nute was coming
nearer and nearer. Still Tom Chist lay watching.

Suddenly, almost unexpectedly, the three figures reappeared from behind
the sand hill, the pirate captain leading the way, and the negro and
white man following close behind him. They had gone about halfway across
the white, sandy level between the hill and the hummock behind which Tom
Chist lay, when the white man stopped and bent over as though to tie his
shoe.

This brought the negro a few steps in front of his companion.

That which then followed happened so suddenly, so unexpectedly, so
swiftly, that Tom Chist had hardly time to realize what it all meant
before it was over. As the negro passed him the white man arose suddenly
and silently erect, and Tom Chist saw the white moonlight glint upon the
blade of a great dirk knife which he now held in his hand. He took one,
two silent, catlike steps behind the unsuspecting negro. Then there was
a sweeping flash of the blade in the pallid light, and a blow, the thump
of which Tom could distinctly hear even from where he lay stretched out
upon the sand. There was an instant echoing yell from the black man, who
ran stumbling forward, who stopped, who regained his footing, and then
stood for an instant as though rooted to the spot.

Tom had distinctly seen the knife enter his back, and even thought that
he had seen the glint of the point as it came out from the breast.

Meantime the pirate captain had stopped, and now stood with his hand
resting upon his cane looking impassively on.

Then the black man started to run. The white man stood for a while
glaring after him; then he, too, started after his victim upon the run.
The black man was not very far from Tom when he staggered and fell.
He tried to rise, then fell forward again, and lay at length. At that
instant the first edge of the cloud cut across the moon, and there was a
sudden darkness; but in the silence Tom heard the sound of another blow
and a groan, and then presently a voice calling to the pirate captain
that it was all over.

He saw the dim form of the captain crossing the level sand, and then, as
the moon sailed out from behind the cloud, he saw the white man standing
over a black figure that lay motionless upon the sand.

Then Tom Chist scrambled up and ran away, plunging down into the hollow
of sand that lay in the shadows below. Over the next rise he ran, and
down again into the next black hollow, and so on over the sliding,
shifting