I gazed intently, and, following the spray into the shadow, I saw something liquid and mottled like a toad's skin.
As I stared it flickered and shimmered.

'Twas only the light on a wet leaf, I told myself; but surely it had not been there before.

A sudden suspicion seized me, and I lifted my pistol and fired.
There was a shudder in the thicket, and an Indian, shot through the head, rolled into the burn.
At the sound I heard Ringan cry out, and there came a great war-whoop from the mouth of the ravine.

I gave one look, and then turned to my own business, for as the dead man fell another leaped from the matted cliffs.
My second pistol missed fire.

In crossing the stream I must have damped the priming.
What happened next is all confusion in my mind.