The trail bore away to the northeast and headed for the upper end of the swamp which cut back into the forest from the beach like a big bay. The trail soon lead them across that narrow neck of swamp and out on to an open pine ridge4 which bordered the big swamp to the east of it. At the point where the trail struck it the ridge was two or three miles wide, but it narrowed rapidly to the northward5 and terminated three miles inland in a very narrow neck not more than a hundred yards wide between two very dense6 swamps.
This was the place where they confidently expected to catch Scott and Murphy. Roberts looked at the narrow strip of open pine woods, almost free from underbrush, with a grunt7 of satisfaction.
“Not much cover for them there,” he growled8. “A rabbit could not get across there to-night without our seeing it. Unless they get suspicious and go west on the beach they are ours.”
“Of course,” Qualley replied thoughtfully, “as I said a while ago, there is a possibility that they may go west or try to go north, but I don’t think they will. They probably think that they can travel as fast or faster than we can and would take advantage of the lead they had to beat it straight down the beach for town. They do not know that the swamp is there and when they come to it they will naturally try to get around the end of it. That means about three miles down the beach for them and about five up here if they follow the edge of the swamp. They do not know that this is the only way through, so why should they try to avoid it?”
“Well, let’s get ready for them. They’ll be dropping in on us first thing we know and catch us blabbing here. I’ll take this clump9 of brush on the edge of the swamp, and Bob and Jim can hide over there on the other side. You can go down just beyond there in that bunch of palmetto and if by any possibility I should miss ’em you would be sure of them.”
Roberts suggested this arrangement because he feared that Qualley, who he thought was not known to be implicated10 in the crime, might be loath11 to shoot these innocent men. He had no such scruples12 himself and wanted a position where he would have the best chance at them.
Qualley raised no objection and they all separated in silence to take up their assigned posts. In about an hour, they figured, their victims ought to be putting in an appearance if they were coming at all. Qualley was apparently13 dozing14 comfortably in his clump of palmetto and the two hired men whispered cheerfully enough behind their brush screen. To Roberts alone, burning up as he was with a combination of hatred15 and fear, the minutes seemed to drag insufferably. He glanced nervously16 at his watch every few minutes and eagerly stared at the first projection17 on the edge of the swamp where he expected his victims to appear. As the time he had estimated for their arrival grew nearer, it was all that he could do to keep from crawling out of his hiding place and sneaking19 down to that point to see if they might not be hiding just around the corner.
More than an hour had passed and still they did not come. Roberts became as restless as a caged tiger. The owls21 had ceased their weird22 concert back in the swamp and there was nothing to break the stillness of the night save the never-absent small noises of the night. If only the wind would blow, or a tree drop or anything to break that nerve-racking monotony. Roberts moved irritably23 from one cramped24 position to another and still the tardy25 hours dragged wearily by without any change. Only the moon turned in her course and started the shadows slanting26 in another direction.
And yet they had not come. A certain chill crept into the air, a forewarning of the break of day. It was the hour when the pulse of the world is at the ebb27, when sick men sometimes fail to catch the flood and are stranded28 in the great Beyond. No man can sit through it in the woods at night and not feel a certain awe29, close akin20 to fear. Roberts felt it. All criminals are superstitious30 and with the turning of that tide he felt convinced that fate had turned against him. His prey31 had escaped him and with their escape every hour lessened32 the chances of his opportunity to enjoy the benefits of his stolen wealth. The possibility of spending the greater part of the remainder of his life in a penitentiary33, just when he had acquired the means to enjoy himself, was almost maddening.
The first sudden streak34 of the southern dawn shot out across the eastern sky and Roberts could stand it no longer. With one last lingering look at that long-watched point he crept from his hiding place and sneaked35 cautiously back with many a nervous glance over his shoulder to the place where Qualley was stationed.
“Let’s leave the boys here to watch this place and go back to the beach,” he whispered. “Maybe we can track them now in the daylight.”
“Well, if you want to risk it,” Qualley assented36, a little reluctantly, “but they have about an equal chance of seeing us first. If they have gone west they have gone so far that we cannot catch them and if they go any other way they must either come here or go up past Mike so I do not see what you will gain, but if you want to go I’m game.”
“We’ll at least know where they did go,” Roberts replied irritably. “Anything is better than waiting here doing nothing.”
Qualley had just risen from his cozy37 nest and stretched himself when he suddenly grabbed Roberts’ arm and they both dropped quickly back into the shelter of the brush. A man could be very distinctly seen slipping along the edge of the swamp towards them.
Roberts gave a grunt of satisfaction and pushed over the safety on his revolver. “Let me take him,” he hissed38.
“All right,” Qualley replied, “but let him get closer. There will be less chance to miss, and besides the other fellow is not in sight yet and you’ll scare him off.”
They waited breathlessly while the man came slowly forward, slipping along from clump to clump and apparently wholly unconscious of their presence. Roberts was so eager to shoot that only constant warnings from Qualley prevented him from taking a shot even at the risk of losing the other man. At last the figure had reached a point almost opposite them on the edge of the swamp. He stepped out into the open an instant and looked about him. He was not more than thirty yards away.
Roberts raised his pistol and aimed quickly. It was an easy shot and not much chance to miss. Just as he fired Qualley shouted and struck up the weapon. The suddenness of the blow knocked the pistol out of Roberts’ hand and the bullet whined39 harmlessly through the treetops.
Roberts turned savagely40 upon Qualley with the snarl41 of a wounded tiger. “Double cross me, will you?” he gasped42, snatching at his knife.
“Double cross nothing,” Qualley answered quietly. “Another instant and you would have shot Joe.”
Sure enough it was Joe bringing the rifle from the camp as he had been ordered to do and he was not slow in making himself known when he heard the shot. They had both forgotten all about him.
“Well, I guess that will be sufficient warning to the other fellows,” Qualley remarked after a satisfactory explanation had been made to Joe. “There is not much use in hanging around here any longer now. If they had not started west before that they probably are making pretty good time in that direction now.”
Roberts was too much chagrined43 to have any reply. He pushed his revolver into his holster with disgust and took his rifle from Joe.
“There is nothing to do now, I suppose,” he grumbled44, “except to go down to the beach and see where they did go. I am at least going to have that satisfaction before I sneak18 off into any hiding place.”
“I’ll go with you,” Qualley agreed. “I’d like to see where they went myself and there is the bare possibility that they have spent the night down there on the beach and were too far off to hear that shot. Joe, you and the other boys watch this pass till we get back.”
There did not seem to be much need for caution now, but they moved rather carefully and scouted45 the ground pretty thoroughly46 before they rounded any corners. They hardly expected to find the boys traveling that way in the daytime, but they were not taking any chances on meeting them unexpectedly. When they came to the cut-off trail they had not yet seen any tracks except their own.
“Want to take the trail or follow the edge of the swamp?” Qualley asked.
“Let’s follow the trail,” Roberts growled. He could feel his chances slipping away from him and it made him surly.
They traveled faster now, for there was not much chance of meeting any one in that direction and soon came out of the swamp on to the beach. It was easy to read the signs on the smooth sands of the beach and a glance showed them two tracks going east. They searched more carefully. There were none coming back.
“Must be somewhere between here and the neck,” Qualley said; “there is no possible way out unless they found a boat. I never heard of any one going through that swamp.”
“Not a chance,” Roberts exclaimed with rising spirits, “we’ll get ’em yet.”
The trail was plain enough on the open beach, but it had them worried a little when it turned back into the edge of the forest. It looked as though they might have changed their minds and decided47 to circle back to the west.
“Wonder if something scared them out?” Roberts asked anxiously, as they searched for the trail in the forest. The anxiety was of short duration, for they soon picked up some tracks in the palmetto scrub and when they had learned its general direction they had no trouble in following the trail.
Qualley guessed the reason for the digression into the forest pretty closely. “Thought they would be less conspicuous48 in here and might lose us for a while,” he explained. “It would have worked all right last night and caused us considerable delay, at least if we had been hard on their trail as they probably thought we were. Rather clever of them. They make it a little hard for us yet.”
But Roberts was not to be discouraged. He had been down in the dumps a short time before and could see nothing ahead of him but an uncomfortable cell in the penitentiary or an almost equally unpleasant life in a dismal49 hiding place; now he felt sure of his prey and was in a triumphant50 mood.
“I would not give them much for their chances,” he retorted grimly, and hastened his pace on the uncertain trail. “In half an hour our worries will be over.”
And it certainly looked as though he was right, for the palmetto scrub had given way to a stretch of open sand and the trail lay clear before them, leading straight to the sleeping men on the beach less than a quarter of a mile away.
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1
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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9
clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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implicated
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| adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的 | |
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loath
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| adj.不愿意的；勉强的 | |
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scruples
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| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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13
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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dozing
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| v.打瞌睡,假寐 n.瞌睡 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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projection
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| n.发射，计划，突出部分 | |
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sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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sneaking
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| a.秘密的，不公开的 | |
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akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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owls
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| n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 ) | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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irritably
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| ad.易生气地 | |
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cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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tardy
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| adj.缓慢的，迟缓的 | |
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slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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ebb
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| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
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stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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penitentiary
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| n.感化院；监狱 | |
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streak
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| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
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35
sneaked
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| v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状 | |
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36
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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cozy
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| adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的 | |
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hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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39
whined
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| v.哀号( whine的过去式和过去分词 )；哀诉，诉怨 | |
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40
savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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41
snarl
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| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
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42
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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43
chagrined
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| adj.懊恼的，苦恼的v.使懊恼，使懊丧，使悔恨( chagrin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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45
scouted
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| 寻找，侦察( scout的过去式和过去分词 )； 物色（优秀运动员、演员、音乐家等） | |
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46
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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47
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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48
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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49
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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50
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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