He was almost sure that he had heard a voice, and he was encouraged to believe that he was on the right track. The sound reached him very nearly at the instant when he had touched off the match. He spent a few minutes in reasoning over the circumstance. If the burglars were in the vicinity, the light of the match had enabled them to locate him; and he was willing to believe that the discovery of his presence had called forth a sudden exclamation of surprise from the least prudent of the two.
Whether his conclusion was correct, or not, it satisfied him, and assured him that the marauders were near him. He was alone and unarmed; while there were two burglars, each perhaps provided with a revolver. The situation was not wholly satisfactory to him; for though he was as brave as a lion, he was also as prudent as a cat lying in wait for a bird.
He had halted at the junction of the great road with the cart-path leading to Kingsland Bay; and the sound he had heard, assured him that the marauders were on this side-road. He had no more idea of attacking them than he had of running away from them. But the light had enabled them to fix his own position in the gloom, and Dory deemed it advisable to derange their calculations.
With a careful step, he walked away from the junction of the roads by the way he had come. It would be as difficult for them to hear him as it was for him to hear them, and in a few moments he increased his pace. At the foot of a little hill, perhaps a quarter of a mile from his first stopping-place, he halted again. He did not believe they had followed him, for they could not have been aware of his movement.
Lighting another match, he examined the road, as he had intended to do before. Between the ruts he found the footprints of two persons, who had been walking side by side. The marks were made by genteel boots or shoes, and not by any farmer or laborer who wore cowhide and broad soles on his feet.
This discovery made it appear to Dory that the burglars were professional gentlemen of the housebreaking order, and probably they did not belong anywhere in the vicinity of Genverres. This demonstration added something to the inquirer's stock of information; but it was of no especial value, since the hearing of the voice in the woods was more tangible evidence.
No end of questions which he could not answer flashed through Dory's mind after his match had burned out, and he had established to his own satisfaction the professional character of the operators. They were somewhere within a half a mile of him; and he wanted to know whether they intended to take a boat at Kingsland Bay, or escape by the road, which would take them to Burlington if they followed it long enough. Of course he could not answer either of these important questions.
The peril of the situation, in view of the revolvers, and the lack of knowledge, made it very difficult for him to determine what to do. He ended by deciding to do nothing beyond lying in wait for the marauders. He returned very cautiously to the junction of the roads again. There he seated himself on the top-rail of a fence, and--waited.
That was all he could do, though the inactivity to which he was condemned made him as impatient as a chained mastiff.
He had seen the clock in the lower hall of the dormitory, and he knew that the explosion had occurred at about three o'clock. At least half an hour--and he thought it was nearer a full hour--had since elapsed. It would be daylight within an hour, though it was a very dark morning, and with the light he could act more intelligently.