-was approaching his fire,
which now threw a dull red light across the forest glade. Enoch's eyes
were fastened first upon one blot of shadow and then another.
Occasionally, too, he darted a glance over his shoulder, that the
approaching enemy might not come upon him unawares. Just at that time
Enoch would have given much for his rifle. Its presence would have
inspired him with a deal of courage. The very fact that the danger,
which intuition rather than reason assured him was threatening, came
from an unknown source, increased his fears. Perhaps Simon Halpen was
not within a hundred miles of that identical spot. He who was visiting
the Tories and New York sympathizers of this region was possibly nothing
worse than the agent of a land speculator. The youthful Green Mountain
Boy might be the only human being within five miles.

But suddenly that happened which shattered this fallacious web of
thought in an instant. In the deep shadow of a thick clump of brush upon
the other side of the fire, the youth observed a movement--rather, a
flash or glint of light. The fire, increasing unexpectedly by the
falling apart of one of the logs, had sent a penetrating ray of light
into the thicket and there it glittered upon some polished piece of
metal. Nothing else could have sent forth this answering gleam; it was
not a pair of eyes; Enoch was confident of that.

"He is there!" whispered the youth, and he crouched lower between the
roots. His eyes, sharp as they were, could not penetrate the gloom of
the brush clump, and the glittering metal had now disappeared. But he
was sure that the intruder was still there, reconnoitering the camp.
Would he suspect the ruse? Would he observe that the body lying by the
fire was simply a dummy? The youth was glad to see that the log with his
jacket and cap upon it lay almost entirely in the shadow and that one
coat-sleeve was stretched out upon the ground in a very natural manner
indeed.

The moments that passed then were really terrible to young Harding. He
knew himself to be in no immediate danger from this mysterious
individual who had crept near his camp. Surely, the man could not see
him where he lay shrouded in the darkness. Yet the thought that he was
being dogged by a deadly enemy possessed him, and the doubt as to what
the unknown would do next, brought the sweat to his brow and limbs and
set him trembling like one with an ague. Not a breath disturbed the
bushes, yet he felt that the m