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138 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