“I could not have been unconscious for more than two minutes, when a sound awoke me. It was the report of a gun.
“I was not quite sure of its being this. I only fancied that it was.
“My horse seemed to know better than I. As I looked up, he was standing with ears erect, snorting, as if he had been fired at!
“I sprang to my feet, and stood listening.
“But as I could hear nothing more, and the mustang soon quieted down, I came to the conclusion that we had both been mistaken. The horse had heard the footsteps of some straying animal; and that which struck upon my ear might have been the snapping of a branch broken by its passage through the thicket; or perhaps one of the many mysterious sounds—mysterious, because unexplained—often heard in the recesses of the chapparal.
“Dismissing the thing from my mind, I again lay down along the grass; and once more fell asleep.
“This time I was not awakened until the raw air of the morning began to chill me through the cloak.
“It was not pleasant to stay longer under the tree; and, recovering my horse, I was about to continue my journey.
“But the shot seemed still ringing in my ears—even louder than I had heard it while half asleep!
“It appeared, too, to be in the direction in which Henry Poindexter had gone.