The Dwarf was grinning from ear to ear. His long teeth were as sharp as the points of two rows of daggers. He placed one hand in the bosom of his shirt and threw his head back proudly. With the other he waved at the captain and his men.
“I warn you, sirs,” he said in his shrill voice, “that you are on your way to your deaths!” He waited a minute to let the words sink home. Then he pointed with sudden fierceness to the sun and called out, “If you go on, there will not be one of you who will see the light of another day!”
The captain started. His face paled. I heard him growl under his breath. Then in an instant he collected himself and barked out a command to his men. They raised their bows. A dozen arrows sped on their way. Some hit the rock. Some glanced over it. None struck for the Dwarf was quicker than they thought. With a leap he dropped down behind the rock and disappeared.
When the last arrow was shot he popped his head into view and let out a long savage laugh full of mockery and contempt. Then he was gone again.
The captain was by this time boiling with rage. He commanded three of his men to dismount. They searched the rock and the ground around it. They went up the side of the hill. With their bows strung ready to shoot at the first object that moved they peered cautiously behind every rock that was large enough to conceal a man. They came back again with blank faces and worried looks. The Dwarf seemed to have been swallowed up for no sign of him was to be found.
We started again, this time more slowly than before. The captain with his brow knotted kept his gaze straight down. It struck me that the Dwarf was like a phantom in the country, or like the visitation of a spirit. He had created a fear in the hearts of the people by the uncanny way in which he came and went and by the outlandish tricks he performed. But there was more than that too, for he struck with a certain fearlessness and accuracy that swept men off their feet. Besides he had a reputation for fulfilling every one of his predictions. It was this last that troubled the captain and buried him in gloom.
In another half hour the country to the sides of the road became more and more barren. What trees there were grew far apart and were hardly more than ragged stumps. Rocks abounded everywhere—boulders of all sizes, some as big as houses, others smaller, of every shape and form.
We had just turned a bend in the road. With no word of warning the man riding next to the captain threw his hands in the air. He uttered a short sobbing cry. His mouth fell agape and, although he struggled, he swung over to one side and toppled like a log from his horse. To the terror of the rest there in his chest stuck an arrow longer than your arm pointing upwards to the sky.
We turned instinctively to the road and the archers unslung their bows. No Dwarf appeared, but from in among the rocks there came to us a shrill penetrating laugh that echoed far and near and sent the shivers up and down my captors’ spines.
“That’s the first!” It was a cry like a prolonged wail. “Which of you will be the next?”