“Don’t you see the clump that’s nearest to you—right foment your nose?” said the other.
“Of course I do,” and he stopped abruptly, for at that moment he saw a spark in the clump referred to—a spark so small that it might have been taken for a glow-worm, had such a creature existed there.
“Savitches!” whispered the Highlander. “Let’s get into the hollow as fast as we can.”
This retrograde movement was soon effected, and the friends dismounted.
“Now, Fergus, what’s the best thing to be done?”
“I will be leavin’ that to you, Taniel, for you’ve a clearer head than mine.”
“We dare not ride forward,” said Dan, as if communing with himself, “an’ it would be foolish to make a long détour to escape from something until we know there is something worth escaping from. My notion is that we hobble or picket our horses here, and go cautiously forward on foot to see what it is.”
“You’ll be doin’ what ye think best, Captain Taniel, an’ you will find that private Fergus will back you up—whatever.”
This being settled, the two men picketed their steeds in the hollow, fastened their guns to the saddles, as being too cumbrous for a creeping advance, and, armed only with their long knives
