About a hundred paces further on, the path widened into a rift that led to an opening, sloping gradually down to the beach.
On reaching its edge, he paused once more to listen for a renewal of the sound.
Nothing save the familiar noises of the night greeted his ear.
After a short pause, he kept on for the water’s edge, with head well forward, and eyes strained to penetrate the gloom.
At that moment the moon shot out from behind a heavy bank of clouds, and, with a brilliant beam, disclosed to his eager gaze a tableau of terrible interest.
Down by the water’s edge lay the body of an Indian youth, motionless, and to all appearance dead; while stooping over it was another youth, also an Indian. He appeared to be examining the body.
For some seconds there was no change in his attitude. Then, all at once he raised himself erect, and with a tomahawk that flashed in the moonlight above his head, appeared in the act of dealing a blow.
The hatchet descended; but not upon the body that lay prostrate.
A sharp report ringing on the air for an instant silenced all other sounds. The would-be assassin sprang up almost simultaneously, and two corpses instead of one lay along the earth.