rest and
sleep.

There was the dead man and his faithful dog, but their near presence
brought no feeling of horror. He felt that he could kneel down by the
poor fellow and offer up a prayer for His mercies, and then lie down to
sleep in perfect trust of awakening at daybreak, for he was no longer
suffering from exhaustion, and hardly felt the cold.

"But not yet--not yet," he muttered, and a faint sound broke the silence
as he stood there, his teeth grinding softly together, while his next
words, uttered half aloud, told the direction his thoughts had taken.

"The cowardly dogs!" he exclaimed. "Three to one, and him unarmed. But
not now--not now."

A brief search brought his hands in contact with a canvas satchel-bag,
in which were ship's biscuits, and one of these he took. It would
suffice.

Breaking it and beginning to eat, he set off at once on the back track
to execute his daring project, one which made him glow to his
finger-tips.

"Better go on," he said with a mocking laugh. "Yes, but not yet.
They're cowards--such scoundrels always are--and the darkness will
magnify the number of the attack.

"Bah! talking to myself again; but I'm not going mad. I can't go on
without letting them taste something of what they have given me."

He tramped on slowly, but the return journey seemed less difficult, and
he wondered now that he should feel so fresh and glowing with a
spreading warmth. It was as dark as ever, but he had no fear of not
finding his way; and sooner than he expected, and just as he was
finishing the last scrap of hard biscuit, he caught sight of the faint
light of the fire from which he had been driven.

The sight of it sent fresh vigour through his limbs, and his plan was
soon made. He would keep on till there was the risk of being heard, and
then creep closer till well within shot, and his sleeping enemies thrown
up by the fire, which they had evidently made up well before settling
themselves down for the night.

He felt sure that at the first report they would spring up and run for
their lives, and he meant to fire at each if he had time, and scare
them, for he felt disposed to show as much mercy as he would to a pack
of savage wolves.

But matters were not to fall out exactly as he had calculated. He
tramped steadily on, with the fire growing brighter, and at last he took
out the revolver to examine it by touch once more, as he walked on more
swiftly now, meaning to go forward a h