The archers were down beside him in a second. They raised him to his feet. For the moment they were forgetful of the Dwarf and of the danger they were in. In the midst of it all there came a weird mocking laugh—long and shrill. We turned. I saw the men recoil as though they were facing death itself.
The Dwarf was standing on a boulder half hidden by the stubby trees. He held his bow in his hands with an arrow in it ready to let it fly. Before any of us could have winked he could have killed the first he chose.
“Steady!” he cried. “Not a stir among you! I give you warning. Let the two lads and the two archers go free or at the next turning of the road there will not one of you be left alive!”
For a second there was only silence. The faces of the men were of the whiteness of death. Not one of them moved.
Then the captain gasped. He drew in a deep breath and in a voice that was shaking called back, “The next one of us to fall, they will fall, too! I shall drive my dagger into their hearts!”
The Dwarf only smiled. In tones like the heaviness of thunder he said, “I have warned you!” And he disappeared among the trees.
For what seemed a long while we went on ahead. A weight hung in the heart of every man of the small company. A sparrow could have frightened them. I was as weary of it all as I could be. Now and again I glanced at Charles who was tied to the horse on the opposite side of me. He did not speak, but by the look and nod he gave me, he stirred hope and courage in my breast and led me to believe that the worst of our journey had passed.
In a quarter of an hour we saw before us a sharp bend in the road. The words of the Dwarf still rang in our ears. The captain drew his sword and bade each of his archers to make ready his bow. The horses were lined up three abreast and in straight array. If we were about to enter on a field of battle the men could have been scarcely more carefully arranged.
The captain hardened his jaws. With a glint of determination in his eyes he urged his horse forward. We slowly entered the turn in the road. We made the bend. At any moment I expected to see an arrow come singing through the air and a man drop. In spite of myself my heart began to flutter like a bird’s. The soreness in my foot died out and the fact that I was a prisoner on my way to my doom faded from my mind like a passing cloud, for in one word the tenseness of the situation stirred every fibre and I was excited.
But the fall of the horses’ hoofs was all that broke the silence. With a grimness that surprised me the captain held doggedly on his way. He looked neither to the right or left but held his head high. In the face of what we all expected it was his courage that gave strength to his men and pulled them through.