He could see some object that seemed to move to and fro like the exhausted pendulum of a clock.
Apparently it was suspended from a limb, and as Maurice caught the true significance of what his chum meant, he felt a cold chill pass through his frame.
"Say, do you mean to tell me that is a man hanging there?" he asked; and if his voice took on a sudden hoarseness, it was not to be wondered at under the circumstances.
"I just reckon it must be," returned Thad, pleased to note that his comrade seemed just as filled with horror as he himself had been.
"But do you KNOW it is—did any of those coons tell you so?" persisted the other.
"N-no, because, you see, Maurice, I never noticed it when they were around. The moon, managed to climb up while you were gone; and then I just happened to see it. Ugh! I've done mighty little else but stare at it ever since."
"But perhaps you may be mistaken, Thad."
"Sure; but don't forget that we're away down in Dixie, now; where they hang a darky without bothering trying him, if so be he's shot a white man. And don't it LOOK like it—tell me that, Maurice?" went on the late guardian of the shanty boat.
"Oh! I admit that it does, all right. But if you think I'm going to let the whole night go by without investigating this thing, you're away off."
Maurice turned resolutely around as he spoke.