With my
heart thudding heavily, I listened. The noise grew plainer, and appeared
to be approaching, rapidly. I could hear it distinctly, now. It was the
soft padding of running feet. In the first moments of fright, I stood,
irresolute; not knowing whether to go forward or backward. Then, with a
sudden realization of the best thing to do, I backed up to the rocky
wall on my right, and, holding the candle above my head, waited--gun in
hand--cursing my foolhardy curiosity, for bringing me into such
a strait.
I had not long to wait, but a few seconds, before two eyes reflected
back from the gloom, the rays of my candle. I raised my gun, using my
right hand only, and aimed quickly. Even as I did so, something leapt
out of the darkness, with a blustering bark of joy that woke the echoes,
like thunder. It was Pepper. How he had contrived to scramble down the
cleft, I could not conceive. As I brushed my hand, nervously, over his
coat, I noticed that he was dripping; and concluded that he must have
tried to follow me, and fallen into the water; from which he would not
find it very difficult to climb.
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