I felt conscious--it was all in a flash, remember--that if I showed fear or cause for fear, or even acknowledged danger by so much as even holding up my hands, I should have drawn all the fire.

They all remained stock-still, as though they had been turned into stone, for several seconds.

Then a queer kind of look flashed round them like wind over corn--something like the surprise one shows unconsciously on waking in a strange place.

A second after they each dropped the rifle to the hollow of his arm and stood ready for anything.

It was all as regular and quick and simultaneous as a salute at St.James's Palace.
Happily I had no arms of any kind with me, so that there could be no complication.