230 WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIKDS. 



thing, although he seemed to be sound asleep, and his face 

 appeared as stolid as any wooden effigy. The sneaking ras- 

 cals could not even play the game of this flimsy deception 

 well. During an hour the silence was terrible for the roar 

 and creaking wails of the stormy winds through the deep 

 forest outside, and the mournful beat of the lashed waters, 

 were the only sounds : since the voices of the wild creatures 

 of the darkness and the wilds were all stilled while within, 

 the deep, irregular breathing of the simulating ruffians con- 

 stituted a depressing under-tone. I grew excessively nerv- 

 ous the presence of these wretches was a fearful incubus 

 in connection with our other surroundings, and the discom- 

 fort of our general position was not a little increased when, 

 after this interminable hour, I perceived for I had kept my 

 eye most constantly fixed upon the black-browed fellow as 

 the most dangerous of the party that he changed his posi- 

 tion so as to command a full view of me, and as I drew my 

 slightly-separated lashes nearer together, I could feel the 

 cold, glittering point from his half-open, furtive glance, ques- 

 tioning my face. There was something so essentially wolfish 

 in this trick, that I involuntarily shuddered, and was just in 

 the act of springing to my feet, with the purpose of making 

 an end of this uncertainty, by a coup de main of some sort, 

 when I noticed a movement from the bed in the corner, 

 which induced me to wait and see if they would begin an ac- 

 tive demonstration on their part. 



My red-headed host had also turned over, and I saw that 

 he, too, was watching H and myself through his half- 

 opened eye. Best assured those of you who may, by any 

 contingency, be placed in suspicious relations to the preda, 

 tory man that he always acts most upon the animal in 

 stincts that, in a word, he is a wild beast of prey ! and thai 

 if you have studied the habits of the wild beast well, you 

 will know the tricks, the feints, and the modes of plunder and 

 murder most likely to be adopted by the human wolf, wild- 

 cat, panther, tiger, lion or bear. Only make up your mind 



