"Hear that?"
"Yes," was growled.
"What was it?"
"Don't know."
They began talking again slowly, and by degrees the conversation grew
general and loud.
"Go along," I whispered, after carefully removing the dead branch, and
once more our rustling progress began.
Oh, how slow it was, and how I longed to jump up and run. But we were
in the opening of the little valley now, and our only chance was to
creep on till we were well beyond the light cast by the fire, and so we
persevered.
At last, after creeping along inch by inch, we paused, for in front of
us the undergrowth ceased, and I saw an open patch of sand faintly lit
by the fire, and across this we must pass to reach the shelter beyond.
"Go on first," whispered Esau, and, drawing a _long_ breath, I started,
going as silently and quickly as I could into the darkness of the
shelter beyond, and turned to look at Esau.
From where I knelt I could see the fire clearly, and as he came across,
I was thinking how animal-like he looked, when I fancied I saw a
movement, and before I could be sure, there was a flash, a loud report,
and a twig dropped from over my head upon one of my hands.
"Bear! bear!" shouted a voice, and the men sprang to their feet. But by
this time Esau was alongside of me, and rising up we hurried along in a
stooping position, leaving the eager voices more and more behind, the
men being evidently hunting for the bear one of them believed that he
had shot.
"Was he firing at me?" said Esau.
"Yes; he saw you, I suppose."
"But he might have hit me," cried Esau, indignantly. "Chaps like that
have no business to be trusted with guns."
"Hist!"
"Come on, lads," we heard plainly. "I'm sure I hit him."
"Don't be a fool," cried another voice. "Wait till daylight. Do you
want to be clawed?"
"Shall I roar?" whispered Esau.
"Don't--don't, whatever you do," I whispered back in alarm, for I had
not the slightest faith in my companion's imitation, and felt certain
that we should be found out.
The men too seemed to be coming on, but in a few minutes the rustling
and breaking of wood ceased, and we crept on again for a little way; and
then, with the light of the fire reduced to a faint glow, we stood
upright and began to ascend the little valley at a fairly rapid rate for
the darkness.
"What an escape!" I said, breathing more freely now.
"That's what I ought to say," grumbled Esau. "That bullet came close by
me."
"And by me too," I replied. "I felt a twig that it cut off fall upon
me. But never mind as we were not hit."
"But I do mind," grumbled Esau. "I didn't come out here to be shot at."
"Don't talk," I said. "Perhaps we shall come upon another camp before
long."
I proved to be right, for at the end of an hour we came upon a rough
tent, so dimly seen that we should have passed it where it stood, so
much canvas thrown over a ridge pole, if we had not been warned by a low
snoring sound.
We crept down to the waterside, and slowly edged our way on; but when we
were some fifty yards farther we stopped to consider our position.
"S'pose that's old Gunson," said Esau, "and we're going away from him
now?"
The idea struck me too, but I set it triumphantly aside directly.
"If it were Mr Gunson there would be a fire, and most likely Quong
keeping watch. Besides, we don't know that he had a tent like that."
"No, he hadn't got a tent," assented Esau; and we went on, to find that
at every quarter of a mile there was a tent or a fire; and it soon
became evident that the solitary little valley we had explored on the
day of my accident was rapidly getting to hold a population of its own.
We had passed several of these busy encampments, and were beginning to
despair of finding Mr Gunson, when, as nearly as we could guess in the
darkness, just about where we washed the gold, we came upon a fire,
whose warm yellow glow lit up a huge pine, and at the scene before us we
stopped to reconnoitre.
"That's where I was cutting the tree," muttered Esau; "and--yes, there's
old Quong. Look!"
Sure enough there was the yellow-faced, quaint little fellow coming out
of the darkness into the light to bend down and carefully lay some fresh
wood upon the fire, after which he slowly began to walk back.
Mr Gunson must be here, I thought, for Quong would naturally be drawn
to him as a strong man who would protect him.
"Come along," I said; "we are right after all."
"No, no, stop!" he cried, seizing me and holding me back, for Quong
evidently heard our voices, and darted back among the trees.
"Nonsense," I said, struggling.
"Keep back, I tell you. 'Tain't safe. They don't know it's us, and
somebody may shoot."
It was a foolish thing to do, but I wrested myself free and ran forward.
As I did so I heard the ominous _click click_ of a gun-lock, and stopped
short.
"Halt! Who's that? Stand!" cried a deep voice; and the effect was so
great upon me, that I felt like one in a nightmare trying to speak, but
no words came.