Then the miners appeared to sit down on a boulder, though I could not see them distinctly enough to be very sure what they did.

One said: "I heard a noise, as plain as I ever heard anything.

It seemed to be about there--" A stone whizzed by my head.

I flattened myself out in the dust like a postage stamp, and thought to myself if he mended his aim ever so little he would probably hear another noise.

In my heart, now, I execrated secret expeditions.