He racked his brains for the answer to that one question: “Did I throw a load into the barrel?” One moment he was certain that he remembered doing so; the next he was as certain that he had not. He was very uncomfortable.
“I’ve got to shoot you!” Paula was crying. “I don’t want to, oh! I don’t want to shoot you. But you would kill us. You would kill papa and—I’m going to shoot!”
“For God’s sake shoot and get it over with, then!” muttered Sheldon. He didn’t think that he was a coward, but he knew that he was white as a ghost. And he didn’t even know that the gun was loaded!
The gun barrel wavered uncertainly. The girl’s finger was on the trigger that a very slight pressure would set off and it made him faint to see how that finger was shaking! Paula had one eye shut tight; the other peered wildly along the sights. One instant she was aiming at his stomach, the next at his knees.
Paula shut both eyes and pulled the trigger. After a century-long second in which there was no discharge, Sheldon laughed loudly if somewhat shakily. And, seeing his one chance now about to bring him his safety, he lost no more time in inactivity, but began again with knife and dead branch to try to make his way out.
Paula sprang to her feet, her cheeks that had been pale growing suddenly flushed, and with the gun at her shoulder, pulled again and again at the trigger. Sheldon managed to get half-way out, lifted his hand to grasp the brink—and slipped back again.
Then the girl, crying out angrily, threw down the gun, whirled, and disappeared in a flash. Sheldon struggled manfully to work his way out of his pit before she should be lost to him entirely in the woods. But when at last he was out, and had caught up his rifle, the still woods about him hid her, giving no sign which way she had gone.
CHAPTER X. THE GOLDEN GIANT.
In the wilderness which is the Sasnokee-keewan a man seeking to escape a pursuer need not have the slightest difficulty. This fact Sheldon was forced to admit immediately.