It was so quiet, so lonely, and so deserted
that it seemed a fit place for a robber's haunt. Could this be indeed
the home of his enemies, and had he thus so wonderfully come upon them
in the very midst of their retreat? He believed that it was so. A
little further observation showed figures among the trees moving to
and fro, and soon he distinguished faint traces of smoke in other
places, which he had not seen at first, as though there were more
fires than one.
Dacres exulted with a fierce and vengeful joy over this discovery. He
felt now not like the fugitive, but rather the pursuer. He looked down
upon this as the tiger looks from his jungle upon some Indian village.
His foes were numerous, but he was concealed, and his presence
unsuspected. He grasped his dagger with a firmer clutch, and then
pondered for a few minutes on what he had better do next.
One thing was necessary first of all, and that was to get as near as
he possibly could without discovery. A slight survey of the situation
showed him that he might venture much nearer; and his eye ran along
the border of the lake which lay between him and the old house, and he
saw that it was all covered over with a thick fringe of trees and
brush-wood. The narrow valley along which he had come ended at the
shore of the lake just below him on his right, and beyond this the
shore arose again to a height equal to where he now was. To gain that
opposite height was now his first task.
Before starting he looked all around, so as to be sure that he was not
observed.
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