Page:Hugh Pendexter--The young timber-cruisers.djvu/363

 youths face to face he spurned all caution for the first half of a mile and dashed along recklessly. At last he paused and wiped his flushed face and began to hope that perhaps he was in time after all.

Ahead some old growth pine towered more than a hundred and fifty feet towards the heavens. It was a wonderful spectacle even for such an experienced woodsman as Abner and at another time he would have stared long and longingly. Just now he could think only of the youths’ danger and the ancient pines interested him in but one particular. They afforded a long range of vision. One could look down their majestic aisles for a great distance with the gaze unobstructed by any undergrowth. It was as if he were in an immense cathedral.

As he searched his imposing surroundings his pulse beat a trifle quicker. It seemed as if he had caught a glimpse of a shadow flitting from trunk to trunk far ahead.

“If that’s Nick I guess I’ll stick pretty close to this five-foot trunk,” he murmured. “After he’s passed I’ll let him know I’m here. But, by jing! this is a bad place to dodge a man armed with a rifle.” And he surveyed the wide open places, the smooth carpet of pine needles, in dismay.