which the purple night sky lay. He paused long and listened. The Indian still breathed regularly. He took a deep breath and went forward, rising now to his feet and guiding himself by his hands along the narrowing walls. Once a stone, disturbed by his tread, trickled downward with a noise that, to David, sounded loud enough to wake the very dead, and it was only by a great effort of will that he held himself silent there and did not, in a sudden panic, rush up the rest of the ascent.
The noise failed to disturb the sleeper. An Indian, although David did not know it then, sleeps deeply and is difficult to awake, and to that fact he doubtless owed the moment’s escape. After an instant, during which his heart gradually sank back from his throat, or seemed to, he went on. By turning sidewise he had no great difficulty in getting through the mouth of the crevice, and as his body brushed the ferns aside a flood of warm air enveloped him. He crouched motionless at the entrance and gazed sharply about him in the confusion of starlight and shadow.
Under the great oaks which were spaced well apart as though planted by man, the gloom was deep and impenetrable. In the
