Eyes were not needed in that cimmerian gloom.
It was not the first time that the current had swept Donald McKay to the cave now tenanted by Captain Jack and his band, and, as he turned his head to tell Artena that the most dangerous places were passed, the faint report of a pistol reached their ears.
It was the shot that dropped Evan Harris before the deserter!
“Slowly now!” whispered Artena, bending forward, and touching Donald’s arm. “That means something.”
He did not speak; but drove his paddle down till it struck the river bed, when the boat began to move slowly.
Presently a faint gleam of light fell upon the water not far ahead of the voyagers, and at its edge the scout turned the boat ashore.
They soon discovered that the light on the water was caused by the reflection of the burnished roof of a corridor above the bank, and ascending to it, they looked through a brief passage upon an exciting scene in Bloody Cave.
Their position enabled them to look over the heads of the Indians, and they found that they had reached the spot in time to behold a thrilling tableau.
The tallest of the two Klamaths—Coquil by name—had just slain the Modoc boy, and was holding the body out to Captain Jack, who shrunk from receiving it, with horror depicted upon every lineament of his swarthy face.
The clicking of carbine and revolver locks were distinctly heard by the watchers on the bank, and the Indians looked at Mouseh, expecting him to order a massacre of the murderer.