At first I could not tell what this new sound was, nor whence it came, and now it seemed a little noise close by, and now a great noise in the distance.

And then it grew nearer and more defined, and in a moment I knew it was the sound of voices talking.

They must have been a long way off at first, and for a minute, that seemed as an age, they came no nearer.

What a minute was that to me! Even now, so many years after, I can recall the anguish of it, and how I stood with ears pricked up, eyes starting, and a clammy sweat upon my face, waiting for those speakers to come.

It was the anguish of the rabbit at the end of his burrow, with the ferret's eyes gleaming in the dark, and gun and lurcher waiting at the mouth of the hole.