And he even drew forth a little double telescope, such as are called "binoculars," and fixed it on the thicket which hid me from him, and then on some other dark places.
No effort would compose or hush the heavy beating of my heart; my lips were stiffened with dread of loud breath, and all power of motion left me.

For even a puff of wind might betray me, the ruffle of a spray, or the lifting of a leaf, or the random bounce of a beetle.

Great peril had encompassed me ere now, but never had it grasped me as this did, and paralyzed all the powers of my body.

Rather would I have stood in the midst of a score of Mexican rovers than thus in the presence of that one man.

And yet was not this the very thing for which I had waited, longed, and labored?
I scorned myself for this craven loss of nerve, but that did not enable me to help it.