rtain shape before me, I felt my pulse beat more rapidly, and not
entirely through elation. Even today when I look at a place that men have
built and then abandoned, something of the same feeling comes over me,
but not as strongly as it did that evening. It was another matter that
made me hesitate. From the shadow of the doorway I heard a sound which
was too much like the raising of a pistol hammer not to make me remember
that a sword was all I carried.

"There is no need to cock that pistol," I said, in a tone which I hoped
sounded more confident than my state of mind. I halted, but there was no
answer and no further sound.

"I said," I repeated, raising my voice, "there is no need to cock that
pistol. It is a friend of Captain Shelton who is speaking."

"So," said a voice in careful, precise English. "Walk three paces
forward, if you please, and slowly, v-e-r-y slowly. Now. You are a friend
of the captain?"

"In a sense," I replied. "I am his son. I have come to you with a
message."

"So," said the voice again, and I saw that a man was seated before me on
the stone that had served as a doorstep, a man who was balancing a pistol
in the palm of his hand.

"I fear I have been rude," he said, "but I find this place--what shall I
say?--annoying. Your voices are alike, and I know he has a son. You say
you bring a message?"

I had thought what to say.

"It is about the paper," I began. "The captain was to bring it to you
here, and now he finds he cannot."

"Cannot?" he said, with the rising inflection of another language than
ours. "Cannot?"

"Rather," I corrected myself hastily, "he finds it more expedient to meet
you elsewhere."

"Ah," he said, "that is better. For a moment I feared the captain was
dead. So the paper--he still has it?"

"He not only has it," I said, "but he is ready to give it to you--at
another place he has named. You are a stranger to the country here?"

My question was not a welcome one.

"Absolute!" he replied with conviction. "Do you take me for a native of
these sink holes? Mon Dieu! Does your mud so completely cover me? But
surely it must be this cursed darkness, or you would have said
differently. Where is this other place?"

I was glad it was too dark for him to see my smile.

"Unfortunately I cannot guide you there," I said, "for I am to stop here
in case I am followed. We have had to be careful, very careful
indeed--you understand?"

Impatiently he shifted his position.