Only the keen, green eyes of "the student" could have made out that the dark patch rising up some fifty fathoms to the left of the road was a man. We went towards him, quickly stepping over the ploughed-up hummocks of earth, and we felt the hope of food new-born within us put a fresh edge upon our hunger. We were already quite close—the man did not move.
"Perhaps it is not a man at all!"—the soldier had put into words the thought common to us all.
But our doubts were resolved that selfsame instant, for the heap on the ground suddenly began to move, grew in size, and we saw that it was a real living man, now on his knees and stretching towards us an arm.
And he said to us in a hollow, tremulous voice:
"Another step—and I fire!"
A short and dry click resounded through the murky air.
We stopped short, as if at the word of command, and were silent for some seconds, dumfounded by such an unpleasant encounter.
"What a beast!" growled the soldier expressively.
"Well, I never!" said "the student," reflectively, "to go about with a revolver. A well-plucked one evidently!"
"Aye!" cried the soldier, "pretty resolute too."