ant to see how dark it really is in here."

We blew out our candles and stood a moment in silence. At first all was
black around us, but as our eyes became accustomed to the darkness, we
saw that a faint light filtered in from somewhere in the roof above our
heads. We could make out the pale blur of the white rock wall on one
side and the merest glimmer of the pool below.

"No," Terry began, "he could have seen nothing; he must have--" He broke
off suddenly and gripping my arm whispered out, "What's that?"

"Where?" I asked.

"Up there; straight ahead."

I looked up and saw two round eyes which glittered like a wild beast's,
staring at us out of the darkness. A cold chill ran up my back and I
instinctively huddled closer to the others. For a moment no one spoke
and I heard the click of Terry's revolver as he cocked it. Then it
suddenly came over me what it was, and I cried out:

"It's Cat-Eye Mose!"

"Good Lord, he can see in the dark! Strike a light, some one," Terry
said huskily.

The sheriff struck a match. We lit our candles with trembling hands and
pressed forward (in a body) to the spot where the eyes had appeared.

Crouched in a corner of a little recess half way up the irregular wall,
we found Mose, shivering with fear and looking down at us with dumb,
animal eyes. We had to drag him out by main force. The poor fellow was
nearly famished and so weak he could scarcely stand. What little sense
he had ever possessed seemed to have left him, and he jabbered in a
tongue that was scarcely English.

We bolstered him up with a few drops of whisky from Mattison's flask,
and half carried him out into the light. The guide ran ahead to get a
carriage, spreading the news as he ran, that Cat-Eye Mose had been
found. Half the town of Luray came out to the cave to escort us back,
and I think the feeling of regret was general, in that there had not
been time enough to collect a brass band.

CHAPTER XXIII

MOSE TELLS HIS STORY

We took Mose back to the hotel, shut out the crowd, and gave him
something to eat. He was quite out of his head and it was only by dint
of the most patient questioning that we finally got his story. It was,
in substance, as Terry had sketched it in the cave.

In obedience to my request, Mose had gone back after the coat, not
knowing that the Colonel was before him. Suddenly, as he came near the
pool he heard a scream and looked up in time to see a big negro--the one
my uncle had s