230 
WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 
tiling, 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 tfieir 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. Kest 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 that 
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 
