But how? Only, it seemed, by open force. My heart began to
flutter as I planned it; and then grew steady again. A hundred
paces before us a gully or ravine on the left ran up into the
snow-field. Opposite its mouth a jumble of stones and broken
rocks covered the path, I marked this for the place. The knave
would need both his hands to hold up his nag over the stones,
and, if I turned on him suddenly enough, he might either drop his
gun or fire it harmlessly.
But, in the meantime, something happened; as, at the last moment,
things do happen. While we were still fifty yards short of the
place, I found his horse's nose creeping forward on a level with
my crupper; and, still advancing, still advancing, until I could
see it out of the tail of my eye, and my heart gave a great
bound. He was coming abreast of me: he was going to deliver
himself into my hands! To cover my excitement, I began to
whistle.
'Hush!' he muttered fiercely, his voice sounding so strange and
unnatural, that my first thought was that he was ill; and I
turned to him. But he only said again,--
'Hush! Pass by here quietly, Monsieur.
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