Page:Randall Parrish - The Red Mist.djvu/405

 Rh was lowered so the words did not reach me. No doubt he was briefly explaining the plan, and giving orders. Kelly added a gruff sentence, and then the whole five tramped past me, the lieutenant leading the horse, and Kelly coming so close to where I lay I could have touched him with an extended hand. Scarcely venturing to breathe I watched their passage along the edge of the bluff, until they halted at the point where I had come up the trail. They remained grouped there for a moment, talking earnestly; then the shadow formed disintegrated, and Raymond and the horse alone remained distinguishable. I knew the others had disappeared in the blackness of the ravine, and that they were destined to search its depths in vain, for what little trail I might have left in my crawl upward could never be deciphered in that darkness. I waited motionless for what I believed to be ten minutes, anxious that the fellows get far enough down to be safely beyond earshot. At first I could hear them slipping and stumbling along the steep, stony path, but these sounds grew fainter and finally ceased. The lieutenant led the horse back a few yards, and fastened his rein securely to the limb of a tree; then took his own position within the brush shadow, where he could watch the head of the trail. From where I crouched I could no longer see the fellow.